Many Voices, One Word

Many Voices, One Word - My first Priesthood Retreat

I’m just retuning from my very first priesthood retreat held this past week. I cannot give the Lord enough thanks for the many graces received during this time set aside to be together with my brother priests and to be refreshed by Lord through prayer and the direction of our Retreat Master.

It is always appropriate to name and share graces after retreat…so:

Grace #1: Our Retreat Master, Fr. Ron Rieder, OFM. Cap., a tremendous priest of 47 years was THE MESSAGE!! His love for the priesthood and his particular walk in it, with tales of trial and glory, was absolutely perfect for a freshman class priest needing to hear about faithfulness “to the end” (cf. John 13:1).

Grace #2: This was the first time to be together with a majority of the priests of our diocese since our ordination, June 13th. The concelebration of all the priests with Bp. Ricard was incredibly powerful for me. Hearing the words of the epiclesis (the calling of the Holy Spirit), the whispers of the Words of Institution filling the one upper room with the One Word, Jesus Christ. From great distances — Perry to Perdido — the mission and communion that we share across the miles, in the one priesthood of Jesus Christ, was there!

Grace #3: Waiting anxiously for my return to Good Shepherd to write this edition of the PT Year of the Priest Blog!!! Truly, this retreat was a breath of fresh air; literally because we were near the Gulf of Mexico, spiritually because of the precious commodity of time surrendered to the Lord for those days (may each of our days include the latter).

Priesthood Retreat 2009, in this Year for Priests, was great, but I look forward to the next one and the times in between to be together with my brother priests to unite our voices to the One Word,“This is my body…This is my blood," the Mystery of Faith!

Father Will Ganci, October 26, 2009