Blog

Retreat Insights - Theme and Tone

So I figured that I have directed, wrote, and/or contributed to at least 50 retreats in the last six years. Some of those retreats were my own babies from top to bottom, and some were those where I was just plugged in to the speaking role of someone else's baby. To say that I love retreats is an understatement. Retreats are beautiful opportunities to tell the world to shut up so that God's voice can resound in your heart.

I like to tell the teens or young adults that a retreat is a unique time to withdraw from the world in order to hear more clearly three voices: God's voice, your own voice, and the devil's. Too often we confuse the three (usually I think I'm God).

Here are a collection of insights that I came up with for retreat making that I think are pretty important. And most of these are for high school students, which is the majority of retreats that I do. I will post on a variety of topics to keep the blog posts a little bit shorter for your consuming pleasure.

Church Life, SpiritualityMichael GormleyAugust 16, 2011Insights, Retreats, theme, tone

mission and confidence

The message of Christianity is one of self-distrust. You cannot do it on your own. We hate hearing this because we feel like it denies or limits our power. "I have the power" we say to ourselves, "I'm confident I can do this, build this, become this." Jesus doesn't think so.

Confidence is a compound word meaning With Faith, to have faith in one's own ability to accomplish, to succeed. The gospel tells us to stop having confidence in ourselves. We cannot accomplish. We cannot succeed. Apart from Christ, "you can do nothing."

I said this is a part of the gospel message, which means that it is supposed to be "Good News". How is this good news? Are not the greatest and most powerful among us men and women who had confidence in themselves, who excelled in their abilities?

Church Life, SpiritualityMichael GormleyJuly 3, 2011Mission, activism, self-distrust, work

Fears, Challenges, and the Grace of Being Ticked Off

Me. Yesterday.

I hate being fat. I've been fat for most of my life, pretty much since the third grade when I found out that I had aesthma. I let that little factoid become an evolving excuse why I couldn't, just couldn't! do this or that active thing.

The lazier and fatter I got, the more I relied on my own excuses why I should not have to do active, fun things with active, fun people.

Excuses only last for so long. Sometimes they do not work at all. And when that happens, now completely out of shape, I would be forced into situations where I had to be active, fun, and athletic. And of course I was just embarrassed by my inability and failure. No one wants to be embarrassed like that, so I withdrew further.

Embarrassment turned into fears, all sorts of fears, especially that common fear of failure.

And I liked those fears, because they kept me from those things that I thought were demanding far too much from me. I was not running from God, I just was running from... running. I feared demanding things because I did not know if I truly had what it takes.

Personal, SpiritualityMichael GormleyMay 12, 2011anger, challenges, life

Vatican on the death of Osama bin Laden

This comes from the Catholic News Service on May 2, the day after President Obama announced the execution of Osama bin Laden.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, released a brief written statement reacting to the news.

"Osama bin Laden, as we all know, bore the most serious responsibility for spreading divisions and hatred among populations, causing the deaths of innumerable people, and manipulating religions to this end," Father Lombardi said.

"In the face of a man's death, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibilities of each person before God and before men, and hopes and works so that every event may be the occasion for the further growth of peace and not of hatred," the spokesman said.

Political, SpiritualityMichael GormleyMay 11, 2011Death, Vatican, terrorism

Liturgical Catechesis

The new and corrected translation of the Roman Missal is coming at Advent to a parish near you. This means that the changes in wording, call and response, will be a difficult and lengthy process of adjustment. There are already a bunch of people who are angry that it is even happening at all. Catholic publications and secular press alike have expressed reservations or have outright attacked the new translation and warned against its widespread use.

I think such concerns are way overblown in every way except one. This could actually be a smooth transition, a teachable moment, and a great source of renewal in the English speaking world were it not for that one thing that concerns me.

I just don't think the Catholic Church in America is all that great with liturgical catechesis.

Catechesis, SpiritualityMichael GormleyMay 6, 2011Liturgy, catchesis, new translation

CMG Safe Environment Certified