Throughout the year, Sister Margaret McCullough, IHM, and her team offer Catholics opportunities to engage in their faith in ways they might have not in the past.
Sister McCullough serves as executive director of Villa Maria by the Sea, a retreat house in Stone Harbor that offers a wide range of retreats – ranging from day to weekend retreats, and with a number of themes and approaches.
“When I was a young girl in high school, I went to a retreat house in Elkins, Pa.,” she said. “A lot of people did that, but I don’t think it is as prevalent today.”
Still, Sister McCullough sees faithful come through her doors seeking that unique faith experience that retreats can offer.
“For many people, they didn’t learn this in school – this is an awakening for them,” she said, harkening back to something she taught children about prayer during her time as a schoolteacher. “When you pray, prayer is an interruption of time … you turn yourself away from this world to God, and that is kind of what you do on a retreat. You retreat from the world.”
Faithful continue to seek out experiences like retreats – as well as visits to shrines – as opportunities to engage in their faith in meaningful ways, and to enjoy moments of peace and prayer.
Villa Maria offers retreats that teach things like prayerful meditation, as well as silent retreats guided by a director. Sister McCullough’s team works to design themes that draw faithful in, and offers a special community atmosphere in their retreat house. Much like Jesus set himself apart from others to pray, she added, many faithful are looking for that peace and focus through retreats.
“[People] are seeking that solitude,” she said. “I think they have their own foundation, their relationship with Jesus. It is more of that relationship part.”
Parishes throughout the Diocese of Camden also organize retreats throughout the year. For example, Saint Joseph the Worker Parish, Haddon Township, is organizing a Saint John Neumann Advent Retreat, which is free to attend and will be held Dec. 3 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in Saint Vincent Pallotti Church (901 Hopkins Road).
The retreat will focus on the life, work and miracles of Saint John Neumann and will be led by Father John Kingsbury, director of the National Shrine of Saint John Neumann, Philadelphia. The retreat will include Adoration, spiritual reflection, hymns, a Novena and relic veneration.
Louise Reino, secretary of the host parish’s ChristLife Ministry Women’s Group that organizes programs like the retreat, noted that attendees will have a lot to look forward to.
“I had the honor to meet Father Kingsbury in July with three members of our parish,” she said. “All I can say is Father Kingsbury seems to be a natural born presenter of awesome retreats. He is a larger-than-life personality – engaging and humorous, and very informed about Saint John Neumann.”
She added, “his enthusiasm for, knowledge about, and devotion to Saint John Neumann will surely move and inspire you.”
In addition to retreat experiences, South Jersey Catholics also frequent area shrines like the National Centre for Padre Pio in nearby Barto, Pa. The organization and shrine were established by Vera Calandra of Norristown after her dying child made a recovery after the saint’s intercession shortly before his death. Today, her daughter is 59 years old and the organization’s vice president.
“In the mid-1990s, Mrs. Calandra envisioned building a pilgrimage destination in the USA for people in North America who could perhaps never manage to visit Italy,” said Nicholas Salkowski, the organization’s director of communications.
The Centre includes a reproduction of Our Lady of Grace friary church, and houses the largest collection of relics of Saint Pio anywhere in the world outside of Italy.
“Each year, tens of thousands of visitors come here looking for Padre Pio’s intercession for their own needs, and often find a profound sense of peace after visiting,” said Salkowski. “There are numerous stories of people who had prayers answered after visiting here, and have even had people find peace in their suffering. Padre Pio’s presence is very much alive here in Barto.”
Salkowski added that shrines like Padre Pio offer faithful a chance to encounter saints and religious figures in a special way. “People are often more open to their spirituality at shrines, and we’ve had instances of people visiting here feeling moved to go to Confession for the first time in 10, 15 and even 20 years.”
He added that Catholics can often find struggles faced by saints and martyrs to be relatable to their own lives and journeys.
“We can find examples of how they dealt with similar situations in their lives to us,” he said, “and I believe that understanding that can help people be more open to God’s plans for their own lives.”
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