Matt Talbot Group #110 -  A History of Our Retreat

As related to the group by Paul W.

I get the honor to share with you a little bit about the retreat and where it started. It's something that I truly appreciate being given the opportunity to do.

Back in the late 80s, early 90s, one of the Water Walkers members had a house down in Rosarita on the beach, and a bunch of the guys got together there. I think it was 10 or 12 guys that got together, went down and spent the weekend at his house, and had a fantastic time. Everybody came back and they were all lit up. I'll tell you, man, everybody was flying high when they got back to Monday night at Water Walkers.

So, the guys got together and said, you know, there is that part in the book we all know about that, the part about retreats, and thought, well, let's try to put something together. They found a place up in Julian called Raintree Ranch, which is a YMCA camp for kids. It was set up with a big living room and dining room and a lot of different bedrooms off of that where they had bunk beds. They had like three or four bunk beds per room. And so, everybody had an opportunity to stay there.

My recollection is that Friday night, we were served bean burritos for dinner. And you had guys lighting them up, lighting up the room. It was blazing saddles on steroids, you know? And it created an atmosphere that was unforgettable. You know, you live and learn.

And I believe we did the retreat up there a couple of times, but it's pretty rustic. They just kind of pour concrete on the ground and you know, you better watch what you're doing when you're walking around. A few gentlemen like Bill O'Brien, Dr. Don, and Bob Burns were a little bit older. So, the concern was they'd get hurt up there, going from somewhere to eat and sleep.

Looking back now, the reason they decided to go to Raintree Ranch was because a lot of the guys didn't want to go across the border and do the retreat down in Mexico again, so that's why Raintree was the next best thing.

We did a couple of years there and really, there was no structure; it was like everybody was on their own and you had a meeting on Saturday night where everybody shared and everything. And you spent a lot of time during the day just talking in little groups and everybody—no real structure, but it was still a retreat. You still got out of the mayhem of daily life.

Then the idea was go to Prince of Peace Abbey, which is the Benedictine monastery in Oceanside, above the Oceanside airport. And we did that a couple of years also, as I recall. The monks over there were very inviting, very loving, inviting individuals. I remember Brother Blaze was the beekeeper. He and another one of the brothers were so interested in what we were doing that they wanted to sit in on our meetings.

And so, the concern at that point in time was there was a limit, 25. Twenty-five men, that was it. And the hope was that we would expand and get bigger. So, the next move was to go to the Oceanside Mission, which is called San Luis Rey. And if you've ever been to the mission, it's called the King of the Missions for California. It was the biggest mission that the Spanish built. They built 21 missions along California, along the coast, and it was the King of the Missions. And it's a beautiful, beautiful environment, set up with a gigantic courtyard. It's used every year as a retreat for recovering priests. A lot of recovering priests meet there and have a retreat also.

We were at the mission for quite a few years until 2006 when we came to Vina de Lestonnac here in Temecula. And we've been here since then.

o candles." And so that was his story for a long time. He had 49 years with two broken candles.

He was the one that got us to Matt Talbott. He belonged to Matt Talbott Group #3.  And so right now, there are over 200 Matt Talbott groups in the United States, including three in California And we're one of them.

So...Matt Tabot, who is this guy? Why do we call this Matt Tabot Retreat? He was born in 1856, and he died in 1925. The book of Alcoholics Anonymous was not published until 1939. So, he was before his time. He grew up in Ireland. He was one of 12 children, the second oldest. By the time he was 12 years old, he had to quit school and go to work. He worked for a wine merchant and the following year, he moved on up to a whiskey merchant. And by that time, he was a full-blown alcoholic at age 13. He stayed that way until he was 29. He got sober in 1884. He took the pledge, and the pledge at that point in time was, “I won't drink for 30 days.”

But up until that point, he was a guy that, he would work periodically and get some money. Then, he would go to the bar, and when he would pay his bill, he was the guy that bought everybody in the bar a drink. Hey, you know, I got money, come on, I'm a good guy, I'm gonna buy.

And that was on and off for all those years, and it got to a point where his job, he didn't have a job. And he was down, he was out. He was unemployable. So, he was sitting out in front of the bar and waiting for people to, his friends, to help him out. Hey, give me some money, I wanna go in and drink. And nobody gave him anything. They all walked by him, they ignored him.

And at that point in time, he made the decision to go to church and make a pledge for 30 days that he wouldn't drink. That pledge led to a 90 day pledge, led to another 90 day pledge, and before he knew it, he had a year of not drinking.

During that time, he went to church all the time, every day, and started reading religious literature, and continued his journey. He was able to eventually start getting jobs. And with the jobs that he got, he was helping the people that were down and out like himself, the alcoholics, the ones with addiction. He used all the money that he earned and all the time that he had helping other people. He was of service all over Dublin. They all knew about Matt Talbot.

When he passed away in 1925. They found he was on his way to church and they found his body wrapped in chains. He had chains underneath and it was his devotion to Mary, mother of God. He was a devout Catholic doing penance for Mary Virgin.

So, today we're looking at Matt Talbot groups. There's over 200 in the US, most of them around the East Coast. We're group 110, so we're right in the middle of that group. Thanks to Bill O'Brien.

It was pointed out to me a while back that Matt Talbot, the purpose of this is to try to make Matt Talbert a saint. What has happened in 1975, Pope Paul VI made Matt Talbot venerable, which in the Catholic Church is the next step towards canonization, making him a saint. And so, the Matt Talbot groups, the purposes to try to pray that Matt Talbot becomes that saint for alcoholics. He would be the alcoholic saint.

And there is a prayer that they say at a lot of the Matt Talbot retreats, and I'd like to read the prayer to you. It says, "Prayer for canonization of Matt Talbot. Lord, in your servant, may Matt Talbot, you have given us a wonderful example of triumphal addiction, a devotion to duty, and of lifelong reverence for the Holy Sacrament. May his life of prayer and penance give us courage to take up our crosses and follow in the footsteps of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Father, if it be your will that your beloved servant should be glorified by your church, make known by your heavenly favors the power he enjoys in your sight. We ask this through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

So, we're here today, and we do recognize Matt Talbot as somebody that we need to help alcoholics, to help us, and to push him towards canonization, to becoming a saint. That's all I have.

Also, I didn't talk about, I apologize, I didn't talk about Jack Dalrymple. He was a gentleman that came out to our retreat every single year from Egg Harbor, New Jersey. And Jack had been to a number of retreats on the East Coast, and he came out to our retreat and something happened. He made sure that he came to our retreat every time, every year, twice a year, he'd fly out and be here.

And the Group 110 medallion that you have, you can go to any other Matt Tower retreat and you're going to be a member of 110. Well, he was a member of a retreat back on the East Coast. He turned in his medallion for that one and requested one for 110. He wanted to be a part of this group.