I’ve been living in Chicago, at the Center of Light for a month now. There has been so much going on – this is actually my first normal weekend there. I moved from Milwaukee after a full seminar weekend with Father Peter… on Palm Sunday…EXACTLY a year after I helped everyone move into the new Chicago Center. My second weekend in Chicago was Easter. The weekend after that we hosted an Order of Mercy retreat with 30 people, and the weekend after that I went to my first Deacon Retreat. I have been a Deacon-in-training (or DIT) since Winter Retreat in January. For someone unfamiliar with the Order, it probably sounds like there’s a retreat every other weekend, but there are only two retreats a year that everyone goes on, as well a few retreats for people who have formally taken on some kind of service in the Order. The closest thing I can compare a retreat to is the feeling of Christmas as a little kid…being excited about seeing family from across the country, and a sense that something magical is going to happen…except during retreat, miracles actually do happen. It’s never what I expect and it’s always amazing. I went on my first retreat when I was still really new to the Center of Light and Christian Mysticism. I was actually in the middle of my retrospection, which is the process you go through before the mystical baptism – the first real step on the spiritual path in our order. I was fairly proud of my spiritual experience and knowledge before I found the Center of Light, and didn’t think I “needed” the baptism, but agreed to it so I could continue on this spiritual path and get access to the lessons and spiritual exercises that are available when you become a student. After retreat I had a different attitude. The experiences I had there were more transformative than anything I had experienced before. Also, seeing how clear and powerful and loving ALL the priests from all the centers were, showed me there was a deep integrity present, the extent of which I hadn’t appreciated before. I resolved to do whatever the priests told me and “see what happened.” I haven’t been disappointed yet. After the baptism, I realized what a gift I had been given. Two months later I moved into the novice house in Milwaukee, and a year and a half after that, I moved to the Center of Light in Chicago as a novice and a DIT.

Being at a newer Center is a little different than being in Milwaukee, which was one of the two original Centers of Light. You can tell the neighbors are trying to figure out what to make of us. The little kids in the neighborhood can sense there’s something fun going on over here. They want to come and skip on the path on the new path we made during OM Retreat, or play in the flower boxes around the square bench Father Peter made that encircles the tree at the Church entrance. The parents are a little more reserved, but there’s people who have voiced their appreciation of the way the church has transformed since we moved in. If only they really knew.

Living with Father Peter has been an amazing experience. He is normally on the road during the weekends, but because of all the events going on in March and April, I ended up spending four weekends in a row with him. Being around a real Teacher is not always comfortable. You will be shown things about yourself you might rather not see. You will also have the opportunity to receive a lot of love, and if you are open to it, you can be changed. There were many graces around the timing of my move, and writing about all of them would be a whole new blog entry. I can testify that when you dedicate your life to God and following spiritual direction from a real Teacher, miracles will happen.

By Caleb, Deacon-in-Training, Chicago