The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-08-02
"a GLORIOUS TlME!"
WeII-Known English Publicist's I'M
pressions Of a Weekend Retreat.

preSSlonS OF weekend Retreat
The following is taken from an &C
count of a weekend retreat contrib
uted to the London Catholic Times"
by wellknown professional man and
publicist:
"To be quite straightforward, the
whole thing was a business matter. A
tremendously business matter. There
was profit at the end of it. There was
pleasure in doing the business. But,
take it altogether, it was the the most
severely business-like time the men
who gathered there had spent for
long time.
THE business was human life. The
Jesuits had got us there. There was
a tremendously big Jesuit in charge
of us, man with the body of giant
and heart disproportionately big.
say he took charge of us; he cornered
us; he set us problems; he shook us
up; he made us look at ourselves.
What did life mean to us? What
were we doing with it? Where had
we come from? Where were we steer
ing for?
"And when you begin to ask yourself
these questions, and when you begin
to answer them honestly, there is the
markings of Christian and of a man
in you.
well, we spent the whole time re-
volving round these questions Most
practically, most Interestingly, with
occasional digressions, equally inter
esting.
eve read, we thought about things,
we prayed, or tried to pray; we let the
thoughts of Gods goodness soak into
us, we got horribly ashamed of the
littleness of our past lives, we were,
at the finish, big with resolve to be
Gods men.
GA glorious time!
'The walks along these quiet alleys,
the sharp tramp up and down the
avenue (you can just say chaplet of
the Rosary walking up and DOWN,
thinking about things, praying about
things, resolving about things, and
nothing to disturb the quiet but the
songs of the birds, the signing of the
leaves and the vocabulary of the car
ter who talked to his horses.
Il should like to tell about that car
ter and his language, but that is out
side my purpose. Perhaps some other
day, if the editor will let me.
"A glorious time! We had recrea-
tions. After breakfast, dinner and
supper we talked and walked. We felt
the true value of silence. 1t gave
such a new value to speech. We
smoked. Some of us borrowed matches
shamelessly.
''Have you ever heard of Christian
democracy? l believe there are books
written about it. But if you want to
see it alive, in operation, you must
join one of these parties, for here was
the brotherhood of man. We gath
cred together; we talked seriously on
serious things. But we also told fun
ny stories and laughed hugely at them.
We had fine arguments about nothing,
leading to nowhere, as every good
argument should And when we tired
of talking all at once we split up into
little parties, and the professional man
and the working man, the manufac-
at large (who was a university man
and looked Ike St. Francis of Assist
and the decker walked side by side
and opened their hearts to each other.
There was my friend Hennessy-
an Irishman with face that will take
him into heaven (St. Peter knows his
mem. l will love him forever for the
stories he told me. And our beadle,
the man who summoned us from a.
m. to 10 p. m. (and lights OUT to our
duties. A sound man. A man you
could trust. The superior, with an in
stinct for things, remarkable even in a
Jesuit, hit on him at once for the job
of bell-ringer. 1t was a tradition with
us that he lived at the end of the bell
rope in the intervals between duties.
He meditated there; he prayed there
with his eye on the three clocks, all
telling different time, distracted be-
tween them and compromising by fol
lowing them in turn.
81 could write book on the men,
But they might get vain, and then it
would spoil all the good of the retreat
did I say retreat?
well, now the cat is out of the
bag.
For what have been trying to tel
you about is a retreat which some six
teen men made at lakewood Hall
Romiley
st was something like what have
been telling you, only better. For
can only hint at the marvels that were
passing in the hearts of all of us.
cannot tell you the inside of things
and l cannot tell you the outside o
things as well as they deserve to b.
told.