Tony Sperendi is a Lay Ecclesial Minister. He has worked at St. Francis Parish in Ann Arbor as the Director of Adult Faith Formation, taught theology at Fr. Gabriel Richard High School, and worked at St. Therese Parish as the director of RCIA and Adult Faith Formation. He has also served on the Diocesan Men’s Conference team, given marriage retreats, presented parish missions, Lenten and RCIA retreats and other talks and workshops.
Grace, Mercy, & Eternal Life: A Lenten Retreat
Offered on Wednesday March 13, and Wednesday March 27
9:00 am - 3:00 pm
“God is rich in mercy, because of his great love for us”
The quote above can be found in Ephesians 2:1-10, which puts the Lord’s mercy for us in greater context. I encourage you to read and ponder it. It’s amazing what the Lord, through the Scriptures, communicates to us about the world we live in, his grace and life within us, and our final destiny of heaven he so passionately wants to share with us! Through the Holy Spirit at work within us, these truths come alive and bring us new life. The new life I’m referring to is:
For many of us, including myself, Lent can be very predictable, sometimes even robotic, meaning we do this and that and give up this and that. This Lenten retreat is meant to uncover the deeper realities, promises, and joys of our faith and experience Lent with new eyes… through the lens of the Gospel and with the power and the gift of understanding given to us at our Confirmation by the Holy Spirit.
This gift of understanding is one of the 7 gifts given by God when your bishop prayed over you evoking the gifts of the Holy Spirit and when he laid hands upon you. This gift of understanding is not merely an insight or an intellectual understanding like studying a subject or going to school. No, this gift of understanding from our Lord is when he infuses within our heart, mind, and body an experiential understanding of himself and of his grace, his mercy, and eternal life. An analogy to this kind of understanding is when we were young our parents told us to be kind and loving to others. We kind of knew what this meant but not fully by a long shot! Then we aged a bit and fell in love with the one we would marry. And after marriage we learned again if we had children what love was in a new way. This kind of understanding happens too in a relationship with Jesus when we allow him into the center of our lives. In Luke 24:13-49 (again I encourage you to read and ponder this passage), we see this twice happening in the two disciples walking to Emmaus after the resurrection of Jesus and with the disciples and apostles in Jerusalem. Unknowingly, the two disciples on the way to Emmaus meet Jesus on the way but didn’t recognize him. By the time Jesus and the unsuspecting disciples arrived at Emmaus they invited him for dinner. After Jesus took bread and blessed it he vanished from their sight.
“They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scripture.’”
The Holy Spirit desires to work miracles and place his loving mercy deep in our hearts and in our lives, really. Think of the newly married couple at Cana, where Jesus, his disciples, and his mom were all invited to attend. What happened…? The couple ran out of wine at their reception. Mary, who is always so observant and desirous to help and intercede in all our needs, requests Jesus to do something. And he does. He turns ordinary water into the best of wine. Amazing! The Italian in me wishes I was there to see that and taste this choicest of wines. Yum. But the point of this story is that Jesus wants to take the ordinariness of our lives and make them extraordinary through the work of the Holy Spirit. It was another wedding in the small town of Cana. Folks were not expecting to see miracles too. But that’s what happened! And it can happen to us too on a retreat in the small town of DeWitt, Michigan!
So Our Lord’s grace, mercy, and eternal life will be our three themes of the day. Along with presentations, we will have times for discussion, meditation, quiet time, and Mass. Please bring your Bible and your spiritual journal if you keep one. The doors open at 8:30am for snacks, fruit, and coffee and tea and final registration. You can also walk the grounds or check out the St. Francis Book & Gift Shop. The retreat will start at 9:00am and ends at 3:00pm. Lunch will be at noon. The cost of this one-day retreat is $65 or $55 for seniors 60+. This retreat is being offered twice for your scheduling convenience. Please put on your “missionary disciple hat” and invite someone to come with you. St. Francis Retreat Center is holy ground and your invitation may open the doors of Our Lord’s grace and mercies in their lives! Finally, if you belong to a parish senior group, a mom’s or men’s group, a third order, or other fellowship groups, please consider a one-day Lenten Retreat pilgrimage together.
“For when two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Matthew 18:20
The quote above can be found in Ephesians 2:1-10, which puts the Lord’s mercy for us in greater context. I encourage you to read and ponder it. It’s amazing what the Lord, through the Scriptures, communicates to us about the world we live in, his grace and life within us, and our final destiny of heaven he so passionately wants to share with us! Through the Holy Spirit at work within us, these truths come alive and bring us new life. The new life I’m referring to is:
- a life-changing conversion in Christ,
- a joy so real that it can drive fear and discouragement away,
- an assurance of the Lord’s love and mercy for us despite our brokenness and sins,
- helping us see and walk in the path the Lord has given each of us here on earth,
- and the eternal destiny he’s prepared for each of us… the unimaginable glory and happiness beyond all telling, HEAVEN - and that includes YOU!
For many of us, including myself, Lent can be very predictable, sometimes even robotic, meaning we do this and that and give up this and that. This Lenten retreat is meant to uncover the deeper realities, promises, and joys of our faith and experience Lent with new eyes… through the lens of the Gospel and with the power and the gift of understanding given to us at our Confirmation by the Holy Spirit.
This gift of understanding is one of the 7 gifts given by God when your bishop prayed over you evoking the gifts of the Holy Spirit and when he laid hands upon you. This gift of understanding is not merely an insight or an intellectual understanding like studying a subject or going to school. No, this gift of understanding from our Lord is when he infuses within our heart, mind, and body an experiential understanding of himself and of his grace, his mercy, and eternal life. An analogy to this kind of understanding is when we were young our parents told us to be kind and loving to others. We kind of knew what this meant but not fully by a long shot! Then we aged a bit and fell in love with the one we would marry. And after marriage we learned again if we had children what love was in a new way. This kind of understanding happens too in a relationship with Jesus when we allow him into the center of our lives. In Luke 24:13-49 (again I encourage you to read and ponder this passage), we see this twice happening in the two disciples walking to Emmaus after the resurrection of Jesus and with the disciples and apostles in Jerusalem. Unknowingly, the two disciples on the way to Emmaus meet Jesus on the way but didn’t recognize him. By the time Jesus and the unsuspecting disciples arrived at Emmaus they invited him for dinner. After Jesus took bread and blessed it he vanished from their sight.
“They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scripture.’”
The Holy Spirit desires to work miracles and place his loving mercy deep in our hearts and in our lives, really. Think of the newly married couple at Cana, where Jesus, his disciples, and his mom were all invited to attend. What happened…? The couple ran out of wine at their reception. Mary, who is always so observant and desirous to help and intercede in all our needs, requests Jesus to do something. And he does. He turns ordinary water into the best of wine. Amazing! The Italian in me wishes I was there to see that and taste this choicest of wines. Yum. But the point of this story is that Jesus wants to take the ordinariness of our lives and make them extraordinary through the work of the Holy Spirit. It was another wedding in the small town of Cana. Folks were not expecting to see miracles too. But that’s what happened! And it can happen to us too on a retreat in the small town of DeWitt, Michigan!
So Our Lord’s grace, mercy, and eternal life will be our three themes of the day. Along with presentations, we will have times for discussion, meditation, quiet time, and Mass. Please bring your Bible and your spiritual journal if you keep one. The doors open at 8:30am for snacks, fruit, and coffee and tea and final registration. You can also walk the grounds or check out the St. Francis Book & Gift Shop. The retreat will start at 9:00am and ends at 3:00pm. Lunch will be at noon. The cost of this one-day retreat is $65 or $55 for seniors 60+. This retreat is being offered twice for your scheduling convenience. Please put on your “missionary disciple hat” and invite someone to come with you. St. Francis Retreat Center is holy ground and your invitation may open the doors of Our Lord’s grace and mercies in their lives! Finally, if you belong to a parish senior group, a mom’s or men’s group, a third order, or other fellowship groups, please consider a one-day Lenten Retreat pilgrimage together.
“For when two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Matthew 18:20