The recent issue of America magazine featured an article by Father Francis X. Hezel, S.J. which resulted from a recent trip to his native city, Buffalo. He wrote of older areas of the city; stores in which his family had shopped; schools and churches that once served as the cornerstone of neighborhoods. Buildings both secular and religious are now used for other purposes.  Having lived the majority of my life in that city, I could easily relate to much that Father Hezel wrote.  It was a trip down memory lane for me too. I enjoyed the few minutes of reminiscing about days gone by, days when the Church and its institutions were expanding to meet the needs of its growing membership.  Father spoke about “the emotional tug to recapture our past and comfort ourselves in it.”  I know there are times when I try to do that when I ride down streets in neighborhoods that were a part of my youth.
As I reflected on Father Hezel’s article, I thought of the people of Syracuse and those scattered throughout the seven counties of our diocese. How many of you have been impacted by necessary changes that have taken place in the structure of our diocese. As you ride through neighborhoods or walk city streets that have changed so much in the past 50 years, you too remember the past with affection and perhaps with nostalgia for what was once but is no more. Our rural communities are not exempt from change either. Population shifts away from small towns to the city and from cities to the suburbs or to other areas of our country have greatly impacted the local church.

“Come over to my place . . .  .”  In 1984, Blessed Pope John Paul II invited the youth of the world to gather in Rome on Palm Sunday for a jubilee of youth.  He repeated the event the following year, which happened to be an International Year for Youth organized by the United Nations.

“…and I will come to yours.”  It was during this year that John Paul II announced his plan to make this gathering a world event.  He would go to all parts of the globe to meet with the young people beginning in Argentina in 1987.  World Youth Day (WYD) gatherings have since been hosted every two to three years in Spain, Poland, the United States, the Philippines, Italy, France, Canada, Germany, and Australia.  Next week, nearly two million young people will celebrate in Madrid, Spain with Pope Benedict XVI.

The waning days of summer; a recent reminder from Pope Benedict XVI that “even the soul, thanks be to God, has its needs!”; the exuberant crowds at World Youth Day — all combined to remind me of my need to make my annual retreat. So I placed a telephone call to Stella Maris in Skaneateles to inquire if I could make a three day quiet retreat at the beautiful lakeside center.

In a recent weekly audience, Pope Benedict spoke about the practice of religious communities to establish their houses in particularly beautiful places: in the countryside, on hilltops, in valleys, on the shores of lakes or the sea, or even on little islands.  At Stella Maris, we can see how places of beauty unite elements which are very important for the contemplative life: the beauty of creation, which recalls that of the Creator, and silence, which is guaranteed by living removed from the noise and commotion of everyday life. The Pope went on to say that silence is the environmental condition that favors our listening to God and meditation.  When we let ourselves be “filled,” so to speak, with silence, we are disposed to prayer. God speaks in the silence, but we need to know how to listen. A time of retreat, marked by silence and solitude, refines our ability to listen, to hear what that Lord is saying to us.

As I drove to Stella Maris, these thoughts were foremost in my mind. I packed my Bible, the basic tool for any retreat. I also brought along a book entitled Generations of Priests by Thomas J. McGovern which contains 10 chapters each on a different priest in history beginning with St. John Chrysostom in the fourth century and ending with Pope John Paul II in our own time. And, for some light reading, I packed David McCullough's: The Greater Journey, Americans in Paris.