Fruit

More detail about fourth form retreat:

Update - The fourth formers went up to Dave (their religion teacher) and asked him to do another retreat because they liked the first one so much (!) They told me on my way into the rectory that they wanted another retreat also and I told them that they should have one but that I was retired haha It was beautiful to hear that they enjoyed it enough to want another one---we don't always get to see the fruits from the work we do here, so that was a big blessing.

This was the general outline for the retreat:

Theme
"You Shall Be My Witnesses"

-Morning -

• School Mass

• Walk to the retreat area while praying the rosary (about 10 people prayed the rest talked)Ice Breaker - Screaming Ninnies Tag and Lighthouse

• Teacher Impressions - (the kids did hilarious impressions of their teachers)

• Intro Talk (I talked about acting as a witness to Christ)

• Small Groups - Come up name for group and make a sign, discuss first talk. My group was great. They were very open and very interested in living out the faith in their lives. They talked about witnesses in their own lives and most of them talked about their mother or father who had inspired them in the faith. Our group name was "The Maniacs"

- Afternoon -

• Lunch (They gave us meat on a Friday! Ah!)
• Parable Activity- Each small group was given a parable or story from the Bible and had to act it out in silence for 3-5minutes (These ended up being amazing, creative, and hilarious)
• Talk on witnessing to Christ through the vocation of Marriage (Mr. D)
  
• Talk on witnessing to Christ through Religious life (A Sister and brother gave these talks)
• Desert Time/ Free Time: Students had time to be on their own and pray or if they wanted they could spend time with each other. (I prayed a little and then took a nap)
• Sports/Free Time
• Dinner Time (They brought fish this time--thank goodness)

-Evening-

• Night Game: Trigger (Three people act out a scene and each person is given a "trigger" that makes them react a certain way. Each person knows his/her trigger but does not know the other two actors' triggers and they all have to figure out what sets off each person and their reactions. It sounds confusing but once you start playing it works out well. This was a blast. At one point we had a teacher as a farmer, a student as a chicken, and another teacher as a cow...you can only imagine)
• Fr. M came and gave a talk about his conversion and then spoke about spiritual warfare which led perfectly into the...
• Skit! This was one of my favorite parts of retreat. This was very intense and we almost backed out of it several times but I knew it would be powerful. We practiced a few times a week for about two weeks after school as exhausted teachers but it was sooo worth it. We had a Jesus, Satan, and three people. I tried playing Jesus but it was so straining after just one day that I had to give it to someone else. Luckily, T, is a fantastic actor so he played the part excellently. It was all acted out in silence to a song.
  

Jesus creates the three people (bringing the women from the man's rib) and gives them breath and they beat their hearts. Then he creates a tree and they look at it, he creates rain and then gives them water to drink, and finally he creates a bird and they all look at it and smile, amazed. Next, Satan comes in and sits down tempting the girl to come over to his table (he was dressed in suit in order to be somewhat 'appealing' as sin often is). He temps the first girl with alcohol and when she finally gives in he puppeteers her actions. It is rather creepy, yet gets the point across well.

He then moves onto the next girl who he then gets to take a drink from the first girl (how sin affects others/peer pressure) and then gets her restless about her appearance (vanity). Finally, he heads over to the guy and tempts him with pornography. Meanwhile, Jesus is here the whole time trying to get their attention but they keep shoving Him aside. The guy's girlfriend comes in and sees him with a magazine and gets upset. He shoves Jesus out the door and shuts the door (we shut Jesus out). He then goes after her as if he wants to be physical with her (sin brings us into deeper sin if we don't get rid of it/work on it) and she pushes him (sin affects others). Satan then goes back to the first girl and brings her deeper into her sin by tempting her with drugs. He goes to the last girl (vanity) and keeps bugging her about her appearance until she freaks out and smashes the mirror in her hands (here the music gets loud).

All three people start freaking out to the music and Jesus kicks in the door with the Cross on his back. As the three people are being tormented by Satan (he brings them up, up, then they fall down), Jesus is walking with the cross on his back in front of them. All the while Satan is watching this and is getting nervous and weak. Finally Jesus falls and everyone falls with him except Satan. He is watching with a tired and haggard appearance as Jesus then takes the magazine and puts it as His feet (the nails in his feet) and Satan falls on one knee at the same time. Jesus then takes the bottle (alcohol/drugs) and puts one arm up like he is crucified on that side (Satan falls so he is on two knees at same time). Finally, Jesus takes the broken mirror and holds it in the other hand and Satan falls to the ground, defeated. Jesus stays in the crucified position for about five or so seconds and then comes down and picks up each person and "dusts" them off and brings them out of the room as Satan lies defeated on the ground. It was SO powerful. It was absolutely silent in that room after it was over...you could have heard a pin drop. This led directly into adoration.

Adoration - The Holy Eucharist was exposed in the monstrance and we sang a few songs. There was a great overwhelming peace that came over me at this point in the retreat. Next, the students received letters from all of their classmates, some of their teachers, and some received them from their parents. The letters encouraged each other and expressed affection and support. The kids were crying for the next hour or so. There were "tough" guys that had given me attitude the whole day that were crying in adoration and after receiving these letters. It was beautiful.

To be continued...