Calvary Retreat Newsletter

Cross Beams
from Retreat Director Ernie Rivard

On the Journey Towards:>
Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart

“Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall see God.”

As a director of retreat programs, I try to help people focus and center their lives upon our God of abundance and to find hope.  Too frequently, however, I find my own vision clouded because I depend only on my physical sight.  (I won’t believe it till I see it!)  This is a seeing that can easily be distorted, that readily perceives the problems and wounds, that observes the surface.

God, however, enables humanity to see much deeper, to see with “insight” as we say.  This is seeing with the eyes of the heart where God most intimately dwells.

My sister, Cecile, passed away last year.  She was only 63 when an aggressive cancer claimed her after it had been discovered only two months previous.  During those two months and a mighty effort to fight the cancer, she came to acceptance and peace with her life.  She shared many moments of care, concern and love for others.  She came to see more clearly through the eye of the heart.  Because of her, so did I.

The day before Ceil’s death, one of her long-time best friends, Nora, leaned over her hospital bed and said, “Oh Ceil, what will we do without you?”  My sister, now very frail and weak from the cancer, looked up at Nora and simply said, “You can always find my spirit in your heart.”  She was right.  Ceil does live, in a new way.  I only have to look with the eyes of my heart.  Because of her courage, kindness, joy, and peacefulness, I often glimpse the world with new eyes now.

Henri Nouwen had this gift of single-heartedness.  At the 2006 international Nouwen symposium in Toronto, John Mogagab shared this exclamation that Henri uttered to him once:  “John, when you see, you see direct!”  Henri saw God’s grace “direct” in the world all around him and through his “insight,” he was able to share much love with us.  It’s a lesson (a seeing) that we too easily miss in the blinding speed of a high-tech culture.

St. Paul of the Cross, an 18th century mystic, found this “insight” most profoundly through gazing upon the Cross.  Because of his meditations upon the Cross, Paul was able to declare that, “God’s love is ingenious!”  All the love, all the bearing, all the surrender we’ll ever need can be found there.  “Ingenious!”  The Cross reveals the heart of God.  Perhaps this is why it often is the suffering, like my sister or like Nouwen, whose sight seems to go to what is essential.  It is when we allow our hearts to be tacked up upon the Cross that we become one (made single-hearted) in the heart of Christ and thus see with the heart of God.

Ernie Rivard

A Message From Bishop McManus

In the all the Gospels, we read how the Lord Jesus would leave the pressing needs in His teaching and healing ministry to be alone with God. From His forty days in the desert after His Baptism to His Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Lord Jesus would retreat to deeply intense
periods of prayer and meditation. These times of prayer must have been important for the Lord so that he could rejoice in His relationship with His Father from Whom His own ministry in the world derived.

Over the centuries, “making a retreat” has become a wonderful and very popular tradition in the spiritual life of the Church, a tradition that is modeled on the Lord’s special times of prayer. Time in prayer with the Living God can be the occasion for grace-filled moments that refresh the very soul of those who are willing to step away from the hectic pace that can distract us from our relationship with God and with one another. Making a retreat helps to maintain a dynamic spiritual life, filled with enthusiasm to go out and proclaim to all the world the Good News that Jesus Christ is Lord by loving God and one another!

Calvary Retreat Center in Shrewsbury provides a peaceful and
comfortable setting for such a retreat. The new retreat theme is
Living in Joyful Hope.

Funding Update - Calvary Alive 2007/08

A year ago we changed the name of our Witness Fund drive to CALVARY ALIVE . We did this for several reasons. Funding for our retreat ministry here at Calvary has been lagging; rising costs and
decreased numbers of retreatants have put pressure on us to find other ways to help keep Calvary alive. We can not continue to operate with deficit spending. We need your help! A recent survey of Retreat Centers in the United States shows the same downward trend. Some have closed or are closing because of a reduction of participants and an ever increasing financial drain on the religious
communities that run them.

For our Passionist Community to keep Calvary alive we need you to share the good news and to actively promote our programs of spiritual renewal. We frankly need more participants in our programs and retreats to keep us going as a viable retreat center. Our Advisory Board has encouraged us to ask for more money. We do not want to raise the fees for our programs, but we do need to stop several years of deficit spending.

It would be wonderful if 100 people could give $ 1,000 each year to help close the gap in our operating budget. Four of our board members already have committed to doing this! However, it seems more realistic to ask each person who receives this newsletter and who values Calvary, or who has benefited from a program here to give a donation of $25 extra to Calvary each year. A donation of $25 from you will help us to meet our rising expenses and ensure a brighter future for our ministry. Show us what Calvary means to you. Please, help us to keep Calvary Alive !

Please use the enclosed envelope for the new 2007/08 fiscal year Calvary Alive campaign. If at all possible, perhaps you would consider being one of the special 100 donors. If you are unable to
give at this level, any contribution you may send will be gratefully received. Keeping Calvary Alive will enable the Passionists and those who serve with them in ministry to continue offering the many wonderful programs you’ve come to know over the years and all the new retreats and events in this newsletter.

Fr. Malcolm Cornwell, C.P.,
local superior

Ernie Rivard,
retreat director

Passionist Witness Corner

This year’s retreat theme “Living in Joyful Hope” has been very well received and we look forward to having you with us for your own retreat in 2008.  Because Easter is early this year, we are announcing our recipients for the Annual Witness Award now. We will honor two outstanding witnesses to Gospel living: Sr. Ann Marshall, RSM and Bishop George Rueger. Bishop Rueger celebrates 50 years of priesthood in 2008 and Sister Ann is celebrating 25 years in Hispanic Ministry at St. Peter’s Parish, Worcester. The awards will be given at a dinner April 6, 2008 here at Calvary.Click here for Passionate Witness Gather dates and times.

Promotional Ministry

One major lesson we learn from our retreats at Calvary Retreat Center is
that of hope. All our prayers lead from the cross to the resurrection and to
the consolation that because Jesus has a future, so do we. He points the
way to a future that can be prepared for by:

• working on the present
• by examining our motives
• by struggling for peace
• by a sincere effort in prayer

A retreat affords the opportunity that attunes us to this wisdom.
The prayer of hope will give us a voice - the echo of the voice of Jesus that calls for compassionate justice.

Offer this opportunity for hope to others. Be a hook of hope.

Bro. Edward J. Hall, C.P., D. Min.
Visit our Promotions Page for more information