This document outlines a retreat focused on engaging with scripture and discerning the signs of the times. It discusses how the church should scrutinize contemporary events and interpret them through the gospel. Participants are encouraged to reflect on where they see vitality and lack thereof in their own lives and in the church, and how to hold fast to what is good while seeking redemption in other areas. The retreat emphasizes that truly forming disciples requires more than bringing people back to mass - it involves a personal commitment to Christ and mission.

1. Our Lady of Charity

2. Changing Water…
…into Wine

3. Lord Jesus Christ,
We thank you for having called us together here.
We offer you what we are about to undertake,
everything we think, do and experience
during this day in your honor.
We also offer you the various events of this week,
because this too will become our ―daily bread.‖
Grant that we may begin this retreat
with a spirit of hope and anticipation
That you will feed our hearts and souls
in the hours ahead...
in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

4. Conferences will be….
• Interactive
• Challenging

5. Presentation should be….
• Coherent
• Relevant
• Paced
• Audible

6. Reading the ―Signs of the Times‖

7. Porta Fidei, Pope Benedict XVI, 2012

8.  ―The council yearns to explain to everyone
how it conceives of the presence and
activity of the Church in the world of
today….

9. How does the Church do this
? (Scrutinize, interpret &
explain?)
 …To carry out such a task, the Church has
always had the duty of scrutinizing the
signs of the times and of interpreting them
in the light of the Gospel.”
• (Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes – “The Church in the Modern World,” Para
2, , 1965 )

10. And….how do we discern this? (next slide)
 In other words, the Church asks:
• Where were we? ……..(Past)

• Where are we? ………(Present)

• Where are we going? (Future)
..
• What’s good? ……….. (Keep or make better)

• What’s not? ………….• (Change or discard)

11. An Interactive Exercise

12.  As a Church, where do we see:
• An increase in vitality?
• The Church taking stock of itself?
• The Church giving careful consideration to the
signs of the times?
• “Holding fast that which is good"

13.  As a Church, where do we NOT see:
• An increase in vitality?
• The Church taking stock of itself?
• The Church giving careful consideration to the
signs of the times?
• “Holding fast that which is good"

14.  As a believer:
• Where do you see an increase in vitality in you
life?
• How are your taking stock of yourself?
• Who helps you give careful consideration to the
signs of the times?
• What is good in your life to which you are, and
should be, “holding fast?”

15.  Asa believer, where does there
need to be conversion/redemption:
• What areas of your life are lacking vitality?
• What areas of your life have not been examined?
• Whom do you still need to consult to give “careful
consideration to the signs of the times?”
• What is NOT good in your life onto which you are
still “holding fast?”

16. What is this that we’re doing?
Why is this important?
What saint is famous for this process?
Hint:
He founded a religious order.
He wrote a book.
A recent Pope is a member of this order.

18. Kate, Andy (not their real names)
and the ―New Year’s Eve Party‖

19. By Sherry Weddell & Fr. Michael Sweeney, O.P.
Catherine of Siena Institute
Mission or Maintenance?

20. People sometimes conceive evangelism only in terms of
assisting ―inactive‖ Catholics to become ―active‖ again,
of getting them to ―come back to Mass.‖
If we focus only of turning inactive Catholics once again
Into active ones, we may inadvertently skip over
something essential: DISCIPLESHIP and MISSION!
We must ask these questions because the true goal of
evangelization is forming disciples and apostles, not just
having more people in the pews on Sunday

21.  Asthe apostolic gifts and call of the laity have
become evident, the apostolic potential of
women and men has also been revealed in a
whole new light.
 Nolonger can the [church] be simply a place
where the laity receive the spiritual goods of the
Church.

22.  What is the purpose of our parishes, our Catholic
schools, our religious education programs, our
sacramental catechesis?
 To create active disciples of Jesus.
 This involves a personal decision and a
commitment—a free response to Jesus’ call.

23.  Parishes [and Malvern Retreat House] exist for:
• Administering the spiritual and temporal goods of
the church, but also...
• For the sake of the formation of the laity and
collaboration of the whole people of God in the
mission of the Church to the world.

24.  (Unfortunately) an enormous gap exists between
the Church’s vision of the lay apostolate and the
lived experience of most lay (men and) women.
 Catholic adults need more than a catechesis and
spirituality designed for children… we have been
consecrated for a mission, not only to receive the
spiritual goods of the church, but to bring Christ
to the world.

25.  Parish of the past. Focus on:
• Social,
• Cultural,
• Political, Educational
 Example: ethnic neighborhood parishes and
Catholic schools
 Faith was ―self-evident.‖

26.  The previous stuff was good (for its time)
 The previous stuff is still good,
 But now, it’s drinking water at a wedding.
• (AKA, ―old wine skins‖)
 Need to change water into wine.

27.  78/5 – 18/2
 Lights hidden
 US Catholics floundering (Europe is worse…)
 And yet:
• Inactives: Interest in the spiritual,
―spirituality,‖ transcendence, service.
(Katrina, Haiti, Sandy)
• Actives: Interest in Bible, catechesis,
leadership

28. “They have no wine” (John
2:3)

29. Our Lady of Charity
PART 2
“DO WHAT HE TELLS YOU” (JOHN 2:5)

30. FAITH THEN “COMMITS EVERY ONE OF US TO
BECOME A LIVING SIGN OF THE PRESENCE OF
THE RISEN LORD IN THE WORLD."
F R O M P O R TA F I D E I , P O P E B E N E D I C T X V I

31. ARE CATHOLICS
“ALLOWED TO READ THE BIBLE”
POPE PIUS XII - DIVINO AFFLANTE SPIRITU (1943)

32. POPE PIUS XII
DIVINO AFFLANTE SPIRITU (1943)
• Let the minds of the faithful be nourished
with this same food, that they may draw from
[the Bible] the knowledge and love of God
and the progress in perfection and the
happiness of their own individual souls.

33. THE “BIG QUESTIONS”
• Suffering
• My Family
• What Should Lay People Do?
• (vs priests & nuns)
• Women
• Human Sexuality

34. THE WORD !
WHERE DO WE GET ANSWERS?

35. BUT WHAT EXACTLY IS
“THE WORD” ?

36. THE “WORD”
(CATHOLIC TRADITION)
• Sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is
consigned to writing under the inspiration of the
divine Spirit …

37. THE “WORD”
(CATHOLIC TRADITION)
• …while sacred tradition takes the word of God
entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the
Apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its
full purity …
• ….so that led by the light of the Spirit of truth, they
may - in proclaiming it - preserve this word of God
faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely
known.
i.e. … applying the Scriptures,
in practical ways, to everyday
situations in our lives.

38. THE “WORD”
(CATHOLIC TRADITION)
• So the Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form
one sacred deposit of the word of God
• (Vatican II, Dei Verbum para. 10)

39. NEW WINE – NEW WINESKINS
As Catholics, how do we
begin applying the “Word”
– in new ways – in our lives
• Mark 2:22 …
today ?
• “No one puts new wine into old wineskins;
• or else the new wine bursts the wineskins,
• the wine is spilled,
• and the wineskins are ruined.
• New wine must be put into new wineskins.”

40. THE “GREAT QUESTIONS”
• Suffering
• When Bad Things Happen to Good People
• (Rabbi Harold Kushner)
• Salvifici Doloris
• (1984 Pope John Paul II)
• Family (1981, Familiaris Consortio)
• Laity (1988, Christifidelis Laici)

41. THE “GREAT QUESTIONS”
• Women (1988, Mulinaris Dignitatem)
• Human Sexuality
• (1968, Humanae Vitae, Paul VI)
• (1979-1984, Theology of the Body, John Paul II)
For Adults For Young Adults

42. OTHER REAL WORLD EXAMPLES
AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE “WORD”
IS AN ENCOUNTER WITH CHRIST

43. ENGAGING THE “WORD”
 It’s not academic. It’s not about the mind,
 …it’s about the ―heart.‖
 Its not about information,
 …it’s about formation and trans-formation
 Internally (heart)
 Externally (life).

44. REDEEMING INTERNALLY AND EXTERNALLY
 Internally:
 Thoughts, affections, mentality,
conduct:
 Need to be purified
 Need to be transformed

45. REDEMPTION, RESTORATION, TRANSFORMATION
 Externally (an example):
 Venture capitalist and
―entrepreneurial prison ministry‖
 Gabe Lyons & the idea of
―restorers‖ (redeeming)

46. REDEMPTION, RESTORATION, TRANSFORMATION
 In the past Mass was sufficient;
 Today Sunday is not enough.
 A heart is shaped by transforming grace
needs:
 Contact with the Word
 Contact with people of the Word

47. THE YEAR OF FAITH / NEW EVANGELIZATION
• It’s MORE than just “going to Mass on
Sunday,”
• Pray for them – The Lord will do the rest.
• Feed yourself – you’ll make them hungry.
• Talk to open hearts – You’ll be encouraged.

48. “He tasted the water that had been
turned into wine.” (John 2:9)
END OF PART 2