Fr. Bavinger: Lenten Activities and Thoughts

Howdy, everyone.

Wanted to share a couple of things about our Lenten journey here in Wilson and Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

We called the retreat, “Peregrinación al Corazón.” It took place in church for about two and half hours, and it was for couples, adults and jóvenes. Childcare is such a challenge, we decided to have the retreat just for adults, and to hold it during the Saturday morning First Communion and Conformation classes, so that a lot of the kids would be busy in their classes. That did not solve the problem for people with children who are not in those programs, though. It also bumped the teachers of the classes, who would very much have liked to be there. With all that, there were 22 on the retreat, plus a three-year-old whom a grandmother brought. (Who could turn her away?!!)

We used an idea that Bill Ameche gave me, that of structuring the retreat around the idea of a pilgrimage. We had three stations or holy places in the church to which we journeyed: one was “A mi propio corazón,” another, “Al corazón de María,” and finally “Al corazón de Jesús.” Each had an altarcito. The first presentation went about fifteen minutes while the pilgrims were sitting in the pews of one area of the church. We then had a silence of five to ten minutes, with the opportunity to reflect and pray, perhaps use the questions in the cuadernos we assembled, and finally a brief time of sharing graces, thoughts, feelings. After a concluding prayer, we got up, began a song, and followed the next presenter on a “journey” to the second station, and after that visit, a journey to the third station. We ended the retreat with a Benediction service.

I did the first presentation. It was glad for the chance to speak about the three voices in the human heart: the voice of God, the voice of evil, and one’s own voice, and some of our basic general rules for discernment (www.ignaciano.org was a great resource, suggested by Bill Rickle). The above picture is the poster I had on my altarcito during the presentation. I made it online with pictures from Webshots.com.

I had asked three layfolks from the community to help me give the retreat, a woman and two men. They each gave a presentation—on Mary’s heart and on Jesus’ heart, and then a homily during the service of Benediction. Following some sandwiches and sodas at the church entrance area, the team met briefly and shared impressions, which were very positive. We thought the movement and singing between stations was a good dynamic. Not so good was that we got some, but not a lot, of exchange during the “sharing of grace” periods at the end of our time at each station, and so I’m looking at whether that was due to the pilgrimage format, or it being the large group rather than small groups, etc.

I would welcome any comments. And thanks to Bill Ameche for the pilgrimage idea!

The other piece on our Lenten journey, in Wilson, is on five Friday evenings in Lent when we gather a good number of people in the gym for a Lenten “teaching.” followed by a meal. Our first speaker was Paul Brant, SJ, who made the hour’s drive from Newton Grove to present some prayer exercises to the people, largely taken from Anthony De Mello’s work. The reaction was very positive, and Paul spoke of praying with the body and without words, as an alternative form of prayer (but not to displace “el rosario”!) Even the children, of all ages, were well-behaved, and many were definitely listening and doing the “open hands—feeling the presence of God—listening to the silence” exercises along with Paul.

I spoke the following week, picking up on Paul’s talk with three types of prayer: the examen of consciousness (which, after my presenting the parts of the examen, we did all in gestures); a guided meditation on “The Samaritan Woman,” which I slowly read over the microphone, beginning with John 4, but about half-way through, taking us into an imagined dialogue between Jesus and the woman. Our last type of prayer was a sacred song put to gestures. I taught the gestures that I had composed for “Bienaventurados” (on the Flor y Canto cd). We stood, played the cd, practicing the gestures once, and then went through two more times where I encouraged them to make it into a prayer. When the song ended, there was wild applause! (Have you ever applauded God following your prayer?!!)

I think that both of these activities, the retreat, and the Friday night sessions, are being well received, and I am satisfied enough to repeat them in future labors, perhaps improved or changed in some ways. I keep being challenged, though, by a beautiful comment that was made recently by a Columbian priest, at our meeting of Raleigh priests in Hispanic ministry—which Bill Rickle spoke at and then moderated the excellent discussion that followed. The Columbian priest said that in his speaking to the people in his parish (usually with homilies), he was never quite sure that he was getting through to them, to where they really lived, to where it made a difference. I’m keeping that in mind as I think about these situations that involve people listening to presentations. I guess the “getting through” is the challenge of working in God’s vineyard, and it’ll always be with us.