2020 Day of Reflection: DC/Montgomery County Region

Last month, 55 members and guests participated in the 2020 Day of Reflection sponsored by the DC/Montgomery regions. The Rev. Thomas Acklin, OSB, of the Saint Vincent Archabbey and Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, discussed “Abandonment to Divine Providence” based on the book of the same name authored by Jean-Pierre De Caussade.

Father Acklin stressed God’s call to abandon all to “the sacrament of the present moment” by fulfilling the duties of our station in life. Most of the faithful are not called to “the grandeur of a Moses or St Francis”, nor is our glory found in being grandiose, he said, but “in doing the small things beautifully.” Father Tom quoted St Augustine, “The Lord is closer to me than I am to myself.”

Father Acklin is the author of two books, “The Passion of the Lamb: God’s Love Poured Out in Jesus” and “The Unchanging Heart of the Priesthood, and awaits the publication of a third book on prayer. Father is the senior fellow at the St Paul Center for Biblical Theology in Pittsburgh and director of counseling at Saint Vincent Seminary.

(An annual retreat is held at Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe sponsored by the Pittsburgh Region. Contact Michael DeVanney, KM for further information).

The morning concluded with the recitation of the “Litany of Humility” authored by Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val (1865-1930).