Retreat Conference No. 4 - SET THE EARTH ON FIRE

Retreat Conference was done by Fr. Deacon Edward Kleinguetl.

 

RETREAT CONFERENCE NO. 4

To Set the Earth on fire

 

“I have come to set the earth on fire.”

(Luke 12:49)

“We are not to end up as slaves of a de-souled culture.” [1]

(Jacques Maritain)

“I have a single burning desire: to change the world by changing a single person—myself.”

(St. Sophrony Sakharov of Essex)

 

Reflection

            As a final thought on finding the right path, consider the following by Sr. Ruth Burrows:

If we could start from scratch, with no preconceived notions of the route, and if our hearts were firmly fixed on our journey’s end, with Gospel in hand we would have no further need of route marking, no need of signposts. Jesus himself, through his Holy Spirit, would guide our hearts aright. And even now I am convinced that anyone who truly seeks God rather than himself will find him, and this in spite of being directed in wrong paths. The Holy Spirit will lead him, secretly, probably painfully, but most surely.

The trouble is so very few of us really do seek God. We want something for ourselves and this is why we are anxious to be told the way. We want the path marked out for us, securely walled in, with not a chance of going astray. We are so anxious for this that we cannot afford to listen to the Lord guiding us from within. If we did listen then we would realize that we were merely going around in circles within the given confines, and that if we would find God, we must venture out into the trackless, unknown wastes. While we are busy circuiting the well-worn track described for us by others, we cannot conceive what it is like outside, or even that there is one. So, to some extent, signpost must replace signpost. On each signpost one word only will be written, however; the name of Jesus, for he alone is the way; there is no other.^[2]

            Jesus alone is the way, indeed. There is no other. Without him, we are lost, without a clue of where we are going.[3]

Reflection Questions

Spend time with the following questions:

1. Am I living in friendship with Jesus Christ? Is he truly the center of my life or are other things more important?

 

 

 

2. As a parish, what should be our mission in 2025, as we commemorate our 100-year anniversary? What is our outreach to a world in need of healing?

 

 

 

3. What are the unique gifts that we as Byzantine Catholics can offer the Church and world?

 

 

[1]Jacques Maritain, Freedom in the Modern World (New York, NY: Charles Scribner & Sons, 1936), 133.

[2]Sr. Ruth Burrows, OCD, To Believe in Jesus (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2010), xii.

[3]See Daniel M. Rogich, The Walking Saint: Patriarch Pavle of Serbia (Canton, OH: Hesychia Press, 2019), 83. “Without Christ, we travelers wander hither and thither, but from where to where? No one has a clue! With him, we travelers journey ‘on the narrow and hard path which leads to life.’” Reference to Matt. 7:14.