Retreat reflects on prayer, forgiveness and gratitude

Intermountain Catholic

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Daughter of Charity Sister Marion Bill leads the Lenten retreat at the Daughters of Charity Convent.

BOUNTIFUL — Daughter of Charity Sister Marion Bill led the Ladies of Charity from Saint Olaf Parish and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in a Lenten retreat on prayer, forgiveness and gratitude at the Daughters of Charity Convent in Bountiful April 9.

Sr. Marion is on the leadership team of the Daughters of Charity Provincial House in Los Altos, Calif., and is a spiritual director.

The retreat was based on the story of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who lived from 1928 to 1996. Cardinal Bernardin was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Charleston in 1952. In 1966, he was made an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Atlanta. He was appointed Archbishop of Cincinnati by Pope Paul VI in 1972, and elevated to cardinal Feb. 2, 1983 by Pope John Paul II.

As an archbishop, he realized that he was always preaching the importance and significance of prayer and having a close relationship with God, but was not investing adequate time for prayer himself. He shared his dilemma with some priest friends, who advised him prayer was essential for Christian life. With their encouragement, he resolved to pray an hour each day and to recite the rosary.

"The significance of this story is that Archbishop Bernardin realized he had looked elsewhere for God rather than right in the midst of each day’s journey," said Sr. Marion. "He came to understand the Lord’s presence where he had experienced his absence."

Sr. Marion recalled that when she was a young sister it was hard for her to know how to pray during her holy hour. "I have been praying all these years, and realized God works through us somehow," she said. "We develop a relationship with God, Christ and the Holy Spirit through prayer that transforms us to go forth or go out and serve.

"We need to take time for solitude and prayerful reflection. When we stop praying, we lose our faith," she said, adding that just after Vatican II, many priests and religious left religious life because they said they had stopped their contemplative form of prayer.

Daily prayer also sustained Cardinal Bernardin through two very different experiences. The first was an accusation that he sexually abused a college seminarian, which became worldwide news. Despite his innocence, the false accusation put his ministry in jeopardy until the allegation was dropped. Before his accuser died, he and Cardinal Bernardin experienced a prayerful reconciliation.

"We not only need to forgive, but we are in need of forgiveness by God and those people we hurt," Sr. Marion said. "When we try to understand sin and forgiveness from God’s viewpoint, shame and confusion fill our hearts. This is a grace because we come to know God’s love for us. The conversion comes when we realize our brokenness."

The second event occurred in 1995, when Cardinal Bernardin learned he had a malignant pancreatic tumor. He underwent radical surgery followed by intensive radiation and chemotherapy.

"The unexpected news that he had an aggressive form of cancer meant that he was facing an early death," Sr. Marion said. "He said it was his faith that made it possible for him to cope with and face these two traumas. He felt God’s presence.

"The way Cardinal Bernardin treated his cancer was a gift. He found God in his moments of fear, anxiety, pain and suffering. The risen Lord became an intimate part of his daily life, the source of his strength, courage and hope."