Retreat day with Don Rua Community at Sacrofano

The new director of Don Rua Community, Fr Jose Chunkapura, invited me to facilitate the trimester retreat for his community today. The retreat day was held at Sacrofano, at the Fraterna Domus. This was my third trip to this center.

Fraterna Casa preserves the natural environment to offer a place for prayer, reflection, study and fellowship as an innovative retreat center

The Fraterna Domus is called a Casa dell’Accoglienza (a hospitality house) rather than a retreat center. In reality, it is like an entire village. As usually happens, we left the UPS at 8.30 and reached Sacrofano by 9.00. The director had asked me to give a conference in the morning on Don Bosco in the Salesian constitutions. I gave this talk in the morning. That was followed by quiet time, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at 11.30, dinner at 13.00, group sharing at 15.00, Mass at 17.00, followed by evening prayer.

Roman woods at Sacrofano

As I just said, I gave the morning talk. I also facilitated the group sharing, and presided and preached at the mass, which was the liturgy of the last Saturday of the liturgical year.

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament: Don Rua Community at Prayer

In my talk I centered on Don Bosco’s efforts to give the Salesian Society the constitutions in accordance with the standards and demands of the Church during the years of the founding experience. The fact that he had to revise the constitutions repeatedly became a learning process for him. He began to realize that the norms were important, but that it was crucial to name the spirit that animated his emerging community. This experience was similar to that of all the great founders, and in a particular way, to that of Francis de Sales who gave the first community of the Visitation of Holy Mary not only the constitutions but also the directory.

Village of Sacrofano. In the distance you can see Roma. The minaret of the Great Mosque at Parioli and the cupola of St Peter’s Baslica stand out… okay, you need extremely good eyes!

Don Bosco’s original purposes risked dissolving when the revision of Canon Law in 1917 meant a more juridical interpretation of religious documents such as constitutions and regulations. The call of Vatican II to religious and consecrated persons to “return to the spirit of the founder” offered the Salesians the opportunity to rethink the constitutions. The re-writing of these moved them away from language of dry demands to become an exhortation. In fact, there is more of Don Bosco to be found the constitutions today than in the official text between 1917 and 1971.

Roman pines and park within the grounds of Fraterna Domus

In my mind, these are all known facts. However, the bulk of the Salesian priests on this retreat were born in the 1970s. The only constitutions that they have ever known are those approved in 1984, which are the fruit of the long effort to renew religious life in the spirit of Vatican II. They did not know the history, and they did not know the stories of what Don Bosco went through to found the Salesian Family, and what the Salesians have gone through to faithfully bring the Salesian Family into changed times and new cultural realities.

Fraterna Domus is built as a series of buildings of various sizes, with rooms for hospitality, for group work, for conferences, and for worship. Each has its own character

At this point, I do not yet know how all this was received by the Don Rua community. They seemed happy and were certainly responsive. Yet, since the day was spent in silence, it is hard to tell what they really felt about it. On the other hand, I was happy to have the down time too. It rained off and on most of the day, but I wandered around the grounds of Fraterna Domus, through the woods and around the porticoes. I listened to podcasts from Vatican Radio, and let my imagination flow.

Don Albino Ronco, Paul Rabha (India) and Paolo Liu-Qing-Chun (China) in group sharing

Following the Eucharist we celebrated the Evening Prayer. We could not integrate them into the mass because we did the Saturday liturgy, but with Vespers we move to the opening of the next day… that is Sunday… and the first Sunday of Advent. The prayers were well done; the music helped involved everyone, and we ended the day with the sun down and hearts at peace. The return trip to Rome and the UPS went very well, in spite of the rain.

And at the evening meal with my Gesù Maestro community, I heard thay they enjoyed their retreat day at Salesianum, in via della Pisana. We can now turn our thoughts toward Advent and the Christmas season.

Padre Rafael Montenegro (Venezuela) chats with director Fr Jose Chunkapura (India) over a cup of coffee before leaving Sacrofano after the retreat day.

Sacrofano - Community on Retreat

The whole community of Gesù Maestro (or at least 40 of us) left the university campus this morning and headed out to the country, about 30 minutes away, to a retreat center called Fraterna Domus. This is located in Sacrofano.

The timetable was easy-going. We left the UPS at 8.15 and arrived at the Fraterna Domus at 9.00 or so. Each of us had a room with bed and shower, but the grounds are stupendous. It is more like a national park than a retreat center. At 9.15 we had Lauds and the introductory talk of the retreat day, offered by Jesús Manuel Garcia. The theme was "Hope", which is the theme of Pope Benedict XVI's new encyclical issued yesterday (and each of us received a copy).

The rest of the day was given to quiet and reflection, although there was the opportunity to join in a group discussion before dinner, which was at 13.00.

Dinner was festive. I found it to be an opportunity to share with some of the professors whom I do not really know, since we all work in different faculties. It was a lot of fun and very interesting to hear of people's projects and perspectives. After dinner, after we paused for a group photo, D. Giorgio Zevini, dean of the theology faculty, cornered me (again) to invite me to say good-bye to Berkeley and come to Rome definitively. The proposal is very interesting, and I see the need in the congregation for teachers of the Salesian spirit and spirituality is great. But is this the path for me?

This all needs reflection (or else I am just putting off a decision).

With those thoughts churning around in my head, I spent the afternoon reflection period walking through the forests of the Fraterna Domus. The afternoon went quickly then, with Mass at 16.00 and the return to the UPS at 17.00. Of course, we hit a lot of traffic on the way home, and what took 30 minutes in the morning, took 90 minutes for the return. All and all, a very wonderful day in the country, with time for prayer and community building… good food and challenging invitations.