I am planning a retreat for 9th and 10th graders-overnight-and I would really appreciate some links to online planning resources. We have a really good Stations presentation given by one of the Franciscans at the retreat center, but I am always interested in finding better activities, ice breakers and liturgies for youth.
Many thanks and blessings upon your head…
PJR
SPOILER ALERT RE: CURSILLO!
First of all, when is the retreat going to happen? From the looks of it, it sounds like (with reference to the Stations of the Cross), it might be happening during Lent.
Second, let the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass be the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Creativity is never a good thing. The extent of creativity insofar as the Mass is concerned comes from the choice of readings and the propers. Have the kids learn the genuinely Traditional songs of the Church, especially the Lenten ones that the Church has sung for centuries. There is an English translation of the Attende Domine that I taught the kids during one of the Youth Cursillo retreats.
Let me borrow a page from the Cursillo that might work for you. The first night, we were divided into tables with 10 apiece. We could not sit with our friends. The people at our table were the ones we were going to be with for the duration of the retreat. Each table was named after a saint (in our case, since we were all young women, the saints were female. This was a good icebreaker because we did not know each other. Now, that is not to say that we did not get to know the rest of the girls. But, we needed to get together in smaller groups.
We then had night prayer in the chapel. The Liturgy of the Hours is a great form of worship for the kids to do. The retreat director (who was more like the facilitator) led both the Morning and Night Prayer. There was the opportunity to go to Confession after Night Prayer. In fact, there were opportunities all throughout the retreat. This is important for the kids to have.
The next day, after morning prayer, we had breakfast. The ones who did the cooking were the women who had previously undergone a Cursillo retreat. Here, we got to interact with everyone. But, once the actual retreat resumed, we went back to our groups. We had speakers cover topics such as sanctifying grace, actual grace, conversion, holiness, the Sacraments and even topics for young people (we were a mixed aged group, ranging from 16 to 50). While some of the Cursillistas made the presentations, the heavy-duty topics (actual and sanctifying graces and the Sacraments) were made by priests.
We had games, music and the chance to walk around the grounds.
Now, here comes the part where you need to take the most care: the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Here is where the leadership team failed and failed miserably. The songs were ot at all appropriate for the Mass. They were not even approrpiate for the season. We were in the waning days of Easter, but the music certainly did not reflect that, especially when we gathered for Mass on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. The music needs to be sacred and it should draw the kids deeper into the Paschal Mystery. It needs to help them realize that they are just as much there at the Sacrifice of Calvary as were the Blessed Mother and Sts. John and Mary Magdalene.
We did have a lovely dinner after Mass where tokens of appreciation were given to us. Unfortunately, when we resumed the discussion, and had our “open mike”, I was disappointed that the retreat team failed to note the fact that we were having our Cursillo during Pentecost, the feast of the Birth of the Church. The kids did not know what Pentecost really meant. That is one pitfall I strongly admonish you to avoid. Use this moment to teach the kids the season of the year and why the Church does what she does.
Holy Hour was also not very well done. The music did not match the solemnity and it turned what should be something sacred into a rally.
There were some good things about the retreat; however, the bad liturgies soured it for me.
