Passionist Youth Retreats - North Island 2006

The Passionist Youth Retreat held on 24 September 2006 began with the arrival of Agnes & Emily of the Passionist Youth Ministry Team from Melbourne. After a day sight-seeing around Napier / Hastings on the Saturday it was out to the back blocks of rural Hawkes Bay to Omatua Girl Guide camp in Rissington to await the arrival of the 33 ‘pilgrims’ from Wellington, Palmerston North, Fielding, Taranaki, Auckland, Tauranga & HB...

A great team of family group workers were on hand to assist with the welcome including Daniel McCormack & Alastair Lunnon who had attended previous youth retreats. Alastair rethreaded Emily’s 3 stringed, antiquated guitar which she had carefully transported over from Melbourne (you have to begin to know Emily to understand why this would happen!! Actually she grabbed the wrong guitar case on her way out the door as she ran to catch the plane from Melbourne ...minus toothbrush, towel & ???) and Alastair played the African drums while Emily warmed up. Daniel grabbed a ball to instigate a game of soccer and it was all on from then.

I (Norma McCormack of Napier) was joined by Linda & Paul Darbyshire of Palmerston North and between us tried to keep order and sense.....not sure if Paul (aka Paul-Patch) helped order the chaos or created it at times but he certainly kept everyone on their toes and his first job as fire warden was to sound the alarm gathering everyone together. The friendly camp warden introduced us all to the expectations of the camp and also the camp cat, Oscar, who became part of the retreat.

The adult attendants at the camp were amazed at how quickly the group of pilgrims bonded and got on with it. The first session had Agnes introducing the pilgrims to what ‘retreat’ was all about and then the ice-breakers began with Emily walking us round in circles talking about this and that (communication being the theme).

A very important person on our camp was Charlotte. She happened to be sitting opposite from me one Sunday in Mass as I was contemplating the complexitities of camp cooking and somewhere around the sign of peace I asked her if she would be available to help on the retreat. Imagine my delight when Charlotte not only offered to assist for a day but come out and stay for the entire camp and organise the kitchen. Not bad for a 19/20 year old. Charlotte also acted as our first aider on the camp and once she had roasted the 29 chickens we had purchased for the camp into submission, and vented her frustration at our inability to beat Linda & Emily at a game of Cranium, was definitely ‘one of the gang’!

Monday morning saw the arrival of a V.I.P. in the form of Kevin Hennessey cp who joined us with the comforting words that it was about 20 years since he had last attended a youth retreat. His presence was a very real blessing and following the very powerful reconciliation liturgy, the sacrament was able to be administered. Paul also assisted in this session by offering a blessing to those who wanted one. There is a photo of the wooden cross brought out to the camp especially for the retreat alight with candles – a truly living sign of Christs presence among us during that ceremony.

The sun shone throughout our camp and lunch was extended as the pilgrims took time out to explore the stream which ran at the bottom of the camp. Emily donned her togs and joined them once we reassured her there were no snakes or crocs lurking in the crystal clear water. Daisy chains, arm wrestling, soccer, log wrestling, make-up sessions, bullrush, spotlight, song and sunburn, wonderful combination.

Agnes & Emily covered communication, choices, masks, Johari windows, relationships & finished with an affirmation time. Before he left the camp on Tuesday afternoon Daniel addressed the pilgrims with some words of wisdom of his own. After advising them all to give EVERYTHING on offer a go, he very quickly suggested they NOT try EVERYTHING!

The pilgrims coordinated Eucharist on Tuesday night and all hats went off to Penny who gave a truly realistic depiction of the injured traveller while acting out the ‘Good Samaritan’ as she gave her head a good whack during the acting out of the gospel and we thought our first aider might have had to intervene as it was hard to be sure whether she was conscious or not!

Kevin taught everyone the sign language for ‘Jesus loves me, Jesus loves you, Jesus loves everyone’ and as the Mass ended he symbollically disrobed signifying our time together was beginning to come to an end.

Following Mass we presented Emily & Agnes each with a bone carving symbolising friendship and Kevin blessed these (a few tears were shed). Charlotte was also presented with a heart shaped pendant to remind her of her Passionist encounter and our thanks for her outstanding contribution. A very moving experience.

Agnes commented to the pilgrims that a recurring statement running through the camp was ‘but we came here to forget about our problems not dwell on them’. A reference to the reality of looking at self & relationships. She stressed the cross was followed by the resurrection...those candles symbolising hope.

And so the camp came to an end. The sun went away and it began to rain as everyone departed. The helpers who had come out to assist with the camp by bringing out fresh bread, preparing meals, aid with clean-up and transport people to buses were literally a God-send. We sent Agnes, Emily & Kevin off to the airport with many hugs and aroha and thank them for sharing themselves, and the Passionist charism, with us for those four days.

Click here to read some stories from those who attended

Norma McCormack Camp coordinator