This Phase of My Thirty Day Retreat Has Come to an End

It has been over thirty days since I last was able to update my blog. I have so much to tell. This place is really quite awesome and I’ll never be able to recapture it in enough words. Sevenhill Retreat House is about two hours north of Adelaide in South Australia. It is in the heart of the wine country. Sevenhill has very few people living in the town despite the hopes of the original settlers. In the center of town sits a hotel and restaurant, post office boxes, and a fire station. That’s it. I counted 19 houses in the center of town.

Jesuits in the Austro-Hungarian Empire left Europe for Australia during the revolutions of 1848 and they made a settlement in Sevenhill, which was to become the center of Catholic worship in the area. Sevenhill College was established in 1851 to serve the local youth of the area with a sound education. St. Aloysius Church was built around the same time. The Austrians created a large slanted roof because it was their only experience of roofs – just so the snow could slide off in the winter. Well, in South Australia you might get a frost but no snow of which to speak.

Sevenhill was named after Rome. Yes, there are seven hills and the founders named the nearby creek the Tiber. The Austrian Jesuits wanted to serve the local church, especially those who came here of their own free accord, with a vibrant worship life even though in much of Australia you could be fined or jailed for practicing Roman Catholicism as a priest. The grand hopes for a college (high school) and university were dashed when gold and other minerals were discovered in Adelaide and Melbourne. The people vanished. Jesuits served the local parishes in the area by building churches and worship centers. The diocese of Port Pirie has a Jesuit bishop, Bp. Greg O’Kelly, who is a fine man.

I live on the property called La Storta, named because of Ignatius’ experience of being confirmed in a chapel on his way to Rome. This 56 acre property was re-acquired a few years ago and makes for nice pasturing, a viable garden, three communities for retreats, and a hermitage for two occupants. It is very quiet here and a terrific place for reflection and prayer. I love the golden hills and at the same time, the great gardens. The orchards have granny smith apples, other red apples, oranges, limes, lemons, pomegranates, and peaches. Olive trees are used for their oils. Avocados and walnuts and figs are grown at this site. It does feel like paradise. The vegetable gardens provide plenty of food for the community and guests.

The Sevenhill Cellars provide all sorts of wines for sale. Most of them are named after Jesuit terminology. The wine staff is very committed and they produce quality products. The Clare Valley vineyard owners promote and market quality wines instead of the low-grade Australian wine Yellowtail that is on the market in the U.S. The time of year that I am making this retreat is during their vintage harvest. When I arrived, the grapes were plump and ripe, but now the vines are all harvested and the leaves are ready to drop for the winter. In two weeks the rainy season begins. This place has had a drought for the past seven years.

I’ve learned a lot about farming. The cows are in heat and the bull is roaming around with his nose up in the air all the time. You can hear all sort of bovine activity during the night when it is much cooler. I also learned a lot about ducks. We have five ducks in our shed and they have laid eggs since I arrived. Duck gestation is about 28 days so I hope to see a duckling before too long. One day as I was putting the ducks away for the night, I noticed that a mother duck would always taunt and jump on the younger duck to reprimand him for not being on time. This went on night after night. I told the farmer here about it because I had to wait quite a while before I could put them in for the night. He had a wry smile and he told me that the mother duck was really a drake. The light bulb in my head went off and I understood the rest.

The Jesuit directors are really good. I won’t speak about my retreat here, but it was very nice to have liturgy every night in the upper room of the College. The homilists were solid and thoughtful. I was selected to prepare music with the presider each night. I wish I had brought along more music. Lent is a special time to make the long retreat and it coincided nicely with the Triduum and Easter.

We participated in a Seder that preceded a Holy Eucharist on Holy Thursday. This provided a new glimpse about the reality of our saving God. The story of the Jews is our Christian story and it brings much fullness when we can understand the full expression of Jewish prayer as it feeds into our prayer. I received an intimate portrait of God who is always active in our lives.

Kangaroos come out nightly. You can look down rows of the vineyards and see them eating and hopping around. We have emus near the property as well. One night as I was gazing upon the stars and the heavens after praying Psalm 8, I must have lost track of time and where I was. The next thing I knew is that I felt an animal near me and as I gave a shriek, it took off up the hill and over the rocky ledge. When it arrived at a safe distance it began screeching and howling. My heart dropped, but luckily it was more scared than I was.

Well, I’ll end my words here for the moment. We have a few more days at the retreat house to share our stories with our brethren. On Monday, we leave for Adelaide where we will have dinner at Archbishop Phillip Wilson’s house. Bishop Greg O’Kelly (a Jesuit) will join us. From there, four others will join me as we depart for Uluru (formerly Ayer’s Rock) in central Australia west of Alice Springs. Five others will travel to Melbourne via the Ocean Drive and then return to Sydney. One will tan himself on the Sunshine Coast and another will go to Cairns to see a friend of his. I will miss this retreat house because it is so lovely. It is quiet, bug-free, mosquito-free, away from the main activity of the College, and I have two very silent brothers in the house. I lucked out!