Matt Talbot Group #110 -  A History of Our Retreat

Based on the oral account by Paul W. given at the November 2025 retreat.

It's an honor to share a little about how this retreat got started.

Back in the late '80s, early '90s, one of the Water Walkers members had a beach house down in Rosarita. A group of ten or twelve guys spent the weekend there and had a fantastic time. When they came back Monday night, everybody was flying high. That trip planted a seed.

The guys got together, remembered what the Big Book says about retreats, and decided to put something together formally. They found a place up in Julian called Raintree Ranch — a YMCA kids' camp with a big common living and dining area and rooms full of bunk beds. It was rustic, to say the least. The ground was raw concrete, and the footing wasn't great. A few of the older members — Bill O'Brien, Dr. Don, Bob Burns — were at the age where a stumble could mean a real injury, which eventually prompted the group to look elsewhere.

And full disclosure: one of those early Raintree weekends featured bean burritos for Friday dinner. The results were memorable. Blazing Saddles on steroids. You live and learn.

The retreat at Raintree had no formal structure — just conversation in small groups during the day and a sharing meeting Saturday night. No agenda, but it worked. You got out of the mayhem of daily life, and that was the point.

Prince of Peace Abbey

From Raintree, the group moved to Prince of Peace Abbey, the Benedictine monastery in Oceanside, just above the airport. The monks were welcoming and genuinely curious — Brother Blaze, the beekeeper, and one of his fellow brothers asked if they could sit in on the meetings. The spirit was right. But the abbey had a hard cap of 25 men, and as the group kept growing, it became clear they'd need a larger venue. [Note: This cap was later removed.]

San Luis Rey Mission and Vina de Lestonnac

The next home was Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside — the King of the Missions, the largest of the 21 Spanish missions built along the California coast. It's a beautiful setting, built around a sweeping courtyard, and it already had a history with recovery: recovering priests hold their own annual retreat there. The group stayed at the mission for several years, until 2006, when they came to Viña de Lestonnac in Temecula -- where they stayed until 2026, when that venue grew too costly and convinced the group to move back to Prince of Peace Abbey (its current home).

Bill O'Brien

The driving force behind all of this was Bill O'Brien. Bill had 49 years of sobriety when he passed — 49 years, with two broken candles. The story: he got four years sober, went out for two days, came back and was told he had to start over. A couple of years into his new count, he pushed back: "I had four years before, and now I have two — shouldn't I be taking six?" They said fine, but they'd be breaking two candles. And that's how he told it from then on: 49 years, two broken candles.

Bill belonged to Matt Talbot Group #3, and it was Bill who brought us into the Matt Talbot family. Today there are over 200 Matt Talbot groups across the United States, most of them on the East Coast. Three are in California. We're Group 110.

Who Was Matt Talbot?

Matt Talbot was born in 1856 and died in 1925 — fourteen years before the Big Book was published. He grew up in Ireland, one of twelve children, second oldest. By age twelve he had to quit school to work. His first job was with a wine merchant; his second, a whiskey merchant. By thirteen he was a full-blown alcoholic, and he stayed that way until he was twenty-nine.

During those years he worked periodically, and whenever he had money he spent it freely — buying rounds for everyone at the bar, generous to a fault until he had nothing left. Eventually he was unemployable, sitting outside the pub, waiting for friends to stake him. One day, nobody did. They all walked past.

That was the turning point. He went to church and took a 30-day pledge not to drink. That pledge became 90 days, then another 90, and before long he had a year. He attended Mass daily, read religious literature, and slowly rebuilt his life. Once he was working again, he turned everything he earned — his money, his time — toward helping others who were where he had been. Everyone in Dublin knew Matt Talbot.

When he died in 1925, they found his body on the way to church, wrapped in chains he'd worn beneath his clothes — an act of penance and devotion to the Virgin Mary.

In 1975, Pope Paul VI declared Matt Talbot "Venerable," the formal step in the Catholic Church that precedes beatification and, eventually, canonization. The purpose of the Matt Talbot groups is to pray toward that end — that Matt Talbot will one day be recognized as the patron saint of alcoholics.

Prayer for the Canonization of Matt Talbot

Lord, in your servant Matt Talbot, you have given us a wonderful example of triumph over addiction, devotion to duty, and 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 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.

Jack Dalrymple

One more person worth naming: Jack Dalrymple, who came out to our retreat every year from Egg Harbor, New Jersey — twice a year, flying cross-country to be here. Jack had been to Matt Talbot retreats on the East Coast, but something about this one caught him. He turned in his medallion from his home group and asked for a Group 110 medallion instead. He wanted to belong to this one.

Jack said what a number of retreat leaders over the years have echoed: there's something special here that we need to protect and keep going.

Carry It Forward

If you had a good weekend — if something happened for you — grab a sponsee, grab a friend, and help them get to the next Matt Talbot retreat. That's how we keep this going.