Our apostolic ministry encompasses both the elderly and the youth. Monday and Wednesday afternoons, Jim volunteers at the Physical Therapy Department and Joe at the Adult Day Care Center at St. Camillus. On Sunday evenings, Ron and Mathieu teach at the Pallottine Parish of Holy Cross Church and on Wednesday afternoons volunteer at Adult Day Care with Joe.
At St. Camillus we devote our time to transporting people to Physical Therapy as well as involvement in various recreational activities in Adult Day Care. At Holy Cross Parish, our responsibility is to help the students understand their relationship with God in order that they will be prepared to receive the sacraments of the Church. We have found these various ministries to be an enriching experience for they have given us a taste of our future activity in the apostolate.
Thursday afternoons we set aside our routine for contemplation and prayer in order to reflect on our spiritual journeys. In conjunction with this weekly exercise, we frequently attend prayer days at our retreat center southwest of Milwaukee. Father Bob Albers, our spiritual director, directs our reflections on topics such as Jesus, our Friend and Jesus, our Saviour. These prayer days are an opportunity to come to a closer union with the Lord, to come back to the center of our lives which is God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The isolated location provides an atmosphere of stillness and peace enabling us to enjoy our interconnectedness with the beauty of God's creation.
Our evenings and weekends are relatively free devoted to reading, building community through recreation or attending short classes. Due to the ties between the community and Pius XI High School, where our members serve, we have the privilege of using their recreational facilities.
In addition to contact with our fellow Pallottine confreres through letters, we also meet frequently with the novices from nine religious communities in the states of Wisconsin and Iowa for discussions aimed at creating deeper understanding of the Church, the world and ourselves in our vocations. We gather in growing friendship with the others in a kind of support group which is based on our daily experiences.
The people we have encountered and the events in which we have participated have been an enriching experience. This year will be one which is fondly remembered.
For both holidays, though far from home we were able to partake in a family atmosphere due to the presence of members of the volunteer's family. Football in the snow for Thanksgiving and sledding for Christmas preceded the turkey dinner. Of course, watching young eyes open presents Christmas Day made us feel part of a family.
To celebrate the holidays, we took a break from our routine and journeyed to surrounding communities. During the Thanksgiving break we travelled to Madison, Wisconsin's capital. The former Queen of Apostles High School Seminary, which belonged to the Pallottines from 1948- 1979, is situated on a hillside overlooking the city. While walking the grounds, Father Leon, the Formation Director, provided a commentary on his early life at this institution. To understand the foundations of the state, we toured the impressive Capital, home of the state government in the city center.
Later on that day we were fortunate to sightsee at Horicon Marsh, an immense protected wildlife sanctuary for numerous birds and waterfowl. At sunset we witnessed large flocks of Canada geese in their V- formation descend to the marsh for their night's refuge.
During the Christmas break we went to Chicago, Illinois to tour the Shedd Aquarium. We observed the dolphin performance which is the aquarium's main attraction. Afterwards we viewed a wide variety of fish from around the world in their natural habitats. That evening we walked down Chicago's main avenue amid the skyscrapers and caught a glimpse of a fast paced city. We will enjoy a return adventure to the windy city in the near future.
In addition to these outings, life at Pallotti House also offers special occasions such as the Founders feast day. On Sunday January 19th, we were the gift bearers at the Mass for the feast of St. Vincent Pallotti at St. Anthony of Padua Church. The main celebrant was our Provincial, Father Carney, and many other Pallottines concelebrated. Afterwards there was a social giving us the opportunity to mingle with the parishioners and the priests and brother the occasion to reminisce about their lives in the Society and their ministries to the people of Wisconsin.
Our celebration of the feast day continued on Tuesday with all the members of the Mother of God Province. The dinner was held at an Irish pub owned by Derry Hagerty, who has been very supportive of the community. This was an opportunity to celebrate with him in praise of God's infinite love and glory. Each of us received the recently revised edition of the book The Apostle and Mystic to mark this joyous occasion.
To conclude our observance of the feast of St. Vincent the members of the UAC gathered at Holy Cross Church for Eucharistic Adoration and the renewal of our apostolic commitments. This was a time to re-examine our lives and reflect on our call to be apostles in the world.
When Julian was first admitted to the anchoritic life she asked three things of God. First, she wished to remember Christ's passion in a special way; not suffer as He did but to enter into the feelings of a bystander. Second, she wanted to suffer from an illness so great that she and those around her would think it fatal. She had the idea that by doing so, and coming through it, she would be able to devote herself entirely to God. The final one is that she wished for three wounds: "The wound of contrition, the wound of compassion, and the wound of longing with my will for God." Later these wishes were granted. She was given a vision of Christ's passion, after the bodily sickness left her, and the three wounds which gave her the grace to share her revelations with others. Julian, over the years, reflected upon her experiences which she became more and more willing to trust. She recorded her "Showings" and her understanding of them in her only book which is available to this day under the title of "Showings".
A line from her "Showings" has stuck with me since I've been reading about her and that is: "Nothing less than God can satisfy us". When I reflect upon this I have come to realize that this one line holds so much wisdom. All created things are held together by God, who is the Creator of all things. She says that by turning from the emptiness of created things and turning to God, which is uncreated, we will find rest. In one of her showings God showed her through the image of a hazelnut that He is the one who keeps it together and He is the one who takes it apart. This means that by God's love and concern for creation, every fiber of existence in this world gives an example of how God is with us and in us. By reflecting on this one line I am able to see what she is trying to say of what God communicated to her. Satisfaction comes from God who is creator and sustainer and not in the emptiness of created things. Only God can satisfy. God is the only one who can give us rest. All other things of creation do not because how can they give rest when they too are dependent upon God and sustained by Him. All comes from God and returns to God.
In this same way I have seen this idea in the writings of St. Vincent Pallotti. He is totally dependent on God and the Infinite Love which comes from God. In the same way as Julian, Pallotti knows that God is all and in all and that He is the only one who satisfies him and gives him rest. In all the apostolic activities that he performed he didn't loose this understanding but was urged by it, especially the example and life of Jesus, the supreme model of God's Infinite Love. This gave him the strength to do the many things that he did and in so doing he became a faithful servant to the Lord.
Julian's writings are rich in a mystical spirituality that is simple, yet very powerful. She speaks to the very heart of life and how God works within it. God is always with us, so take heart novices and as Julian says: "God has made His home and eternal dwelling within us." Fear not for God is at your side.
(Picture) Inside the Capital (l to r: Ron Laginksi, Mathieu Lamontagne, Jim Scarpace and Joe Towner)