Because this magazine represents the effort to get electricity to rural Michigan, I thought I’d write about a rural place where God bans all electricity.

The place is 1,000 acres deep in the woods about 15 miles northeast of Paradise—eight miles from the nearest electric line.

It is a place of God—a Catholic retreat stuck deep in the woods, a place of silence and prayer. It has about 14 buildings including dormitories, retreat houses, a kitchen and a spectacular chapel with homemade pews, altar and oil lights. The chapel bears an Indian name, Kateri Tekakwitha, a place of silence and prayer.

Its founder and leader is the Rev. Jack Fabian, a priest for 39 years.

“After many hiking and camping trips over some famous trails in several states, I found such experiences did much to renew my faith and recharge my work for God. So I had a dream to provide the same thing for others. We started the project about 12 years ago. It has been hard work and lots of fulfillment. Heck, I even built all the church pews myself with lumber from our property,” Father Jack said.

In his brochure, Father Jack describes it all this way:

Who We Are
“The Companions of Christ the Lamb (CCL), under the founder, Fr. Jack Fabian, is a private association of the faithful (our first attempt toward becoming a religious order) established under the authority of Cardinal Adam J. Maida, Archbishop of Detroit. Our community, with its roots in parish life, is made up of vowed-celibate (priests, and brothers and sister) and laity (married and single).”

Our Purpose
“Our ultimate purpose, as that of the Catholic Church, is to save souls. We dedicate ourselves, therefore, to forming the faithful in the Church’s many prayer traditions and teaching approved approaches to spirituality. As part of this spirituality, we provide our members and others with wilderness retreat opportunities so that they may learn to be alone in silence and hear the quiet voice of God. We also teach skills which awaken a sense of reverence, respect, and responsibility towards God’s natural creation. We emphasize prayer together, centered on the Holy Eucharist; personal prayer and ascetical practices that draw strongly from the asceticism of the wilderness as experienced by Jesus, the patriarchs, the prophets, and saints.”

An Ancient Tradition
“As recorded in Sacred Scripture, the epochal stories of our salvation involve individuals and the whole nation of God’s people going into the wilderness. It is in the wilderness, apart from all traditional social structure, safety, and security, that God is able to get his people’s attention, form them, and speak to their hearts. Jesus himself found the wilderness a necessary place to go for 40 days before beginning his public life. The gospels record that he returned there to be alone often throughout his ministry. In the late third century the early Church began to imitate Jesus and the ancients and seek the wisdom of the deserts and forest.”

Sue Mayes, a mother of two girls and a member of the CCL group of families, wrote after her first retreat, the following reflection:
“I was very nervous about being alone in the woods at night. I knew in my heart the Lord would protect me, but I still had a lot of fear. I began taking small twigs that were lying about and formed them into crosses on the ground in a large circle around my tent. I then asked the Lord to assign a thousand angels to each cross. With my perimeter thus protected, I began to feel much more at ease.

After a couple of days, I became brave enough to go for a walk in the woods. As I walked along on this beautiful sunny day, I saw a deer standing there about 20 feet from me. I thought to myself, ‘Why would Father Jack put a statue of a deer out here?’ Then, the deer twitched and I realized it was real. I felt kind of foolish. The experience then went from surprise and discovery to communion. As we were standing there, I realized we were two moms looking at each other. There was some kind of bond between us. The deer soon ambled away and I continued on, absolutely delighted.” (Sue Mayes, married, mother of two girls, and a lay member of CCL, on her first four-day wilderness retreat.)

While the retreat has Catholic sponsorship, Father Jack makes it plain that it is open to all individuals and groups who desire a few days in a special place of silence and prayer. On the grounds, in addition to dormitories and individual cabins, there are about 15 wilderness campsites, many along the Sheldrake River, for rare privacy.

All the conveniences of electricity are replaced by outhouses, sponge baths, propane and oil lamps.

Every building, including the chapel, was built by volunteer workers from the dozen or so Paradise-area families Companions of Christ The Lamb. Lumber was sawed from their own trees.

“While we are of Catholic sponsorship, we welcome anyone and encourage visitors to our grounds. Recently, we even had two Methodist ministers do a retreat here. We welcomed them,” Father Jack said.

To contact the retreat, call Chuck and Kathy Roelant, 906-492-3815 or write to CCL, Box 12, Paradise, MI 79768.

For Father Jack and his followers, that is more than an address. It is “Paradise Found.”