Directing a College Retreat

[PJD1987]

Hey everyone,

So I’ve been asked by my Catholic Student Union at my university to be one of the directors for Spring Retreat 2012. First of all, please pray for me!!! And for our community that we continue to grow and that the Lord will use us in ways to evangelize on campus and bring more young people closer to Him! Second, one of the first things me and my co-director must do is figure out a theme and Patron Saint for our retreat. Knowing my community and the young people it comprises, and through a lot of prayer, I’ve come to realize that there is a need for a recognition among us that A. We are all working together on the same path towards the same goal and B. We need some time for reflection on our own personal direction in our lives. I say this because we have a large group of freshmen this year, and the seniors are worried what the community will be like without them, they don’t see any leaders among the freshmen, and the freshmen are still in the beginning stages of their college faith journey and aren’t really aware that they are the leaders of tomorrow.

So, the two things I’ve been praying about are: the unity of purpose, and a direction to fulfill that purpose, namely taking the next step to “stand in the gap” if you will and approach our next calling of the Lord, whatever that may be, with humility, and the fortitude to take a leadership role.

I’ve been trying to find a Patron Saint that may fit those two criteria. So far, I’ve got St. Catherine of Siena, who of course did unbelievable work to unify the Church, but I don’t know if she is someone who really struggled with what her place was and what direction to follow. If you have any info on her, or any other suggestions for a Patron Saint that may fit the two criteria better, it would be really appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

God bless,
Paul

 

[fide]

Hey everyone,

So I’ve been asked by my Catholic Student Union at my university to be one of the directors for Spring Retreat 2012. First of all, please pray for me!!! And for our community that we continue to grow and that the Lord will use us in ways to evangelize on campus and bring more young people closer to Him! Second, one of the first things me and my co-director must do is figure out a theme and Patron Saint for our retreat. Knowing my community and the young people it comprises, and through a lot of prayer, I’ve come to realize that there is a need for a recognition among us that A. We are all working together on the same path towards the same goal and B. We need some time for reflection on our own personal direction in our lives. I say this because we have a large group of freshmen this year, and the seniors are worried what the community will be like without them, they don’t see any leaders among the freshmen, and the freshmen are still in the beginning stages of their college faith journey and aren’t really aware that they are the leaders of tomorrow.

So, the two things I’ve been praying about are: the unity of purpose, and a direction to fulfill that purpose, namely taking the next step to “stand in the gap” if you will and approach our next calling of the Lord, whatever that may be, with humility, and the fortitude to take a leadership role.

I’ve been trying to find a Patron Saint that may fit those two criteria. So far, I’ve got St. Catherine of Siena, who of course did unbelievable work to unify the Church, but I don’t know if she is someone who really struggled with what her place was and what direction to follow. If you have any info on her, or any other suggestions for a Patron Saint that may fit the two criteria better, it would be really appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

God bless,
Paul

St. Catherine was given a beautiful sense of the three “stages” of relationship with Jesus, whom she was given to see as the “Bridge” between man and God. Maybe this sense of Jesus as one who “stood in the gap” (as a bridge reaches over the gap) is an appropriate one for you. And maybe the three stages of relationship with Jesus would be appropriate for your community who are all very aware of the challenge of growing in Christ. They are being called to grow from the 1st to the 2nd to the 3rd stage - we are all called to holiness, and to the perfection of charity (Catechism 2013).

This “Bridge” was shown to Catherine HERE, in her Dialogue. The section I refer to is this:

How this Bridge has three steps, which signify the three states of the soul; and how, being lifted on high, yet it is not separated from the earth; and how these words are to be understood: “If I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things unto Me.”

Then the Eternal God, to enamor and excite that soul still more for the salvation of souls, replied to her, and said: "First, as I have shown you that for which you wished, and ask Me, I will now explain to you the nature of this Bridge. I have told you, My daughter, that the Bridge reaches from Heaven to earth; this is through the union which I have made with man, whom I formed of the clay of the earth.

Now learn that this Bridge, My only-begotten Son, has three steps, of which two were made with the wood of the most Holy Cross, and the third still retains the great bitterness He tasted, when He was given gall and vinegar to drink. In these three steps you will recognize three states of the soul, which I will explain to you below. The feet of the soul, signifying her affection, are the first step, for the feet carry the body as the affection carries the soul. Wherefore these pierced Feet are steps by which you can arrive at His Side, Which manifests to you the secret of His Heart, because the soul, rising on the steps of her affection, commences to taste the love of His Heart, gazing into that open Heart of My Son, with the eye of the intellect, and finds It consumed with ineffable love. I say consumed, because He does not love you for His own profit, because you can be of no profit to Him, He being one and the same thing with Me. Then the soul is filled with love, seeing herself so much loved. Having passed the second step, the soul reaches out to the third – that is – to the Mouth, where she finds peace from the terrible war she has been waging with her sin. On the first step, then, lifting her feet from the affections of the earth, the soul strips herself of vice; on the second she fills herself with love and virtue; and on the third she tastes peace.

So the Bridge has three steps, in order that, climbing past the first and the second, you may reach the last, which is lifted on high, so that the water, running beneath, may not touch it; for, in My Son, was no venom of sin. This Bridge is lifted on high, and yet, at the same time, joined to the earth. Do you know when it was lifted on high? When My Son was lifted up on the wood of the most Holy Cross, the Divine nature remaining joined to the lowliness of the earth of your humanity.

A contemporary book that describes these traditional “stages” in different ways is described HERE, if you might want to use/recommend a book for the retreatants and/or you, on the retreat.