National Catholic speaker Joe Farris leads a retreat for all parish and school employees in St. Croix County at St. Patrick’s Church in Hudson on Aug. 21. Farris came from North Carolina to lead the retreat. (Submitted photo)
Jenny Snarski
Catholic Herald Staff
Offices were closed in the Catholic parishes and schools of St. Croix County on Wednesday, Aug. 21, as all employees – from principals and teachers to secretaries and custodial personnel – gathered for a day of spiritual retreat and fellowship.
This collaborative effort has been undertaken by Fr. John Anderson, pastor of Immaculate Conception in New Richmond and St. Patrick in Erin Prairie, and Fr. John Gerritts, pastor of St. Patrick in Hudson. Cycling between their two sites, as well as St. Anne in Somerset and St. Bridget in River Falls, all the Catholic parish and school employees have gathered for an annual retreat for spiritual refreshment before the start of a new school year and for fellowship and sharing by ministry.
“Not doubling up resources” is one reason Fr. Anderson gave for the initiative. He and Fr. Gerritts have been assigned to neighboring parishes in the past and have developed a very cooperative relationship. Both acknowledged the benefits logistically of working together, as they have also done for Confirmation retreats and other programs, but noted the importance of giving their faculty and staff the opportunity to be reminded that they are part of something bigger than their immediate communities.
Superintendent of Schools and Diocesan Chancellor Peggy Schoenfuss echoed the value of working together. “There are many parishes and clusters that embrace this mentality and support one another – from parish to parish, within a cluster, from cluster to cluster, and within regions of our diocese, such as St. Croix County.”
Schoenfuss noted the combined Confirmation retreats in addition to retreats and trainings. “It all depends on the needs that the parish or cluster have.”
She recognized the role geography plays in these collaborations and that certain regions are more consolidated than others, but also noted how within a parish and school community there are cooperative efforts. For example, at St. Francis Xavier in Merrill, the religious education director also teaches religion for the school and at Our Lady of the Lake in Ashland, school children participate in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd faith formation program during the school day.
“Definitely the walls have come down,” Schoenfuss said, “so that there isn’t that separation between a parish religious ed program and a parish school program – they are all programs to bring the children and families in union with Christ and his church.”
In this way, “all programs in a parish that minister to families and children are always encouraged to work together to build up the faith community,” Schoenfuss iterated. “Working as a team at the parish and now cluster level is so important for families and children to know that they are part of a greater Catholic community that will work to find the resources needed to foster faith in the individual person.”
Cultivating creative genius and childlike spirits
Bringing in a national speaker was “the biggest risk” the pair of pastors have undertaken for these staff retreats. Fr. Anderson was confident, midway through the day, it was proving very fruitful.
Joe Farris (joefarris.org) has led Catholic audiences for more than 25 years in the U.S. and Canada. He connected with the audience through personal sharing, offered growth-inducing considerations and facilitated personal encounters for the participants with each other and their own childlike spirits.
Farris began speaking about creative genius and the need to reconnect with primary passions through holy pauses and inspiring insights.
“The world doesn’t always appreciate church work,” he stated and encouraged his listeners to carry out their roles with “love that astounds others” and gives them an unforgettable encounter with the love of God.
He challenged participants to live outside the box and what they’re accustomed to, to “stir up” their childlike spirits and press into feeling a little uncomfortable to shake off some of the guardedness that can creep into ministry work where there is always more work than compensation.
After leading those present in an interactive exercise and singing of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” to loosen up, Ferris asked, “Is this really the Diocese of Superior?”
Smiling and laughing he said, “I love that! You’re basically saying to the rest of the county, you are not us. We are Superior, and you are the diocese of mediocre!”
Changing gears from his humor, Ferris offered a serious consideration, “We live in a world that has convinced us that unimportant things are important. And we live our lives in such a way that often we even act like the unimportant is important… like being waist deep in a swimming pool trying to hold big beach balls underwater.”
Pouring all your energy into the stresses of our jobs can makes us mistreat ourselves, the speaker said, allowing the overwhelm to overshadow what’s really important and what leads someone into working for the Church in the first place.
Ferris then shared the first of three questions he had learned from his spiritual director, a Passionist priest. Introducing them with Jesus’ example, he said, “Most effective teachers don’t have all the answers, but they do have the right questions” and noted that most often, when Jesus was asked a question he responded with another question.
“How are you with God?” Ferris presented as his first consideration, a question that separates what’s important from what’s not and centers all relationships in their source, God.
He invited participants to use their memory and senses to form in vivid detail a time they had truly encountered God, to let God ask them face-to-face about their relationship with him.
“You can do good and not ‘be good,” Ferris offered. “We are not called to be lightning rods for Jesus… but to ‘be’ the thing more than ‘do’ the thing.
He followed with an invitation to reflect on forgiveness. First, of oneself, and to stop carrying guilt and shame for things God has already forgiven, encouraging the sacrament of confession for things not brought to God’s mercy. Then, he urged attendees to forgive some specific person to let go of the control others’ wrongs have over us. Lastly, he directed the group in a prayer to call upon the Holy Spirit, “Come, Holy Spirit,” he prayed and invited to pray this over and over again.
Inviting everyone to stand once more before the lunch break, Ferris offered a moment’s reflection on how beautiful and treasured each person is simply through the act of God’s unique and individual creation.
Retreatants were seated at table by their common work. After a period of free time, that group gathered again in the church for Ferris’ second presentation.
Offering his second of three considerations, Ferris asked everyone to take some moments to reflect, “How are you with the people God has placed around you?” He explained that we have to see the best in each other, starting with ourselves, to be healed and grow together.
“If you’re not willing to go to the source,” he said, noting that everyone has wounds and that wounded people wound people, “You become part of the problem.”
He spoke passionately about the freedom God desires for every person and invited them to reflect quietly on early experiences of feeling a sense of belonging.
Ferris wove humor and personal stories in between his thought-provoking statements. He engaged through story and allowing time for quiet moments of prayer and reflection.
The third consideration related to his personal experience with the Passionists, an order of Catholic religious men and women founded in the 18th century by St. Paul of the Cross. “How are you going to handle the crosses God is going to ask you to carry?”
In Passionist spirituality, suffering is seen as an opportunity, Ferris explained. Motioning to the crucifix, he continued that through Jesus’ suffering, God invites us into his own heart. He acknowledged that everyone is hurting in some way and that, on a daily basis in their work, everyone present will encounter hurting souls. These hurts and encounters are all part of God’s mysterious providence, but how we handle our own crosses can offer opportunities and present accompaniment in supporting each other through those seasons.
Ferris concluded by inviting everyone to “deeply reflect on your faith because you’re going to need it this year,” then shared one further reflection from his spiritual director on three ways to follow Jesus.
Most of the world, he said, stay in the “for Jesus” group, but the invitation is to move into working “with Jesus.” The challenging third group is one step further and one not many make, as it’s “not an easy place to live,” but to become “like Jesus” was the final invitation Ferris made. He prayed “that the passion of Jesus Christ will be alive in our hearts.”
