Retreat
Session One: 7:30 p.m.
Meeting
Jesus
Our
Image of Jesus
Why does it matter?
Connection between our image of
Jesus and how we see Christian Life
--it shapes the way we
see Christian life
--It makes our Christian
life credible or incredible
Popular image of Jesus
Divine Savior
Who was Jesus, what was
his mission, what was his message
Jesus came to earth to
die for our sins; he is the divine savior we must believe in
Him; primary
dynamic is faith
Jesus as Teacher
Not so much believing in
Jesus as following his teaching about loving each other and
following the commandment to love God and love each other
Primary
dynamic is moralistic
Christian
life is about a relationship with God that involves us in a journey of
transformation
What
is my relationship with Jesus? Share my
personal reflection from Jesus of my childhood to Jesus now.
Reflection
time: On a piece of paper write Jesus
and Me on paper; recall images that spoke to you early in life; how you images
may or may not have changed
Directions: We will
gather in Chapel at 8:15 for Evening Prayer
Evening Prayer
Presider:
+Our help is in the name of our God
(three candles are lighted)
All: Who made heaven and earth
Presider:
Jesus our brother is light of the world
All: A light no darkness can extinguish
Presider: Blessed are you Abba God who wipes away our
tears
All: Blessed are you Abba God
Presider: From the beginning you have comforted us like
a mother- hen, giving refuge in the shadow of your wings.
All: Blessed are you Abba God
Presider: In the course of time you gave us Jesus whose
feet were bathed by a woman’s
tears and whose head was anointed for his
Passover with a woman’s perfumed oil.
All:
Blessed are you Abba God
Presider: Today we are anointed by your Spirit of great
abundance to stand with all who challenge lies and work for justice.
All: Blessed are you Abba God
Blessing
of Oil and Anointing of Hands
(All
extend hands over oil)
All: God of all creation, you give us this oil as
fruit of the earth; we ask to bless it for our use. May it gladden our hearts and confirm us in
your grace. May it be a sign of the
bounty you provide in our lives. We make this prayer in the name of your
beloved son. Amen.
(Presider
begins with first person in line) Each person comes forward and takes oil to
bless the person behind her. (No words
are needed; last person blesses the Presider.)
Psalm
103
Side
one: My soul give thanks to our God, all
my being, bless God’s holy name. My soul
, give thanks to our God and never forget all God’s blessings.
Side two:
As for us, our days are like grass; we flower like the flower of the
field; the wind blows and we are gone and our place never sees us again.
Side
one: But the love of our God is
everlasting upon those who fear God.
God’s justice reaches out to all when they keep the covenant in truth,
when they keep God’s will in their mind.
Side
two: Our God’s throne is set in heaven
and God’s realm rules over all. Give thanks to our God all you angels, mighty
in power fulfilling God’s word, who heeds the voice of that word .
Side
one: Give thanks to our God all you
hosts, you servants who do God’s will.
Side two: Give
thanks to our God all that exists, in every place where God rules. May my soul give thanks to our God.
All: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to
the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world
without end. Amen.
Scripture
Reading: Matt. 26:7, 12-13
Closing
Prayer:
Presider:
God of the covenant, our days end
and often we have wandered from you. In
the evening darkness, call to us, and with rejoicing, we shall rest again in
your arms, welcomed, made whole, anointed.
We make our prayer in the name of your beloved one, Jesus, the anointed
one.
All: Amen.
Presider: May our God grant us a peaceful night.
All: Amen
(Entire
service adapted from A Prayer Book
for Remembering the Women, J. Frank Henderson, Liturgy Training
Publications.
Day
Two, Session Two 9:00 am
Elizabeth
Johnson’s Eco-feminist Theology
We are responsible for caring for
our earth
in the context of a
humble creation theology, two dimensions of faith that need to be passed on in our day are a faith that
reverences the incomprehensible mystery of God and
a faith that loves the earth
In our social justice we must
incorporate our care for the earth
the world has its own
intrinsic value, being loved by God for its own sake
at creation, God gave
humankind the earth to care for and tend; God put us in relationship to the earth; not to control and dominate
not to destroy by carelessness and greed;
we need a renewed understanding of our relationship to the earth, our home
Ecology
is a spiritual practice
to remain silent in the face of evil
is to be an accessory to the fact; by contrast naming the evil as an injustice
is an act of spiritual practice
the preferential option for the poor
must now include the vulnerable, voiceless nonhuman species and the ravaged natural
world itself, all of which are kin to humankind
countering the sins of
ecocide, biocide, genocide we must take action on behalf of justice for the natural world, promoting
care, protection, restoration, and healing, even if this goes counter to powerful economics and political
interests. . . and it does
in our time the global
struggle of millions of people for peace, human rights, equality and sufficient
material good for a decent life makes clear that discipleship also calls for
action to establish social justice by transforming structures that create the
miseries of war, oppression, and massive poverty to begin with
when a species suffers, god suffers
because God is with us even while God is beyond
us
when a species dies (350 die around
the planet each day) we take their birth; be are
breaking off branches of the tree of life
we need a new perspective, no longer
one from the enlightenment of previous centuries, no longer the dualism of the
ancient Greeks, we need now to contemplate the glory of our God flaming out in
the natural world
we need to realize that the world
itself is a revelation and a sacrament:
revelation because the invisible grandeur of God can be seen and know
experientially in the splendor of the universe
and sacrament because the mystery of
divine, self-giving present is really mediated through the richness of heaven
and earth
God’s
purpose in creating the world
the resurrection makes clear God’s
purpose in creating the world. while
death is a part of all life, in the end, we and the cosmos are destined not for
death and destruction for transformation into new life
the creator Spirit is the unceasing
dynamic flow of loving power that sustains the worl, brings forth life, weaves
connections between all creatures and repairs what gets damaged, all the while
being profoundly present at the heart of all things.
Our
reflection question for today is How can I make a difference in the repair and
renewal of our earth? How can I become
involved in saving our home? What
attitudinal changes must I make to make ecology a spiritual practice in my
life?
Morning
break
Reflection
Lunch
Session
3 Working toward a spirituality for the
21st Century
The perception people have of the
sacred or divine influences their spirituality.
If, for example, God is “out there,” or “up there” or far away, a person
is less likely to believe God is close to them.
God may be the all-knowing creator sitting in judgment, watching our
every move, waiting to catch us, waiting to correct and chastise us. Borg calls this root image of God
“supernatural theism.” Such a spirituality is about keeping the rules, having
correct beliefs, being good now in order to get to our eternal reward later. This also encourages judging others and
making it one’s business to keep others in line as well. Being different is not
encouraged and can lead to exclusion from the group of believers. This
spirituality does not permit change in understanding the sacred at work in
transforming people and all of creation into something new. It denies Christ’s words: “Look I am making everything new
(Rev.21:5).” Isaiah too, before Christ,
foretold, “Behold, I [YHWH] will do a new thing! (43:19).”
Spirituality for the Twenty-First
Century will need to be a “broad notion encompassing personal and/or
institutionalized relations to the divine, a notion that at once includes and
transcends religion.”A useful spirituality for people today must make “the
transition from believing in secondhand religion to expressing firsthand a relationship
with the sacred.”How we conceptualize God affects every aspect of our
lives. It affects how we relate to one
another, how we relate to creation and to our planet as part of the universe.”
If a person believes in and worships a God who is separate from the universe,
who worked six days then stood back, brushed off the dust and said, “I’m done
here,” why would anyone be concerned about one another or our common home? When, instead a person believes in and worships
a God who is Emmanuel (God-with-us) and whose Spirit helps create and re-shape
everyone and everything, we want to be an active participant in helping make
all things new.
Pope Francis, in his Encyclical
Letter Laudato Si, reminds us that
“When human beings place themselves as the center, they give absolute priority
to immediate convenience and all else becomes relative.” An authentic
spirituality for the Twenty-First Century will have to include concern for and
care of all creation, including in the words of St. Francis of Assisi, our Sister,
Mother Earth.
Sr. Joan Chittister, in her book, A
Spirituality for the 21st Century, maintains we are a throwaway
society whose mantra is progress and whose character is change. She proposes
that “part of spirituality is learning to be aware of what is going on around
us and allowing ourselves to feel its effects . . . and learning to hear what
God wants in any given situation.” In the world today, possessions, position
and power seems to be the great goods many people seek. Contrary to the wishes of the commercial
world today, the spiritual life, the life connected to the divine is “a grace
with which we must cooperate, not a prize to be captured.”15
A theology to help us cooperate with
this grace is “a humble creation theology that reverences the incomprehensible
mystery of God and a faith that loves the earth.” Karl Rahner points out that
in every epoch we have different catchwords for God. One he uses is “holy mystery.” He notes, “Rather than being the most distant
being, holy mystery is profoundly and personally engaged with all the realities
of the world around us, including each questioning and yearning person, being
concerned especially with the desperate and the damned.” Caring for the earth
as we contemplate the God-creator who is with us, allows us to “gaze upon the
beauty, intricacy and dynamism of the natural world as revelatory of divine
Spirit.” Christian people, and others connected to the divine are “generating a
new, natural theology quite different from the Enlightenment type based on
philosophical differences.”
Connecting with creation is
important in any spirituality for the Twenty-First Century. Caring for our planet “becomes a matter of
intense religious concerns for human beings are rapidly fouling and even
destroying the primary statement of God’s glory.” Pope Francis further reminds
us “Neglecting to monitor the harm done to nature and the environmental impact
of our decisions is only the most striking sign of a disregard for the message
contained in the structure of nature itself.”
In 1963, by convening Vatican II,
Pope John XXIII recognized that the church’s fear of worldly progress (e.g.,
condemning modernism) loomed as a pastoral disaster.” Thomas Merton spoke of
our connection to God through creation saying “The world reflects who we are
and what we think we are in relation to God . . . We are not asked to create an
alternate world or to reject this one but to divinize it from within.”
Questions
for reflection: what do you see as a
need for spirituality in the 21st Century? What type of community ministry would you
envision? What would be practical ways
people could engage in this type of spirituality?
2:30
Break
2:45
Reflection
4:30 Prayer Service and Blessing of Stones (gather
in chapel, select a stone and take it with you)
Prayer Service and Blessing of Stones
Winter is a lesson about the fine art
of loss and growth.
Its lesson is clear; there is only one
way out of struggle
and that is by going into its darkness,
waiting for the light and being open to
new growth.
Joan
Chittister
A
Winter Blessing
Blessed
are you, winter, dark season of waiting,
you
affirm the dark seasons of our lives,
forecasting
the weather of waiting in hope.
Blessed
are you ,winter, you faithfully guard a life unseen,
calling
those who listen deeply
to
discover winter rest.
Blessed
are you, winter, frozen and cold on the outside,
within
your silent, nurturing womb
you
warmly welcome all that longs for renewal.
Blessed
are you, winter, your bleak, barren trees
preach
wordless sermons
about
emptiness and solitude.
Blessed
are you, winter, you teach us valuable lessons
about
waiting in darkness
with
hope and trust.
Blessed
are you, winter, season of blood red sunsets
and
star-filled long, dark nights
faithfully
you pour out your beauty.
Blessed
are you, winter, when your tiny snowflakes
flurry
through the air,
you
awaken our sleeping souls.
Blessed
are you, winter, when ice storms crush our hearts and homes,
you
call forth the good in us
as we
rush to help one another.
Blessed
are you ,winter, your inconsistent moods
often
challenge spring’s arrival,
yet
how gracefully you step aside
when
her time has come.
Reflection
on Stones
Characteristics
of stones:
Sturdy,
providers of strength, firm foundations ,ancient tools because of this, stones are a chosen symbol
for the season of winter.
Stones
stand strong and endure in all kinds of weather. Likewise people with endurance stand strong
in their winter season of life. They have
the courage to wait patiently in the silent fallowness of winter’s empty
months. They trust that they will have
the strength they need to journey through the apparent bleakness and austerity
of this season. They walk through
winter’s darkness with a firm belief that this space of life is a time of
creative waiting, holding the nurturing energy that will one day birth within
them.
Courage
Stone
Your
moments of courage may not seem like big ones to someone else. They might not be things like experiencing
cancer or filing for divorce. Your story
of courage may be the steps you take each day in trying to be kind to a family
member, saying yes to getting well, offering forgiveness to someone who has
treated you badly standing up for what you believe, risking some new behavior,
being a volunteer for a program that’s new to you, or anything requiring an act
of courage and strength from you.
Sit
with your stone and reflect on a “courage moment” in your life.
Share
the “courage moment in small groups.
Blessing
each other’s stones
Your
stone will now journey around your group so that each person can bless it.
(Pass
stone to the left--everyone--each person hold the stone they receive for a
brief time. Warm the stone by wrapping
both hands around it, silently placing a blessing of courage on it. Pass stones again to the left, continuing
this process until each person gets their own stone back.)
Naming
and Thanking our Human Ancestors
Hold
the blessed stone in your hand. Think of
someone who has helped you to be courageous and resilient in one of your winter
times. (After a brief time to recall who
this person might be, each one in the circle speaks the ancestor’s name)
Receiving
the Courage Stone’s Blessing
(Stone
to head) May you believe in your resiliency when you are wintered.
(Stone
to shoulder) May you have the strength
you need to bear life’s
burdens.
(Stone
to heart) May you trust the love and
mystery within yourself to
uphold you.
(Stone
in hands) May your winter times of
darkness become fruitful sources
of growth, gifts to be given to you and to our
wounded world.
(Entire
service adapted from Joyce Rupp &
Macrina Wiederkehr, The Circle of Life,
The Heart’s Journey through the Seasons,
Sorin Books, Notre Dame, IN.Used with permission of the Author.)
Dinner
7:30
Viewing of Pink Smoke Over the Vatican
Small
group sharing
Day
Three
8:00
Breakfast
9:00
Eucharistic Liturgy
Liturgy of Ordinary Time, Living
Water Eucharistic Format, RCWP East
Readings of the Sunday and homily
Gluten free bread, non-alcohol wine,
all invited to the table
11:30
Session Four
Questions, sharing of reflections
Sources:
Abounding in Kindness,
Elizabeth Johnson
Ask the Beasts,
Elizabeth Johnson
Meeting Jesus for the
First Time, Marcus J. Borg
Faith
Based Climate Action Groups:
Catholic
Climate Covenant
Franciscan
Action Network/Climate Justice
Greenfaith
