An image of Our Mother of Compassion is seen on a prayer table during the Sept. 27-29, 2025 Gennesaret Retreat held at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, Kentucky. COURTESY OF TINA O’NAN
Retreat ‘committed to the sick’ helps guests experience inherent dignity and value
BY FR. CHRISTOPHER E. GRIEF, SPECIAL TO THE WESTERN KENTUCKY CATHOLIC
Guests of this year’s Gennesaret Retreat traded the world’s noise for spiritual peace and encountered profound renewal, growing closer to Christ through the Holy Eucharist, daily conferences, community and the opportunity for the Sacraments of the Anointing of the Sick and Reconciliation.
This journey took place at the Abbey of Gethsemani, where deep silence, both tranquil and profound, settled over the guests attending the three-day weekend over Sept. 27-29. The monastery, with its hushed knob, shimmering lakes, and expansive grass lands, sits just an hour south of Louisville and provided the essential, ancient backdrop for the retreat.
Led by a dedicated team of volunteers and nurses, guests began to understand that their journey is a path to deeper union with the cross of Christ. The retreat, named for the biblical Gennesaret, the place of Christ’s public healing, is built upon the cultivation of a profound and radical hope.
For the second year, I was the retreat’s spiritual director. Gennesaret, originally conceived by Fr. Paul Scaglione in New Jersey in the mid-1990s, was brought to the Archdiocese of Louisville and has since found a deeply fitting home within the community of the Diocese of Owensboro. The retreat’s commitment to the sick is a testament to the enduring power of compassion and the pursuit of divine peace in the face of life’s greatest trials.
The retreat’s true strength lies in its ability to instill radical hope. This is not a denial of suffering or a naïve belief in a cure, but a deeply rooted spiritual assurance that is unshakable by circumstances.
Chronic illness often brings with it feeling of spiritual abandonment and a loss of purpose. Gennesaret addresses this directly by creating a communal experience that affirms the inherent dignity and value of every person, regardless of their condition. The collective witness of faith shows each guest that their life, even with illness, is an act of sacred service and that they are children of God.
Fr. Christopher E. Grief is the parochial vicar for St. Stephen Cathedral and Blessed Sacrament Chapel in Owensboro. To learn more about the Gennesaret Retreat, contact Tom and Amy Payne at (270) 686-7739.
The exterior is seen of the Abbey of Gethsemani, which hosted the Sept. 27-29, 2025 Gennesaret Retreat. COURTESY OF ROBIN BEATTY
Originally printed in the November 2025 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.
