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Youth retreat ‘life changing experience’

By Jim Imbur
Special to The Catholic Virginian

On a recent weekend five Confirmands from St. Mary’s in Lovingston and St. Francis of Assisi in Amherst attended a “Christian Awakening” retreat at the Benedictine Abbey in Richmond.

It was a life-changing experience for them, and they left Richmond Sunday afternoon spiritually enriched, smiling, and with a new-found sense of who they are deep down inside and what it means to live one’s faith.

“You had to be there!” is an overused expression, but in this case it is the most honest way of saying that I cannot find the words in the English language to describe what happened.

Fortunately, I was able to be part of the retreat as one of the adult group leaders although, just as the Retreat Director promised, there was little for me to do.

This is because it was a peer-ministered retreat, with participants from former retreats returning as the peer ministers in this one. Our Confirmands had people of their own age with many similar life experiences reaching out to them, listening, drawing them into open discussions about faith.

It was a very humbling experience for me, as many of these 16 to 18 year olds could run circles around some adults like me in matters of faith.

Four smaller groups were formed from the 25 kids, led by two-person peer teams. My group was led by Emily, an energizer bunny who can easily out-perky Katie Couric, and Maria, who exuded a deep spiritual peacefulness.

I was the token Adult Leader (great title, but no substance) so I tried to do what adults do best — look and sound very important. It didn’t work. I watched in awe as Emily and Maria flawlessly guided the group. As I said earlier, it was a humbling experience.

Saturday night’s entertainment was a series of skits based upon Bible stories but in contemporary formats.

Ash Wednesday’s gospel was about showing off when praying, so Mary was the hostess on the TV show “Holier Than Thou.”

In a version of the Good Samaritan, Matthew Vanison, who is on a first name basis with many of the medical personnel in Nelson County, gets badly injured in a collision during a hockey game. Gee, what a surprise.

When it came time to say goodbye, the kids were given a chance to speak before everyone about the experience of being on the retreat.

Matthew, the first one to speak, spoke so enthusiastically and long that I thought they were going to have to yank him away from the podium so others would have a chance to speak before sundown.

The second one to speak came from another parish but then, once again, two of our own came forward, Mary King and John Onestinghel. Three out of the first four! Our kids “did us proud!”

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