Maryknoll Retreat and Meetings 2009

Third Day of Retreat
12 January 2009

Joe Thaler at breakfast The retreat center gives us a modified menu, mostly Thai food and preparations but also enough western food to keep non-Thais happy. Breakfast especially tends to be a more western meal with scrambled eggs, sausage, and bacon to go along with fried rice. And toast is always available. Here Joe Thaler makes his choices.

Morning prayer At this morning prayer, each participant was asked to bring an object to represent him or herself. These were placed in a basket.

On the way to the meeting room The retreat center is shaped like an "H" with two parallel buildings connected in the center by a breezeway. The chapel is in the Bosco Building and the meeting room in the Savio Building, just a hundred feet apart. Here a group make their way from the chapel, morning prayer just finished, to the meeting room.

The first lecture of the day Here Fr. Timothy Radcliffe begins his first of two talks for the day. The retreat center and the meeting room itself are quite well suited to groups like ours and this kind of activity, and the Salesian staff are quite helpful.

Jim Eybel makes a comment After each talk, Timothy Radcliffe gives a couple minutes for reflection and then invites comments or questions. Here Jim Eybel, responsible for formation of seminarians and brothers for the Maryknoll Society, gives his thoughts.

Timothy Radcliffe is an accomplished speaker, well educated as a theologian, but he has a wealth of experience traveling the world as the former superior of the Dominican priests and brothers to support members in desolate and dangerous places, with many interesting stories to illustrate his theological ideas.

Coffee machine One nice touch of the retreat center much appreciated by the coffee afficiandos is this coffee machine which grinds coffee beans and makes fresh coffees in different styles. Here Jean-François Frys and Sr. Helen prepare a fresh-brewed cup.

Alicia Butkiewicz and Lisa Pirie Although these days are designated as a retreat time, many meetings take place, especially for the lay missioners because their leadership is here from New York and the opportunities for meeting are limited. Alicia Butkiewicz and Lisa Pirie stop for a quick consultation on the way to chapel for the morning mass.

The morning liturgy Fr. Tom O'Brien from Vietnam was the presider for this morning's liturgy, assisted by Anh Vu (left), also from Vietnam, and Amy Braun from Thailand. Amy, who also spoke at the homily time, first came to Asia as a Notre Dame student who spent eight weeks in Cambodia about five years ago.

Maryknoll Lay Missioners meeting While all the other Maryknoll groups were reflecting as part of their retreat or just enjoying time away from their regular work, the Maryknoll Lay Mission group had a meeting this afternoon in which Alicia Butkiewicz and Sam Stanton updated the Asian members on the financial situation of MLM in the current global financial crisis. It was not a pretty picture.

Evening prayer In the evening, the night prayer continued the theme of a fractured and divided world brought together by the Good News and the work of missioners around the world. The different segments of the graphic have been moving closer together each night of this prayer theme.

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	The retreat center gives us a modified menu, mostly Thai food and preparations but also enough western food to keep non-Thais happy. Breakfast especially tends to be a more western meal with scrambled eggs, sausage, and bacon to go along with fried rice. And toast is always available. Here Joe Thaler makes his choices.
	At this morning prayer, each participant was asked to bring an object to represent him or herself. These were placed in a basket.
	The retreat center is shaped like an "H" with two parallel buildings connected in the center by a breezeway. The chapel is in the Bosco Building and the meeting room in the Savio Building, just a hundred feet apart. Here a group make their way from the chapel, morning prayer just finished, to the meeting room.
	Here Fr. Timothy Radcliffe begins his first of two talks for the day. The retreat center and the meeting room itself are quite well suited to groups like ours and this kind of activity, and the Salesian staff are quite helpful.
	After each talk, Timothy Radcliffe gives a couple minutes for reflection and then invites comments or questions. Here Jim Eybel, responsible for formation of seminarians and brothers for the Maryknoll Society, gives his thoughts.
	Timothy Radcliffe is an accomplished speaker, well educated as a theologian, but he has a wealth of experience traveling the world as the former superior of the Dominican priests and brothers to support members in desolate and dangerous places, with many interesting stories to illustrate his theological ideas.
	One nice touch of the retreat center much appreciated by the coffee afficiandos is this coffee machine which grinds coffee beans and makes fresh coffees in different styles. Here Jean-François Frys and Sr. Helen prepare a fresh-brewed cup.
	Although these days are designated as a retreat time, many meetings take place, especially for the lay missioners because their leadership is here from New York and the opportunities for meeting are limited. Alicia Butkiewicz and Lisa Pirie stop for a quick consultation on the way to chapel for the morning mass.
	Fr. Tom O'Brien from Vietnam was the presider for this morning's liturgy, assisted by Anh Vu (left), also from Vietnam, and Amy Braun from Thailand. Amy, who also spoke at the homily time, first came to Asia as a Notre Dame student who spent eight weeks in Cambodia about five years ago.
	While all the other Maryknoll groups were reflecting as part of their retreat or just enjoying time away from their regular work, the Maryknoll Lay Mission group had a meeting this afternoon in which Alicia Butkiewicz and Sam Stanton updated the Asian members on the financial situation of MLM in the current global financial crisis. It was not a pretty picture.
	In the evening, the night prayer continued the theme of a fractured and divided world brought together by the Good News and the work of missioners around the world. The different segments of the graphic have been moving closer together each night of this prayer theme.