Days 92-94: Really Small Retreats

When I say small, I mean ridiculously small. As in this next retreat, at St. Thomas More Academy in Middletown, MD had only 9 retreatants. Nine!! That’s less than a manny of ya there were!! It was the 8th grade class at this school, hence the size. At least I knew everyone’s name by the end of the retreat, and furthermore, they were a really cool bunch once they warmed up to us. After team prayer in front of the tabernacle, we left for the girls’ host home for dinner (Olive Garden!), we left for trivia night at a restaurant. I was on a team with my host family, along with Sarah, Nels, and Adam, while the rest of the team made a group. We made a sweet comeback as well that evening, from second to last to top five in a ten-team competition. Very solid outing, and a very solid night. . . From Northwest Maryland, we took off for St. Aloysius in Leonardtown, MD at around noon, a two-hour drive southeast. It was a later morning, which I was super grateful for, gave me time to relax and sleep in. With some time before the evening retreat, we were able to sneak in team prayer, practice some talks (trying to get another one approved, making it for talks), and played some more gravel/grounders. Finally, the retreat. It held around 28 retreatants, and I gave one of my talks for the first time about Righteousness! Basically it slaps youth in the face and tell them to go to confession. It worked, as when it came time, almost all the youth went, which is so cool! On top of that, our skits have become funnier and funnier, making it more entertaining for the team and the retreats. And for the evening, a rectory for the guys. Always a fun time, but we all knew what was happening the next day, so we went to sleep right quick. . . Finally, the day many of us were looking forward to: our first 12-hour retreat! It’s been on our schedule for awhile now, and it’s finally here: a 10am-10pm retreat for another 23 youth ready to be confirmed. It meant an early morning for us again, though, as we had to drive back up to where we originally were the day before in northwest Maryland. So we left at 6:00, and arrived right on time at 10:00am at a camp called Lake Summit in Emmitsburg, MD. It started off iffy, as confessions lasted from 10-12, even though it was only supposed to last from 10-11, and by the time we started, we rushed our opening session to get to lunch on time, since we were at another person’s site. Eventually we got back on track, and it ended up being really successful! We lost Monica before the retreat due to illness, but still had a really great time. I gave another Men’s Session talk that afternoon, and also led an adult chaperone small group. Plus i played basketball for the first time in what felt like forever with Evan and Moriah against some of the youth, and at the end when asked to share their experience in front of the whole group, many had an amazing time and truly found community because of us. Seeing the fruits of my labor immediately was so rewarding, and I’m grateful for the time we spent there. We packed up and headed to our homes for the night, which was an hour away. So in all, we didn’t get to bed till 12:30am with an early afternoon retreat tomorrow. How amazing God’s Grace is though, huh? So excited for what’s to come.