I had planned to spend the day going through the Scriptures with the students looking for instances of the laying on of hands, the anointing with oil and the role of the Holy Spirit in hopes of drawing insights to help them understand and appreciate all the more what would soon be happening to them. Sadly, these Scriptural aspects seem to be neglected in many preparation programs (I can't speak to the program at Blessed Sacrament parish; this is simply an observation I have of programs generally).
When I awoke Tuesday morning I decided to go in an entirely different direction with the students, if it would work (I brought the prepared ideas with me just in case). What I now wanted to do would require a lot of work and interaction from the students.
I arrived in time to visit with a few students from Sacred Heart-Griffin high school in Springfield who came to help with the retreat day and lead discussions.
When the 8th graders arrived I was very surprised at how rambunctious they were, even at an early hour. Almost all sixty of them. It was then that I realized that my initial plan would not likely go over well with this group.
After breaking them into groups, I gave them a few of my usual disclaimers:
- I speak quickly and don't often know it; if you can't listen fast enough, let me know and I'll try to slow down;
- I want this day to be fun, but that requires interaction on your part;
- if the day gets to be too boring let me know and I'll see what I can do to correct it; and,
- we're going to go deep today, because you can handle it and these are important questions.
We broke them up into groups of eight and set to work.
For the first order of business, I asked them to discuss in their groups what they wanted out of life and to be prepared to share it with the large group.
When the responses started coming I wrote them on a white board and addressed a few of them, boiling it all day to the conclusion that we all want the happy life.
Back in their small groups, I asked them to discuss what the happy life is - what it looks like - and to be prepared to share this with the large group.
We talked about these responses, which led into a good discussion about realitivism and it's obvious dangers and fallicies. In the end, we were able to boil the happy life down to life with an in God, taking Saint Augustine's excellent observation, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."
By this time it was time for Mass and then lunch.
After lunch I tried to go a bit further with them talking about the role of the Holy Spirit, but by this time they were worn out. They had excellent discussions in the morning and I think they simply thought too much, though they thought very well.
We returned to the church and prayed the rosary and they then received a letter from their sponsors. Once this was wrapped up it was time for them to return to school.
All in all, the day was excellent and I was very impressed with that group of eighth graders. Going into the day I knew they would either be interested or not; with that age, there isn't usually an in between. Thanks be to God they were interested.
After the retreat I received an e-mail from their teacher in which she thanked me for the day and passed on some of what the students said of the retreat:
The students responses were positive. They felt like you treated them like adults. I do believe the time was worthwhile. Thank you. Thank you also for being flexible.Working with young people really isn't too difficult. You simply have to treat them like thinking people and be flexible with them.
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