"Annual Retreat" 

August 24, 2010

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Last week I traveled to the Cardinal Stritch Retreat Center in Mundelein, Ill. for the annual Region VII Bishops’ retreat. I was in the midst of another busy week and had tons of things on my plate. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was a good time to be making a retreat? Yet, I knew that I belonged at that retreat, that I needed it.

Canon law usually gets a bad rap from many of our people. Yet, there is the wisdom about the life of a cleric found in the code. Canon 276 § 1 states:

In leading their lives, clerics are bound in a special way to pursue holiness since, having been consecrated to God by a new title in the reception of orders, they are dispensers of the mysteries of God in the service of His people.

This is a great reminder of the responsibility that I and others have as clerics to assist those in our charge to grow closer to God. The canon goes on to explain:

In order to be able to pursue this perfection:

• they are first of all to fulfill faithfully and tirelessly the duties of the pastoral ministry.
• they are to nourish their spiritual life from the two fold table of sacred scripture and the Eucharist;   priests are earnestly invited to offer the Eucharistic sacrifice daily and deacons to participate in its offering daily;
• priests and deacons aspiring to the presbyterate are obliged to carry out the liturgy of the hours daily according to the proper and approved liturgical books; permanent deacons however are to carry out the same to the extent defined by the conference of bishops;
• they are equally bound to make time for spiritual retreats according to the prescripts of particular law;
• they are urged to engage in mental prayer regularly, to approach the sacrament of penance frequently, to honor the Virgin Mother of God with particular veneration, and to use other common and particular means of sanctification.

It would seem that attention to this law helps to avoid the traps of a world which is set in opposition to holiness.

In our day to day world every thing takes on a special priority, but what is ultimately important, is our relationship with God.

Martha, Martha you are worried and upset about many things but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. I am hard pressed to point out the mysteries of God’s presence in your lives if I fail to examine his presence in my own.

On my retreat I prayed in gratitude for you, the priests, religious, deacons, and faithful of the archdiocese. I believe that we have been joined together by God’s providence to fulfill His will. As I pulled back from the busyness of life, to find a peaceful place to allow God to speak to my heart, I knew that I could draw on His strength, to follow His will and hopefully to be a good bishop.

An annual retreat is good for all of us, clerics and lay faithful, if only to listen to how God loves us and how we should LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

See you at Mass!

Most Reverend Jerome E. Listecki
Archbishop of Milwaukee

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