September 26-30 saw 6 friars from the provinces of St. John the Baptist and Sacred Heart join the core community at the Interprovincial Prayer Fraternity in Ava, Mo for a contemplative retreat.
Fr. Ray Gunzel, sP was the presenter and developed for the 10 friars the theme of contemplative prayer as a 'journey from the center of the self to the Center of the Divine'.
He spoke of prayer as a lifting of the mind and heart to God and that the end of all prayer is a surrender to be taken into God as we are, as God knows us and accepts us (loves us) in the present moment.
Two of the pillars for contemplative prayer, and for the retreat, are 'solitude', the sanctuary that protects and nourishes our prayer and 'silence', the wellspring of living water from which our prayer flows.
Fr. Ray developed the biblical foundations of prayer, discovering in the creation events of Genesis the seed of our inner life of prayer as well as the foundation for an understanding of sin. He reflected on the writings of St. Paul, the life of Mary, and the Gospels, esp. the Gospel of John, as source materials to understand contemplation. He spoke of the radical Jesus who is the new Adam, a new creation, modeling for us a way of living in the world and relating to other persons.
"Jesus must be taken seriously in all his actions, his way of living and acting. Jesus stands radically against conventional values and perceptions of right and wrong. He calls us to follow him and take a stand against the false perceptions, the unredeemed values that seduce and imprison the hearts and minds of man and woman."
He spoke of a new Pentecost and how the community of believers is the Body of Christ through time. To genuinely commit ourselves to the Eucharist, we are called to relinquish our culturally given identity and take on a new persona that represents a transformed heart that rejects and indicts the unredeemed values and beliefs embedded in our culture.
Afternoon sessions were structured to be "Contemplative Sits' introducing us to centering prayer and contemplative walks. Evening sessions provided an opportunity for those interested to engage Fr. Ray with questions that flowed from the day or our own life experiences.
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