The Institute priests serving in the American Province, along with a few confreres from overseas apostolates, met at St. Francis de Sales Oratory in St. Louis for their annual retreat, which took place this year during the week of preparation for the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 3. Monsignor Gilles Wach, Prior General of the Institute, came from Gricigliano to preach to the assembled priests during this time of recollection. They were joined by several priests from around the country who are spiritually affiliated with the Institute. 

The canons and priest affiliates had the opportunity to pray the Divine Office together and share fraternal meals as a community. These retreats foster renewal in the interior lives of the priests, as well as for the fraternal unity of the Institute.

On Thursday evening, June 2, Monsignor Wach was the celebrant of a Solemn High Mass of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Supreme and Eternal Priest. In the vestition ceremony, Abbe Matthew O’Hora, a native of Ireland, made his commitment as an oblate brother in the Institute family and received the cassock, having completed his time of discernment and candidacy at St. Gianna Oratory in Tucson, Arizona. Another diocesan priest, Father Thomas Keller, received the Cross of St. Francis de Sales as an affiliate member of the Institute, while other affiliate priests renewed their commitment as well.

All the faithful had the opportunity to greet Monsignor Wach and the visiting priests in a festive reception in the Oratory Hall after Mass. In his address of the faithful, Monsignor Wach expressed his deep gratitude to the St. Louis faithful for their generous spirit and caring support of the Institute and its priests. He also requested prayers for the eleven men, including two Americans, who will be ordained to the priesthood in Gricigliano, Italy, on July 7 by His Eminence, Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke.