This year marks the 10th year of our fall High School retreats. It’s funny thinking back to the first one, because it was actually the first retreat that I ever went to. At the time, I didn’t realize that it was the beginning of many ways that the Lord was moving in my life and in our youth ministry program as a whole. I was just a freshman at the time, so my agenda for this retreat was getting out of the house for a weekend so that I could hang out with friends. I had no intentions to dig any deeper in my faith, and I don’t remember much about that retreat. All I do remember is some stuff I did in my small group, and that some young adults came and pretended to be pirates at the beginning of it. I didn’t really surrender anything to the Lord on this retreat or make a huge commitment to live any differently, so it might seem like it wasn’t really important for me personally, but I would say that it might have been one of the most important steps that I’ve taken in my journey towards encountering the Lord. Coming into that retreat, I was a kid coming from a home that didn’t practice the faith at all. I didn’t go to Mass, didn’t know how to pray, and didn’t have any concept of who Jesus Christ was. In the end, I didn’t leave with a huge surrender to God, but I did leave that first retreat with was an openness to going on retreats, and experiencing things that the church offered. That openness was monumentally important because it did lead me to a deeper encounter with Jesus, and many conversions of my own heart.
Since that first retreat, our retreats have evolved with new ideas and new traditions that have shaped how myself and other young people in our community see God and live out their lives. I think overall, though, a culture that has been formed over time on these retreats is having a time and space to authentically think about life in a bigger way. So many times we don’t have an opportunity to think about who we really are and who God really is. Life is so filled with busyness that we can’t help but to get swept into. Especially, in high school when you have to first try to balance homework, work, extracurriculars, college classes, friends, family, etc etc. It can sometimes be impossible to set all those things aside and leave room for figuring out who God is and who He wants you to be. Even in our community, where most of us have had some sort of religious education in our formative years, it still becomes difficult to really grapple with these larger questions that each of us has to figure out. This difficulty in answering larger questions isn’t the fault of the education that we give our kids, but that education isn’t the same as having an actual relationship with God. That’s the biggest thing that these retreats help facilitate. That knowledge of Jesus Christ that any of our young people have can meet the actual person of Jesus. That each of their relationships with Him can be found there or grown there. In hindsight, after attending nine out of the ten retreats that we have had it’s been really amazing to see how much the Lord can work for each and every person on this retreat, just by making Himself known and by reassuring those on it that He knows them.
As our retreat approaches in the next couple of weeks I just ask that the whole Most Holy Trinity community can keep us in your prayers. Please pray that the Holy Spirit can be present on this retreat, and that all of us involved can be moved in some way to know and love our God in better ways than before.
God bless, Corey
Since that first retreat, our retreats have evolved with new ideas and new traditions that have shaped how myself and other young people in our community see God and live out their lives. I think overall, though, a culture that has been formed over time on these retreats is having a time and space to authentically think about life in a bigger way. So many times we don’t have an opportunity to think about who we really are and who God really is. Life is so filled with busyness that we can’t help but to get swept into. Especially, in high school when you have to first try to balance homework, work, extracurriculars, college classes, friends, family, etc etc. It can sometimes be impossible to set all those things aside and leave room for figuring out who God is and who He wants you to be. Even in our community, where most of us have had some sort of religious education in our formative years, it still becomes difficult to really grapple with these larger questions that each of us has to figure out. This difficulty in answering larger questions isn’t the fault of the education that we give our kids, but that education isn’t the same as having an actual relationship with God. That’s the biggest thing that these retreats help facilitate. That knowledge of Jesus Christ that any of our young people have can meet the actual person of Jesus. That each of their relationships with Him can be found there or grown there. In hindsight, after attending nine out of the ten retreats that we have had it’s been really amazing to see how much the Lord can work for each and every person on this retreat, just by making Himself known and by reassuring those on it that He knows them.
As our retreat approaches in the next couple of weeks I just ask that the whole Most Holy Trinity community can keep us in your prayers. Please pray that the Holy Spirit can be present on this retreat, and that all of us involved can be moved in some way to know and love our God in better ways than before.
God bless, Corey
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