BEND — The series of Diocese of Baker summer camps/retreats has begun. Thirty high school age youth gathered at the diocesan property just north of Bend where large sleeping and activity tents have been set up. Besides having the yurt as a permanent chapel for the summer, the camps utilize the kitchen in the house used by the bishop and various rooms in the house for adult chaperones, nurse’s station and food storage. While the house is largely inadequate to the task, the various volunteers seem to be very cheerful while dealing with the obvious limitations. The youth, too, seem quite unfazed by the temporary nature of the arrangements. They pass free time tossing Frisbees, shooting basketball hoops, playing volleyball or just walking the grounds. The catechetical lessons are centered on the life of St. Paul with large maps detailing his various missionary journeys scattered throughout the facilities. Other signs point the way to Jerusalem, Rome, Antioch and Damascus and one of the horse stalls has been designated as the place where St. Paul was held captive. The bars of the stall make a perfect prison. Saint Paul was held prisoner by Nero while awaiting his sentence which was ultimately death by beheading. Tradition has it that he was held at the Mamartine Prison. The remains of the Mamartine Prison still stand and it is even possible to see some of the subterranean chambers where prisoners were kept. Hardly a luxurious abode. Hopefully this little bit of visualization will help the life, writings, travels and times of St. Paul come alive for the youth who participate in the early summer camps.
The high school camp is the second of eight camps planned for this summer. The range of camps runs the gamut from young adult to high school to junior high to upper elementary to family to leadership to Quo Vadis (boys vocation discernment) to the women’s vocation discernment. The camps run through August and so a good portion of my summer will be spent with an abundance of guests. I must admit that there is a certain amount of disruption of life which occurs for me during these days but the opportunity to interact on occasion and even briefly with the youth in this setting is good for me and hopefully for them as well. I am wise enough to know that there are many folks much more skilled at interacting with youth than I and I am prudent enough to let them do their work while I stand by and watch sometimes with fascinated amazement.
In the midst of various camp activities the single, guiding thought must always be, “What is the fruit we hope to engender and foster?” Thus, while the various activities for the sake of exercise and energy dissipation are essential these too must be directed toward or at least consistent with the fruitfulness which is sought. That fruitfulness is, at heart, a growth in the spiritual life. Thus an activity undertaken which is not permeated with charity and self control may be “energy dissipating” but it could also be spiritually harmful. Even during the recreational times an attempt is made to engender and foster a spiritual fruitfulness. There may be a bit of understandable reluctance to challenge the youth to engage in more serious spiritual work and yet when this challenge is made and when it is met the transforming power of God’s grace is evident. Morning prayer, evening prayer, Mass and Holy Hours are all part of the camp regimen. Confession also occupies a central place offering as it does not only forgiveness but the grace of authentic conversion.
A majority of the camps are focused on youth but the adults are not neglected. A young adult retreat was held at the end of May at Sisters and family camp will make use of the video series, “Healthy Families: Safe Children” as the vehicle for strengthening family ties. As with the other camps, the goal is growth in the spiritual life which is growth in the love of God and in the proper following of the will of God. There is never a time, as long as we live, when we will exhaust our need for spiritual growth and so this is a life-project which is never complete. There may be a tendency to allocate too little time or energy to this most important aspect of our lives but that does not mean that there is no need for growth in this area. Even after many years of reading a variety of spiritual writers, I still find taking up a work by St. Alphonsus Liguori or St. Francis de Sales or St. Augustine to be spiritually enlightening and challenging. I guess this is a good thing since it proves I am not yet dead, there is still room for spiritual growth.
Despite my best intentions, however, exerting the self discipline necessary to engage in a program or process of more concentrated growth does not readily or spontaneously occur. I find that I need a structure and a setting and a director to help me engage in the often arduous work of spiritual growth. Creature of activity that I am, I find that even at the site where the youth are now gathered for their camp/retreat, I often find many things to do which interfere with any good intention I might have about spending a quiet day of recollection there. Since this is true for me I suspect it is true for many of my readers. Despite your best intention to spend a quiet day at home and do some spiritual reading and reflection I suspect that the day is quickly consumed by the plethora of domestic minutiae that nibble away at the day and make a ruin of the intention. This is another way of saying that the devil takes great delight in offering us a whole series of appetizing distractions which keep us from doing the spiritual work we initially set out to accomplish.
This tendency to succumb to distractions is not new. It is not dissimilar to what St. Paul experienced in his desire to do good and avoid evil. “For I do not do the good I desire but rather the evil I do not desire” (Romans 7:15). Anytime I attempt to spend a quiet day at home I must sidle up to St. Paul and admit: I have not done what I set out to do but rather that which I set out to avoid. A retreat center is often a spiritual necessity.
