Priests are required under canon law to “make a retreat (normally understood as five days)” once a year.  As you read this, I will be finishing my retreat.  Many priests, for convenience’s sake, go to an organized retreat with daily talks and reflection time.  Often these retreats have a good number of priests attending.  Our Archdiocese offers such a retreat every year in March at Gethsemane. 

I learned early on in seminary that group retreats become vacation and excessive conversation for me (which should surprise no one). In a group setting with a presentation each day, there is a near certainty I will not do the directed reading and quiet reflection, nor get the unplugged rest I really need. 

As in previous years, I will have my retreat in Montreal in Canada.  I will be by myself, and I know no one in the city.  I am very familiar with the restaurants and the tourist sites because I have also vacationed there many times.  It is like a cheap European vacation.  This familiarity helps me resist the temptation to go sightseeing.  I always visit the four basilica churches there:  the Cathedral, Mary, Queen of the World, Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal, Saint Patrick’s Basilica (an English-speaking church), and my favorite church in the entire world, St. Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal.  I have a longstanding devotion to Saint André Bissette who served there his entire adult life and is buried in the magnificent votive candle room (over 10,000 votive candles). 

I always share my reading list on retreat.  Two unread books from my favorite modern theologian, Gerhard Lohfink:  All My Springs Are in You: More Explanation of Great Biblical Texts released a year ago and Why I Believe in God released last week.  Two history books:  When Britain Burned the White House: The 1814 Invasion of Washington and The Fire and the Darkness: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945.  We visited Dresden on our Passion Play pilgrimage in 2022, and I want to be more informed about it. Finally, an award-winning work on grief, Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking.

I will be praying for your intentions, especially in the votive candle chapel where Saint André Bissette is buried.  I appreciate your prayers and support for my continuing ministry.