Pilgrims On A Journey
For the second year, seminary formation staff guided seminarians off-campus “into the wilderness” to begin the Lenten season. Not to be tested for forty days, but just for a few days in prayer and reflection. The adventuresome experience was affectionately referred to as the “Lenten Wilderness Retreat,” and has quickly gained popularity among the seminarians as a time of prayer with Sacred Scripture, brotherhood, and encountering God in the beauty of nature.
This year’s retreat was themed in pilgrimage. The four groups, each led by a priest of the Abbey, took the seminarians to a shrine or pilgrimage site. The pilgrimage began in the preparation stage. Leading up to Ash Wednesday, seminarians, guided by their retreat chaplain and alongside their journeying brothers, planned the specifics of the itinerary, including sharing ideas, packing necessary items, and planning meals.
Ash Wednesday morning in Conception, Missouri, brought severe winter weather. Rain the previous evening, frozen and then turned to snow, and at some time in the middle of the night the power went out. With the power out throughout the building, the groups lit candles and improvised with candlelight adoration before their departures.
The experiences on the Lenten Pilgrimage Retreat showed consistent themes. The quiet time in the mornings were dedicated to lectio divina and spiritual reading which grounded their day in the Lord. One seminarian commented, “My lectio and prayer in the morning was a great guide to the retreat and allowed me to simply trust the Holy Spirit to guide the retreat.”
Seminarians worked together to hone daily life skills by preparing and cooking meals, and then taking turns cleaning up afterwards. As a treat, Fr. Pachomius took his group to the Art Institute of Chicago and a tour of Lambeau Field, both offering the seminarians a well-rounded cultural experience while providing another opportunity for the seminarians to connect with one another. Fr. Paul’s group went for an adventuresome eight-mile hike at Arcadia Lake, which allowed plenty of time for in-depth one on one conversations (see cover photo).
The seminarians have many opportunities for silence and prayer at seminary, but the value of this Lenten retreat is to have the space, freed from academic demands, to spend the quality time focusing on the relationships that will last long after graduation from minor seminary. The retreat teaches them to support one another and pray together, offering the first fruits of the day to God in silent prayer with the Sacred Scriptures.
When the retreat was over and the seminarians returned to campus, they shared with great eagerness and enthusiasm their many stories and varied experiences with one another. With their spirits renewed and friendships deepened, the seminarians, like the Patriarch Jacob, could rise the next day and proclaim, “Truly, the Lord is in this place and I did not know it” (Genesis 28:16)!
—Fr. Paul Sheller, OSB
Director of Spiritual Formation
