Dear Friends,
I am joining about 50 of our fellow parishioners on the parish retreat with Fr. Andy Alexander at the
Creighton Retreat Center this weekend. In a sense, it is completing the annual priest retreat I was doing
last week at the same location. I am delighted that we are doing this as a parish, and I am also delighted
that so many of you are now doing regular retreats at The Cloisters Retreat Center. How important it is
for us to find moments of alone-time with God and to have extended periods of prayer time with God.
Retreats help us to deepen our everyday relationship with God, kind of like going on a little vacation
with the ones you love, time away to renew hearts and to see life anew.
This world of ours, as is so often noted, has become a noisier and less friendly place. It is a place that
more resembles the place where the Church was born in the days after Jesus ascended into heaven. Like
the early Church when things were challenging, they went to be with God in prayer. They were simply
doing what Jesus did and what he had taught them to do.
Scripture teaches us that human beings need to be reminded to focus on God, to tell the stories again
and again, to know that the God who was active in the past is still active and will continue to be active in
your life. In the Book of Deuteronomy, we are taught: Keep these words that I am commanding you
today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are home and when you
are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an
emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
For too many Christians, prayer becomes simply a matter of asking God for things. They do not talk to
God unless things have gotten bad, someone is ill, some crisis has happened at work or in the world. But
worship and prayer are not magic, they do not summon God. Worship and prayer are the way we find a
connection with God. Prayer moves us, prayer changes us, prayer connects us with the Divine. The only
way for that to happen is to take the time and place ourselves in the presence of the Divine. The hardest
part about praying is showing up. And that is a nonnegotiable when it comes to prayer, we have to show
up. Retreats help us develop a pattern of prayer that we can bring back with us when we come home.
They also attune us to how God acts and speaks so that when we are back in the day to day demands of
life, we find it easier to notice God working in our midst. Experiencing a confession of love, reaching for
a friend, witnessing a beautiful sunset – they may all connect us with God but, we can never control
them. We simply have to be ready.
Peace,
Fr. Damian
Ps. Please take a moment this week to go online and sign up for a photo session for our new parish
photo directory. It will only take a few moments to get registered for a timeslot. Thanks for doing that!