The Retreat and the Encounter 20 Years Ago

The Chicago southwest suburb of Darien, IL, has a true spiritual treasure, the National Shrine of St. Therese of Lisieux.  That's where I was 20 years ago today.

My Uncle Bernie picked me up in his Jeep and we drove southwest, arriving at the Shrine there between 9-10 AM on the morning of Saturday, September 24, 2005.  We would spend a few hours there with my Confirmation group for a retreat.  He had volunteered to assist with the retreat.  Much of the past 10 months had given me the opportunity to study the faith.  This day would be a Kairos experience, when the meaning of Confirmation went from my head to my heart.

As we got settled in our space at St. Paul Hall, a fellow student, who happened to be in my small group, sitting next to my uncle, expressed some skepticism about whether or not anything meaningful would happen during this retreat.  I have a vague memory of my uncle telling her to have an open mind.

During the first two hours, we had a speaker named Mr. Johnson.  Mrs. Ondrla, the Director Religious Education, remarked that she heard him present before, and the response was so positive from the audience that she booked him well in advance--perhaps like 2 years.  His presentation had a way of drawing us into his message.

For the first hour, he used a variety of humorous anecdotes to ask us about what Confirmation is.  He even started with what he called a "traditional Catholic hymn", and then he started belting a song about respect, though not the Aretha song.  From what I remember, he got people laughing a little, including the student who had just been expressing some skepticism to my uncle.  At one point, I volunteered to go up in front for one of his demonstrations, which I can't remember fully.

After a short break, Mr. Johnson resumed his talk, and it got more serious.  He showed a 60 Minutes clip about a Scottish doctor who had a medical clinic in South America. There, he met a boy with a disfigured face and remarked that if he came to Scotland, he could the care that could help address his disfigurement.  The boy's parents got him to Scotland, and he underwent multiple surgeries to reconstruct his face.  Mr. Johnson used that as an example for what it means to serve for the good of others.  He actually got in touch with the doctor, and told him how he uses this story in his presentations.  Mr. Johnson then shared a story from his childhood when his brother stepped away from Halloween evening with his friends to help him when his got damaged and fashion a new decorative pumpkin.  Mr. Johnson said what his brother did touched him and that memory buoyed him years later when his brother had advanced stage cancer and was near the end of his life.

These examples helped underscore the point he stated about the meaning of Confirmation:  It is a public profession that I will love God in the communion of the saints.

We then had lunch, which was good and Father Larry raved about it, particularly the fries.  We had time outside on the splendid grounds.  Back inside St. Paul Hall, we had some creative activities.  We did a sort of "human bingo" game. We also had the opportunity to create a personalized piece of a Confirmation banner.  We also wrote notes to our future selves.  I drew upon Mr. Johnson's primary point about Confirmation as something for me to remember in the future.  Then we walked to the nearby chapel.  On the way in and out, we walked past an exhibit of the life of St. Therese, which included some of her personal items.  I was especially intrigued by a hand-drawn map.  Our retreat concluded in the chapel, where we sat quietly for a short time while the instrumental version of "Amazing Grace" played.  While some others got unfocused, I felt drawn to this reflective end to our retreat, given what a powerful realization I had about the meaning of Confirmation.

Faith is a great gift that draws us into a relationship with God.  While He is unseen, we acknowledge how He is present and at work all around us.  It's in our life's circumstances that we act upon this gift of faith.  The graces of Confirmation complete what we experience in baptism so that we can put faith in action, responding to whatever circumstances we have in life to be a blessing in the world.  I had grown up thinking of love as something I experience with family.  As I reflect on this retreat, especially Mr. Johnson's presentation, I came to an enhanced understanding of love, like Bishop Barron says often in his homilies, as "willing the good of the other".  And the Holy Spirit shows us the way to meet the needs of the world and edify each other by using what we have received that it may truly be a gift, that beliefs may become action to bless the world.

4 years ago, I went to Mass at the Shrine and a fellow visit photographed me posing with St. Paul Hall in the background.