REVIVE YOUTH RETREAT!!!

Hello everyone!

Marc-André again here to tell you about our retreat weekend we just had July 26-28. What an amazing weekend it was!

We were a bit nervous leading up to our youth retreat. The week beforehand, we had only 6 people registered for the retreat, which was still enough to put the retreat on, but we had 11 volunteers coming from out of town to help out. But hey, the theme of our retreat was “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” Matt. 19:26. So we prayed and fasted together for more youth to register for the retreat. We also prayed a novena together to St. Rita with our intention being for the youth to encounter Christ in a personal way on the weekend and to give their lives to Him. If St. Rita fulfilled the intention we asked of her, we promised to make her achievement known by publishing it in the local newspaper. Well, after writing this blog, I’d better get on to the newspaper article!

All of our participants as well as the volunteers for our youth retreat, with the notable exception of Ed Bohncke, who is humbly taking the picture.

By Friday, we had 15 people registered for our retreat! It was amazing! All of the volunteers who came were awesome and had a key role to play on the retreat, whether they had to lead a small group, play in the worship band, act in the skits, give a talk, or be prayer warriors during the weekend. Everyone fit perfectly into their God-chosen role! He made everything very possible!

The talks for the weekend where based on the four-point gospel message:

1. We are created for a relationship with God

2. Our sin breaks this relationship

3. Jesus restores this relationship

4. We choose whether or not we want to accept Jesus to restore this relationship

The youth were very receptive to the talks. Unlike our youth group nights, they were quiet and attentive to the speaker throughout each and every talk.

On Saturday night, we had Eucharistic adoration, which was the highlight of the weekend. During the adoration, reconciliation and prayer ministry were offered. We had asked four priests to hear confessions that night, and we had some doubts whether or not we would actually need four priests. But God makes all things possible, right?

Almost all of the youth went to confession! There was a line-up the whole night. Some had never even been to confession before! I asked one of the youth how he felt after his confession. He told me, “It was like I got rid of all the dirt I had inside.” What a grace! Many of the youth went to be prayed over by the prayer ministry team as well.

Also during adoration, we had commitment prayers to Christ laid out in front of the altar. Many of the youth came up to the front and prayed the commitment prayer for the first time! To reiterate something John Paul II said at a World Youth Day celebration, these are the saints of the 21^st century!

Overall, it was an AWESOME weekend!!! Some of our volunteers who were there will be posting about their experience of the retreat, so stay tuned for those posts!

Thank you so much for reading this blog! Please continue to pray for these youth that they nurture their relationship with Christ.

God bless you all!

Marc-André