This preached retreat has helped priests find new power and joy in their ministry to a post-Christian world. If you can’t come, please spread the word. Much of our difficulty in ministry comes from the fact that the spiritual formation we provide Catholics has not adapted to the challenge of all-pervasive secularism. Each Catholic must respond to the Holy Spirit personally. But the Church must teach Catholics how to respond, exhort and encourage us to do it, and foster environments that support that response. Since Trent spiritual formation has assumed that our main threat is Protestantism. In the advanced world, however, secularism had begun to replace Protestantism as the threat by the time of Vatican II. Previously, almost all of western society believed, at least, that Jesus spoke for God, even when it didn’t live up to that belief. The main question was: What is the correct interpretation of Jesus’ teaching? To counter Protestantism, the Church’s spiritual formation focused on truths distinctive to Catholic (and Orthodox) doctrine. That succeeded because we could take for granted things that are no longer true: (1) The family could lay the foundation of faith without secularism invading the home itself via electronic media. (2) Outside the home, belief in the most important truths, the existence of God, the Trinity, Incarnation, sin and redemption, would not be undermined by most of society; now they under almost constant attack. This retreat’s approach to renewing the spiritual formation we give Catholics has three sources. The first is the hierarchy of Christian truths. Some Christian truths are based on others and need to be illumined by them. Understanding how some truths need illumination by others shows how formation should adapt now that we cannot take its foundations for granted. Second, carefully discerning Catholics can learn much by finding what is good in Protestant evangelizing. Priests have not previously needed to teach Catholics how to evangelize, but evangelical Protestantism is growing despite secularism. Third, several Catholic movements, despite being as imperfect as all movements must be, have succeeded in spiritually renewing many people. By discerning what is good in recent movements, we can learn pastoral principles that have succeeded in post-Christian society, if we are aware that we need some new pastoral principles. Because technology caused secularism to spread too rapidly for seminary training to adjust, our own formation may not have reflected the hierarchy of truths as well as it could. Some teachings of Vatican II, that hindsight can see to be neglected or misunderstood, will confirm that this retreat’s pastoral approach is much closer to the Council’s vision. If you are a priest concerned about combating secularism, please consider attending to discern whether to recommend this retreat to your diocese or community. Like the Life in the Spirit Seminar and the Cursillo, the retreat is a portable, repeatable program based on a manual. The retreat has been offered before; recommendations from prior attendees are available. The Diocese of Pittsburgh is sponsoring the retreat as fulfilling their priests’ canonical requirement for a yearly retreat. The diocese is kindly allowing us to invite 12 priests from elsewhere. A lack of finances should not be an obstacle to attending. We can help. May 20-24, 2012, Pittsburgh PA. If you can’t come, please spread the word. For more information and registration visit www.joyfulshepherdretreat.org  Or contact Dr. Jack Cahalan, 978-683-3041; cahalanj@comcast.net.