Date: 26 - 28 September 2008
Venue: Archdiocesan Pastoral Institute
Total Participants: 140
TIME IN THE DESERT
'Come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while.' Quoting these words of Jesus to his weary disciples, Fr. L ’Hour began our retreat ... leading us immediately to the desert. That place which is the home of evil beings and wild animals, the domain of plundering tribes, a barren place of nothingness.
Drawing from the Scriptures Fr. depicted the desert to be a place of all beginnings and of all rebirths. It was in the desert that Jesus and the Old Testament prophets sojourned before embarking on their difficult missions. Our own times in the desert are times of testing and temptation as well as times of renewal and rebirth. Times when we either turn away from God or come away spiritually nourished and strengthened to do His will. It is only in the desert, Fr. explained, that we can discover who the Lord God is and that He is the only source of life.
Using the scriptures and the Gospel of Mark in particular as our guide, Fr. led us step by step on the paths Jesus trod. As we followed Jesus, we encountered the people he chose for company as well as the people who intruded. We met his disciples, his friends and relatives, the poor and needy, the sick, foreigners, women and children, sinners and evil spirits and those who opposed him. We observed the relationship Jesus had with his Father, a relationship we are invited to share. We felt the “failure” of Calvary and rejoiced at the triumph of Easter. We made the long march to faith and freedom with the disciples and so discovered the meaning of the Kingdom of God. Love is the law of the Kingdom, the Beatitudes, the Charter of the Kingdom and that true worship of God is to love God and others.
The retreat, held from 26th to 28th September at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Centre, was as Rev. Dr. Clarence Dass, Director of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Institute, promised in his opening address. In introducing Fr. L’ Hour, he said that Fr. L’ Hour will change the way we look at the Gospels and indeed he had.
An outstanding feature of the retreat was that Fr did not resort to technology and aids such as power-point presentation. Rather his personality, the content of his talks and his skill of presentation kept audience rapt in attention.
Mrs. Rita Vias expressed, on our behalf, our thankfulness for the insightful retreat and conveyed most excellently our feelings. She reported that participants described the session as being warm and presented skillfully and in a highly spiritual manner. Even though Fr. spoke to a crowd of 140 some felt that he was speaking to them one to one.
Rita summed up the retreat experience with an analogy. She said that she thought that what Fr. had done for us in the 2 ½ days as this: we have inherited a priceless heirloom - a silver tray - handed down to us by our grandparents and parents. It is something familiar. We know it is in the house somewhere and that it is always there when we need it. We take it for granted. What Fr. has done is polish this tray (the Gospels) part by part and bring its loveliness to light. As he polished it, we began to see patterns emerging. In wrapping up the sessions with that on prayer, we were shown the whole silver tray shining forth. We now see the fresh face of Jesus in the tray and as we look we also recognize the faint shadow of our face beside His and this feels very comforting.
Fr. we pray that God will shower His choicest blessings on you and grant you many, many more years of good health so that you may continue this "polishing" mission with many more people.
by Michelle Kuan
Published in HERALD (Vol. 15 No. 40)19 Oct. 2008 (Home News. Pg. 4)
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