I spent the Fourth of July week in Detroit with a wonderful group of priests from throughout the country who are members of the Jesus Caritas Fraternity of Priests.  I love my day job as pastor of this little faith community.  The vibrancy of this parish far surpasses anything I could have ever imagined and moving forward I know we will have many more good experiences as a parish that shares the Good News of Jesus Christ on Tybee Island.   It is my side job that I find really challenging.  I lead the U.S. branch this international fraternity of priests.  Like the priesthood in most parts of the Northern Hemisphere our fraternities are greying.  The fraternities are growing in the Southern Hemisphere (South America. South Asia, Africa) where there is a generally a younger group of priests.  In America though I was feeling some discouragement as our numbers are thinning.  And then May 2nd I took a trip to Philly and met with a group of seminarians from the Diocese of Arlington at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and got my “happy” back.
 
Promoting our Jesus Caritas Fraternity as a solid spiritual foundation for a great priestly life has been a passion of mine for the past dozen years.  We base our spirituality on the life of a rather eccentric French missionary priest, Blessed Charles de Foucauld, and he would be proud of me, because as he experienced in his own lifetime, I have had very little success in growing our Fraternity.  But I experienced joy and renewed hope that the Fraternity has a bright future as I met with Andrew Clark, Mike Lewis, Tim Courtney, Zinjin Iglesia, Mike Nugent, Dan Reuwer, Sean Koehr and John Paul Heisler.  They are an amazing group of young men.  Most are just completing their first year of formation.  All of them seem spiritually mature.  Some have already made a 30-day Ignatian Retreat.
 
Zinjin already had devotion to Blessed Charles.  He had picked up a brochure on the Review of Life that his Spiritual Director, Fr. Herb Sperger, had brought back from a presentation that I made to a group of Seminary Spiritual Directors back in October.  He shared the brochure with some friends from the Diocese of Arlington and they began meeting weekly with two men sharing their review each week.  Before I arrived with more resources, their formation in Fraternity consisted of that one brochure, which they would review at every gathering.  They had fun teasing each other with the section that concerned what a Review of Life is not.
 
The Review of Life is a central practice in the life of fraternity. It fosters a disciplined and deliberate discernment upon the call of God addressed to each of us individually and when reflected upon in fraternity it leads to a greater appreciation of one’s vocation. Its underlying principle is well articulated in Chapter 11 of the Vatican II Document Gaudium et Spes: “The People of God believes that it is led by the Spirit of the Lord, who fills the earth. Motivated by this faith it labors to decipher authentic signs of God's presence and purpose in the happenings, needs and desires in which this People have a part along with other people of our age. For faith throws a new light on everything. It manifests God's design for total vocation and thus directs the mind to solutions which are fully human.”
 
The Review of Life rests on two fundamental facts:
(1) God acts through the events, or at least more forcefully through certain events of our lives to become present, to manifest his love and to bring us to renew and deepen our union with Him.
(2) The Holy Spirit is truly among us, especially as we seek Jesus together as brothers. It is the Holy Spirit who in some way is heard through the fraternity members and through their reflections on the "event" presented.
 
I am so grateful for the support of this faith community, in doing this good work of trying to lead a fraternity that gives the diocesan priesthood a wonderful foundation and spirituality for our lives and ministries.  But as you can well imagine trying to organize priests can at times be like herding cats.  It can be both very fun and very frustrating.  My time in Detroit with twenty guys who love the priesthood was definitely the fun part.
 
Help Wanted:
1.  In my efforts to grow the fraternity, from time to time, I will be inviting seminarians and priests to Tybee for retreats and formation in the spirituality of the fraternity.  I’d like to gather a group of parishioners that could help me with the details of hospitality (planning of meals, organizing recreation opportunities, etc.) and the organizational details (our Web site need a major revision).  My dream would be to form a lay fraternity here on Tybee.  If you might have some interest in such a group, please talk to me.
 
2.  I am moving towards my first anniversary, August 1 ^st, as pastor of St. Michael’s, and I still haven’t settled in completely.  Both I and the entire parish are blessed to have Mary Chapin organizing the details of parish life.  But I am a tough man to get organized in my work space and living space.  Each day, Tybee feels more and more like home and I am so grateful for the efforts of Susan Ason, Mike Beytagh, Deanna Fanning, Dana Johnson, and Mary Ann Miller in helping me to feel more at home in my work and living space.  So now, I’d love to explore a little more the joys of island living.  I don’t have a lot of experience with boating, crabbing, or fishing, but I’d love to tag along with anyone who has experience with those things.  Please, ask me to join you sometime.
 
 
Congratulations to Jim and Mary Ann Miller on your golden wedding anniversary.  May God shower His love and blessings on you for many years to come.
Fr. Jerry Ragan