The Family Life Unit of St Peter’s Parish, Carenage hosted a one-day retreat for men on April 20 under the theme God’s Building Blocks.

Invitations were sent out to the men of the neighbouring parishes, such as St Anthony’s (Petit Valley), St John’s, Nativity and St Finbar’s (Diego Martin), St Mary’s (St. James) and The Sanctuary as well as Friends in Love (San Fernando).

The first speaker was Fr Jason Gordon who spoke on the topic of Masculine Spirituality. Fr Jason spoke of the beating that masculinity was subjected to in our time, and the fact that men almost needed to apologize for their masculinity.

He went on to explain that this led partly to the crisis facing our society today and the accompanying anger and violent outbursts resulting in our young men today.

Fr Jason reiterated that the masculine journey is difficult in these times, but we need to rethink our masculinity at different stages of our lives. This means looking at how we relate to other men, our mothers and the negative feelings we face.

He pointed out that masculinity is sacred, this is how God made us; we should not be ashamed. What is unholy is how we deal with our aggression and our sexuality as men. He closed off by daring all the men present to walk their journey as men.

After lunch, there were three parallel sessions: Living a Sacramental Marriage Today with Dexter Shim, Proven Parenting Practices by Earl Theodore supported by Singles For Christ and Call for Single Consecrated/Priesthood shared by Mikhail Trestrail of Companions of the Transfigured Christ (formerly GANG), and St Peter’s parish priest, Msgr Cuthbert Alexander.

Dexter Shim spoke about men and marriage.

Dexter Shim shared his own experiences in marriage and among the key points he made was that as men we needed to have a 100% commitment to keeping our marriages alive and strong.

We need to listen to our wives criticisms and understand that in these instances she is seeking our own good.

We also need to listen to our wives to hear what they need from us as men and to understand how they feels.

As men, we also need to take responsibility for our own feelings and internal issues and how we respond to them and deal with them.

Earl Theodore’s group were told no other job in the world could expose us to so much pain, joy, confusion and responsibility as parenting. Parents also had a duty to answer to God, society, family by natural blood, and family by the “precious blood”, since we are all part of the same family through Christ’s precious blood. 

He went on to explain that we could be parents through biological means or by circumstances. He gave the example of St Joseph, being the Lord’s father on earth by circumstances and the fact that he accepted this responsibility. There are a lot of instances today where parents become parents due to circumstances, and they need to follow St Joseph’s example. 

Msgr Alexander shared with his group his call to the priesthood and his early experiences and challenges with his call. He explained that he first got his calling at around age 14.

He eventually had the courage to tell his mother when he was about 19 years old. She took him to a priest who advised him to continue praying about it and he eventually entered the seminary at age 20.

He spent a few years at the seminary and then began to have doubts about if this was the right decision. He left and took up a career at teaching, which eventually did not provide the fulfilment he expected and returned to the seminary. He left the seminary once again and pursued a career in journalism for four and a half years with no thoughts of going back to the priesthood.

After attending charismatic renewal meetings and doing a Life in the Spirit seminar he submitted his life to the Lord completely.  His lesson was that God has a desire for each of us, and that we don’t always have a straight road to follow.

The three groups then reassembled for a talk by Fr Dwight Merrick, on Vocations. Fr Merrick spoke broadly about vocations and explained that God gives us each a different vocation in life as men and the strength we need.

All vocations are in trouble and facing challenges, he said. We need to understand that vocations are for life, and this is a lifelong decision for a lifelong experience.

There are a lot of problems with formation of young people especially young men, and that the Catholic education system is critical in addressing this as well as the values taught in Catholic homes. We as men need to step up and play our parts in this.

The final segment of the retreat was a presentation by Winston Garcia, of People of Praise. His topic was Living with Passion and his talk reflected the passion that he said we needed as men in the Church today. He pointed out that our first vocation was to “LOVE GOD!” We need to do this in such a way that it spills over to others, and to remember that this is the First Commandment.

He shared the story of the rich young man in the Gospel of Mark (10:7-22). This was a story for us as to how clear and simple Christ’s teaching is for us as men.

He went on to explain that as men we have so much passion for other things in life, but yet we lack passion for God. We should learn how to love in our Father’s house, that is, our Church and to ask God for passionate hearts. He challenged us to find out what our purpose is and pursue it with a passion. We must not be Sunday men of God, but men of God all of our lives.

The retreat ended shortly thereafter with Msgr Alexander thanking all for coming, especially those from other parishes. The close to fifty men who attended left with a sense that the day was well spent.