September 6th-8th, 2019
As we gathered at the serene location of Shoalwater Bay south of Perth, under the guidance of Sr Shelley Barlow RNDM, our worlds were opened again to the majesty of Creation and the Risen Christ, “The One who holds all things together.” (Colossians 1;15-20).
Our Retreat Director skilfully brought together the Ignatian way of finding God is all things, with the insights of this French 20th Century priest, palaeontologist and mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ. (1881-1955).
Though Teilhard was fortunate in coming from a faith-filled family, who also encouraged him to explore the world around him, he was, like all of us, also no stranger to hardship. However, he learnt how to deal with and pass through anguish in healthy ways- an inspiration to all of us.
“Teilhard’s commitment to the struggle would have been impossible without the fire that raged in his heart, without his dedication to Christ whose attractive force was too convincing to ignore and too compelling to refuse. Like Moses, he walked the road of fire till the end. He struggled until he learned to adore what he was struggling against until, on that last Easter evening, the heavy cloak of struggle was lifted, slipping away from his shoulders. He was carried away in the whirlwind, in an ecstasy of love into the heart of the Universe & into the heart of the cosmic Christ leaving behind for us a double portion of his spirit (2 Kings 2.6-10).”
In keeping with Teilhard’s great love of Creation and understanding of science, our retreat program was brought to life with a variety of powerful experiences - star gazing, a fire pit and an early morning beach gathering where Teilhard’s ‘Mass on the World’ was recited. In 1923, Teilhard went on a prolonged expedition in Mongolia. During this time, there was no Church and he ran out of bread and wine to celebrate Mass, so he prayed ‘The Mass on the World’, which was offered in the open setting. He had already written this in the French trenches during WW1, and so he returned to that time when he ran out of bread and wine in the Ordos desert.
Our unique Retreat experience by the beach at Point Peron is captured here in these photos. We are grateful to Sr Shelley for her wonderful preparation and prayerful leadership of our Spring Retreat.
