Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish’s annual Lenten retreat from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST on March 7, is a call to the well.

Retreat facilitator Sr. Carla Thomas OP, a member of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena in Trinidad and Tobago, wants attendees convening at this house of worship on College Street in downtown Toronto to contemplate the significant Biblical events that transpired where water was collected.

Jesus Christ’s encounter with the Samaritan woman is undoubtedly the most profound event against this backdrop, but the well was also where Jacob met Rebekah, and Moses rescued his future wife, Zipporah, and her sisters from shepherds.

Advertisement

Drawing upon Ignatian contemplation — also known as imaginative prayer — Thomas will help and encourage participants to picture themselves at the well, a setting of intimacy.

“When you break up the word intimacy, you can get ‘into me you see,’ so it is about love and betrothal,” said Thomas. “And as a Dominican, I am going to touch very briefly on the way Catherine of Siena used the well as a metaphor for the spiritual life and likening the core of itself to a deep well of water.”

Thomas also intends to emphasize the essentiality of water with scientific facts:

• Water covers over 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface;
• Human life is protected by amniotic fluid surrounding a fetus within days of conceptio;.
• The human brain and heart are made up of 73 per cent water, and lungs are at an even higher 83-per-cent level of composition.

Akin to how human beings yearn for their thirst to be quenched, Thomas will emphasize how this Lent is an opportunity to desire Christ.

“Jesus is a fount of living water offering Himself to the Samaritan woman the same way He offers Himself to us today,” said Thomas. “The challenge to the participants of this retreat is to consider in what ways they continue to open themselves up to living water?”

Advertisement

After a morning of spiritual exercises and talks devoted to water and the well, the afternoon schedule will prominently feature Catholic Register columnist Deacon Robert Kinghorn. He will share insights, stories and answer questions about his ministry serving and witnessing to the poor, ill, addicted and homeless on the streets of Toronto.

Also scheduled on March 7, nearly 3,000 kilometres westward from Our Lady of Good Counsel, is a “Man of Sorrows” Lenten retreat at the Cathedral of the Holy Family in Saskatoon from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. local time.

The theme is inspired by Isaiah 53:3, which reads: “He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

Astrid Alas, the adult faith formation coordinator for the Saskatoon diocese, said discernment helped her formulate a theme.

“It was important to acknowledge the passion of the Lord — recognizing how there is no resurrection without the passion,” said Alas. “Sometimes we tend to forget about that or not talk too much about it because it's too real, right? Too sad.”

Throughout the process of spiritually developing this retreat in collaboration with the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary, Alas will also explore how the Man of Sorrows is the Tree of Life through His glorious defeat of death.

By meditating upon Christ’s grief during His final hours before crucifixion, Alas said retreatants will be invited to contemplate their own sorrows, and the distresses of others.

“How can the Man of Sorrows be found in our brothers, sisters and ourselves? Hopefully they can acknowledge that,” said Alas. “We've also been trying to focus our events on our (synodal efforts). Pope Leo just sent out a message for Lent, about listening and fasting. He speaks about how listening is needed — to the Holy Spirit, but also to one another. That is the goal that we aim to achieve.”

Advertisement

Along with three sessions devoted to discussing and prayerfully contemplating Isaiah 53, the retreat will feature adoration and Mass.

To learn more about the Toronto and Saskatoon events, visit archtoronto.org and rcdos.ca, respectively.