Annual Redemptorist Alumni Gathering
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April 10, 2023In a lot of ways we never left the Redemptorists. We 13 participants in the annual reunion/retreat were back at Picture Rocks recently for our 10th anniversary Gathering of Redemptorists, former Redemptorists, seminary students and wives.
The past 50 years, give or take, have been a buffet of ordination, marriage, kids to raise, careers to pursue, missions to preach and parishioners to nurture. They have been good years.
At Picture Rocks in the steep hills of Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, we are led by Fr. Mike McAndrew of the Edgerton entering class of 1961 and Ed Gaydos of the Kirkwood class of 1958. We talk about crises in our lives and how we have dealt with them, about our individual brands of spirituality, and how we cope with annoyances as we negotiate what are inevitably life’s final chapters. We agree we’re crankier than we remember of the salad days of youth, an admission that brings a knowing nod from the wives.
The days’ final discussions are followed by Yowsies of the cherished C.Ss.R. tradition as we remember events and characters, classmates and treasured professors, men’s men who dedicated their lives to our growing up years in their long shadows. We missed the presence of Fr. Dick Mevissen, a charter member of the Gathering, who has moved to Liguori. Dick Bek, of the Kirkwood class of 1954, and his wife, Jen – also Gathering regulars who were unable to make it to Tucson this year – regaled us with their special brand of music via Zoom.
Fr. Mike and Joe Viverito, Kirkwood 1952, concelebrate the afternoon Mass of our middle day as together we break the bread of the Holy Eucharist.
Fr. Pat Grile, a member of the Redemptorist community at Picture Rocks, has promised an attempt to free up his schedule next year to head up a session on spirituality in aging. Fr. Pat, Edgerton 1959, has been conducting such sessions in the Tucson community and will be welcomed heartily at the Gathering.
It is time to leave on our third day. We’re thankful to Peter Tran, who makes the gears turn at this Redemptorist Renewal Center, for giving us room on these late winter days of relative warmth. And we’re grateful to Bill Wagner, Edgerton 1960, who envisioned this small annual Gathering of alums after the big reunion days of Fr. Emmett Collins and Bob Fenili.
As always, all alumni are invited again next year. How good it has been to be together again. Ecce quam bonum ...