Priests focus on 'gift of priesthood'

By Father Conrad S. Pecevich 

Special to The Catholic Free Press 

A group of diocesan priests recently gathered at Miramar Retreat Center, Duxbury, for a five-day retreat sponsored by the Diocese of Worcester’s Office of Ongoing Priestly Formation. The theme of the retreat, “May God who began the good work in you bring it to fulfillment,” focused on living out the gift of priesthood in these challenging times. The retreat master was Father Brett Brannen of the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia, who serves as spiritual director to seminarians at the Pontifical College Josephium in Columbus, Ohio.  

Miramar Retreat Center is located on the South Shore in the town of Duxbury, a short distance from the ocean, and is sponsored by the Society of the Divine Word. Established in 1948, Miramar rests on 32 acres of woodland, rolling hills and wetlands in a plush bucolic setting. An excerpt from a brochure published by the center reads: “Counting over 50 years of service to the local church as a place of spiritual refreshment and direction in an often chaotic and disturbed world … it (Miramar) is an important commitment of the Society of the Divine Word to the local church.” It hosts a wide variety of retreats, spiritual workshops and programs for clergy and laity in its spacious facility.  

An engaging presenter, Father Brannen has preached more than 130 retreats to various groups of seminarians, priests and religious congregations over the years. In his priestly ministry, he has served as a pastor, vocation director, professor and seminary vice-rector. According to Father Brannen, the goal of this retreat was to reignite in the hearts of priests a thirst for priestly holiness, to emphasize the importance of a personal regimen of daily prayer, and to renew priest-participants in their priestly ministries, being refreshed physically and confident in their vocational identity. 

In a series of 10 conferences, Father Brannen emphasized that Christ chooses humble, human instruments to serve in his priesthood, echoing the sacred Scripture wherein it’s written that God “chooses the weak to confound the proud.” In the exercise of this priestly identity, priests continue to grow as persons. Father Brannen stressed that priests have a unique role to exercise in the Church, and that this role cannot be replaced or compromised. He described the priest’s duty as “to bring God to the people, the people to God, and then get out of the way.”  In other words, then let God be God! The primary responsibility of the priest is to pray and to proclaim the Gospel.  

Father Donald C. Ouellette, an associate pastor in the Brookfield parishes, described Father Brannen’s overall message and objective in this way: “to help develop the total person (priest) and to keep a healthy balance in all the aspects of one’s personal life.” He commented that the director was “exceptional in the way in which he presented his subject matter.  He lives out in his life what he preaches.”  

Father Joseph A. Marcotte, a senior priest at Blessed Sacrament Parish, Worcester, remarked that Father Brannen clearly presented “a traditional view of the priesthood and brought out the significance of the priesthood in an ever-changing environment.” 

Father Marcotte described the retreat as “a unique opportunity to rest and pray. The fellowship of other priests is very important; there are not many such opportunities to spend time in one another’s company.”   

Father William C. Konicki, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, Hopedale, offered the following observation: “We can have a silent retreat anytime. This retreat offers us the camaraderie of other priests as we listen to stories; we remember that we are not alone.” He noted that these retreats have “an impact on our preaching.” 

Father Konicki’s “take” on the retreat was this: “Let the Spirit come into the priesthood and not go back in time. The Holy Spirit has much more in store for us than we could ever imagine.” He sees the challenge of the retreat in the following way: To ask ourselves “what Jesus wants us to stop doing? And, what does Jesus want us to start doing?”  

Commenting on this particular retreat experience, Father Brannen stated that it is “an honor to witness the goodness of priests and their sincere thirst for holiness.” He believes that “a rested and renewed priest strengthens his commitment to serve the laity.” A priest’s retreat benefits and blesses the people whom he is called to serve. 

The annual retreat is an opportunity for the clergy to step aside from the busy nature of daily responsibilities and to rest in the Lord. It provides a sufficient atmosphere of silence and prayer to commune with God. It is a chance to recharge spiritually and physically in order to meet the challenges set before us as the Lord’s ministers. Diocesan priests have the option of choosing the retreat scheduled by the Office of Ongoing Priestly Formation of the Clergy or to choose to make a private or other preached retreat.
The Diocese of Worcester’s Office of Ongoing Priestly Formation gets financial support from Partner's in Charity.