Retreat participants begin to prepare for Advent

Friday, Nov. 18, 2016

WEST HAVEN — With the first Sunday of Advent two weeks away, a small group of the faithful gathered at Saint Mary Parish in West Haven to begin to prepare for the season.

“It has never made any sense to me to have an Advent retreat when Advent is almost over with,” said Father Gustavo Vidal, pastor, shortly before the end of the Nov. 12 retreat. “Now that we are approaching Advent, I think that we have all the tools, all the stuff that we need to enter into this beautiful season and then make it meaningful.”

 The tools offered at the retreat for making the Advent season meaningful included a presentation about considering the four weeks as a kind of a road trip, with the goal of meeting Christ at journey’s end; the fruits of silent reflection; and a discussion about ways to create a deeper relationship with God.

“Advent is like a long road trip,” with a definite destination in mind, “but it’s also a time of waiting,” said Carol Ruddell, who gave the presentation “Road Trip.”

She suggested those at the retreat spend the next few weeks preparing for Christmas. “It’s more than waiting for a holiday, it’s more than waiting for the birth of Christ. What we do during this journey is as important as the destination,” she said. 

Fr. Vidal had the participants reflect on the words of the song “Mary Did You Know?” and share their thoughts with others. “See how powerful words … can be in a person’s life,” he said.

The final presentation of the day was “God is Waiting for You,” by Jeanne Lachowski, who shared several personal stories about her own path toward a deeper relationship with God. For example, she told how, when her husband went on a business trip, she had to water an area he had seeded with grass. It was a daily chore, and she soon grew frustrated with going out each day. However, she felt God speak to her and say, “‘This is like getting to know me. This is like reading the Bible.’ He didn’t expect me to read the whole Bible in one day, just a little bit at a time, and then a little bit at a time would give me more knowledge of him. After that, when I went out to water that grass seed, I felt God’s presence with me, and it changed me,” she said. 

Lachowski posed a list of questions to those at the workshop, including “What do you want more than anything?”, “Where does God fit into your schedule?” and “What can you do to get to know God better?”

Those questions were helpful to Rose Berry, one of those attending the retreat. Berry said she will take them back to her seventh-grade CCD class for discussion. 

For Bob Shafer, the parish retreats are places where “I always learn something about God and about my weaknesses, and why I need him,” he said. He had considered not attending the Advent retreat because his wife was in a care center, but after praying to God, “I can definitely say that he wanted me here because he had some words in that first session that I needed to hear,” Shafer said.

The opportunity to get knowledge and be with people who are with the spirit, “continue the love of the Lord and share with others,” was what drew Larry Martinez to the retreat, while Carol Rodgers left with the thought that “I need, for Advent, to spend more time making a place for God in my schedule,” she said.