On a mid-Advent Saturday morning, Dec. 13, more than three dozen Catholics paused from all of the outside noise in the leadup to Christmas to prepare spiritually for the Nativity of the Lord.
Retreatants from around the Philadelphia area met for six hours at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul to take in reflections on Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic exhortation “Dilexi Te” (translated “I have loved you”). The letter calls on Catholics to love the poor and marginalized wherever they are and thereby reflect the love of Christ in the world.
“When we’re called to love and worship God, that needs to be shown in action,” said retreat organizer Sister of Mercy Marie Faustina Wolniakowski, the archdiocesan Delegate for Consecrated Life.
“It needs to be shown by the ways in which we encounter the poor around us, and that the poor come in many different ways … material, social, cultural, spiritual, and personal, and the ways indifference can creep into our hearts and our communities.
“Above all, we were reminded that Christ Himself is present in the faces of those who suffer, and responding to their cry is a path to encountering Him directly.”
Mercy Sister Marie Faustina Wolniakowski leads an Advent day of reflection on the apostolic exhortation of Pope Leo XIV, “Dilexi Te,” Dec. 13 at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. Father Dennis Gill, rector of the Cathedral, stands at rear with other retreatants. (Photo by Jay Sorgi)
Sister Marie Faustina cited saintly examples such as St. Teresa of Kolkata and St. Francis of Assisi as models for living a life in Christlike service of others.
“These saints lived in their own time frame, and then in their own small ways were drawn by God to show their care for the poor,” she said.
The four weeks of Advent focus Christians’ attention on the incarnation, as God became man in Jesus.
In the faces of the poor, “we encounter Christ as well” and during Advent “we are called to meet one another in the ways in which He’s bringing us to Himself, also through the service of one another,” Sister Marie Faustina said.
The retreat offered attendees opportunities for reflection in the celebration of Mass, eucharistic adoration, the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, quiet time within the basilica and the Cathedral chapel, and small group conversations over lunch.
“I have been just filled with spiritual nourishment, trying to really settle down and get into Advent and not be distracted by so many other things around us,” said Marybeth Hagan from Merion Station.
“I also loved the focus on the poor among us, the materially poor, but we were also focusing on (the) poor in spirit. There’s people right in our lives who have poverty of some sort, and we can address that poverty in little and big ways.”
Vince Amalfitano, who is from Upper Pottsgrove, said he was heartened to see other Catholics not only experiencing the same Advent reflection time, but finding solidarity in a calling to help those on the margins whom he believes are less respected than in the past.
Retreatants Wendy Marie Thomas of Philadelphia (left) and Kristina Balten of Ambler enjoy fellowship over a meal during the Advent retreat Dec. 13 at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. (Photo by Jay Sorgi)
“Just seeing the camaraderie of other Catholics feeling that way,” he said. “In our country today, I think we need it right now because the poor are looked upon now as not good people. I guess poverty is looked upon as a negative thing and not like it used to be.”
Sister Marie Faustina used many examples during her citations of Pope Leo XIV’s exhortation — biblical, saintly and Christ himself — to help retreatants understand the daily question of how God is asking us to be present to the marginalized.
“It’s a reminder that the poor are always with us. Christ himself said you will always have the poor with you, and that we ourselves all have areas of poverty in our own lives,” said Sister Marie Faustina.
“It’s not to be overwhelmed by it, but it is a moment to pause and say, ‘Where might God be calling me to be a channel of his mercy?’ To know that is a real call, and that’s one to take up with great love and joy.”
She said she was encouraged and edified by the retreatants’ willingness to embrace the challenge Christ offers us to embrace the poor, to say “yes” in loving them as God loves us.
“In the midst of their Christmastime preparations, they took a full day to say ‘God, I want to be with you,’” Sister Marie Faustina said.
“Now my hope is that from this retreat they’ll be able to be advocates for the forgotten, the marginalized. It can be from the smallest of ways, to a smile to a hello, to ‘Is there anything I can get for you?’ It’s those little sparks that God can truly transform our own hearts and those that we encounter.”
Indeed, retreatants were found afterward encountering the poor, searching them out to give food, conversation and a few minutes of connection, a reminder to them of what God says to everyone: “I have loved you.”
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