Passionist Youth Retreats - South Island 2006

On the 28th of September a large group of nervous teenagers travelled down from Dunedin, Christchurch, Ashburton and Wanaka, to Waihola Christian Youth Camp for a youth retreat. This was lead by Agnes Lichtor and Emily Walter from the Passionist Youth Retreat Team from Melbourne.

We started off with ice breakers to get to know everyone else, and then moved on to look at communication skills. Then we looked at our life journey so far, our relationships with family and friends and where we see God in our life. We then shared this in small groups, and no one was pressured into saying anything they didn’t want to which was good.

On the second day we learned about Johari windows, which are the open, hidden, blind and mysterious parts of our lives. We then shared parts of this in our small groups and we learnt about removing our masks and revealing who we truly are and not worrying about what anyone else thinks.

That night during a Reconciliation Liturgy we each anonymously finished writing this sentence: “Sometimes I feel no good, maybe it’s because…” After we had all placed them in a bowl Agnes and Emily read them out to us. It was really amazing listening to what others had written, and to find out that each had felt the same way as others.  We all found this experience really powerful. We were then offered the chance for individual reconciliation with Fr Gerard or Fr Damian. It was an awesome experience.

In between sessions we socialised by playing air hockey, table tennis, soccer, touch, table soccer and going on the flying fox. At night lots of people joined in the awesome sing-a-longs lead by Mr Hook.

On the Saturday morning we were lead in a meditation by Agnes. This was also an amazing experience for everyone at the retreat. After this we thought about our life and the changes we have had to go through. That night we participated in a Mass. Almost everyone at the retreat was involved in helping with different parts of the Mass and in the preparation for it.

Over the 4 days we had been given the chance to go out by ourselves and write in our notebooks. This was a great way to reflect on our lives and we enjoyed the quiet times to do this. On Sunday morning we each passed around our notebooks and wrote positive and encouraging words about everyone. This was really cool to see what others thought about us and admired.

Everyone found the retreat a wonderful experience and very enjoyable. We all loved the time we spent getting to know each other and Agnes and Emily. We had a great time and would like to thank everyone who made it possible for the retreat to happen. We are looking forward to the next one!!!

Written by Katie, Katherine, Michaela and Linnea

Some comments from young people who attended the retreat:

“I really enjoyed taking time out to reflect…”
“It was an amazing once in a life time experience.”
“I learnt about myself, why I am the way I am, who God is to me, and about removing masks and so much more.”
“I’m so glad I went and I had a really amazing time and I sure learnt a lot ….”
“It was such an amazing experience, thank you.”