Trailblazers Retreat Conferences, Table of Contents

   April 18-20, 2008

Talk 1: How Teens Should Do a Retreat for Three Days

(This conference serves as the introduction to the retreat.)

Pope Benedict XVI is in the United States of America right now as we speak. He is here accepting an invitation to address the United Nations, whose headquarters are in New York city. He brings many blessings upon our land, and it is very providential that the dates we set aside for this retreat are the same dates that the Pope is in America. He visits us in America, while we in America prepare to see him in Australia.

Last February, the Pope was speaking to the Italian Federation of Spiritual Exercises.  This group evidently promotes something called “spiritual exercises.” What are they? Exercises are a type of extended retreat. They were invented by St. Ignatius of Loyola, a Spaniard, the founder of the Jesuits, centuries ago. He would take only one person in complete isolation and help that person meditate on the four following great ideas: first, “principle and foundation,” meaning the mysteries of original sin, personal sin, time, eternity, judgment, heaven, hell, purgatory, and other such. Second, the life of Christ. Third, his suffering and death. And finally, the resurrection, the Church, and one’s vocation in this Church, which is a vocation to holiness.

I mention all of this because in the following lines, words of the Pope, he says much which is of great interest to us for these three days of “mini-exercises.”

 He said to them,

It Italy, while multiple spiritual initiatives providentially increase and spread primarily among the youth, it seems… that the number of those who participate in true courses of Spiritual Exercises decreases.

It is worth remembering that “retreats” are an experience of the spirit with proper and specific characteristics, well summarized in one of your definitions which I gladly recall: “A strong experience of God, awakened by listening to his Word, understood and welcomed in one’s personal life, under the action of the Holy Spirit, which, in a climate of silence, prayer and by means of a spiritual guide, offer the capacity of discernment in order to purify the heart, convert one’s life, follow Christ and fulfill one’s own mission in the Church in the world.”

Along with other forms of spiritual retreat it is good that participation in the Spiritual Exercises does not slacken, characterized by that climate of complete and profound silence which favors the personal and communitarian encounter with God and the contemplation of the Face of Christ.

            The Pope therefore gives several important indications which would serve us well to notice as we begin this retreat. This retreat is, in a sense, “spiritual exercises for teens.” Pope Benedict XVI has us reflect on these points:

• There are many spiritual initiatives for youth, but a lamentably small number of them attend to the interior lives of teens. It is as if many adults, or priests, or entire parishes, forgot that you have minds and souls, that you too wish to be free of sin and aspire to heaven, that you too want to make a difference in the world, a difference that’s in favor of God. For it is impossible to grow in the interior life without prayer; and with no prayer, there are no fruits, fruits either in our souls, or fruits in the world around us.
• Second, the Pope stresses several aspects of a good retreat, naming these:
• Listening to the Word of God. That’s why we will hear lots of scripture in these next few days.
• Docility to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is an important topic this retreat, because of the fact that World Youth Day’s motto is, You will receive power from on High when I send my spirit upon you, and you will be my witnesses. So we need to know him, love him, worship him, listen to him, obey him.
• There is a spiritual guide. Treats always need a guide, lest we float around in the great sea of thoughts and feelings, and never make any progress in the direction our heart and soul need to, long to, go.
• The goal is to convert and to fulfill one’s mission in the Church and in the world. What is your mission? Where is God leading you? Do you realize that no one can fulfill your mission except you? Did you know that God can do great things with the most humble of instruments?
• Finally he stresses some qualities, characteristics of a good reatreat:
• Profound silence. Notice, he doesn’t say, “silence,” but “profound silence.” Silence even inside your soul. That is why silence will be an important part of your retreat: so you can have this profound, deep encounter with God, not distracted with so many exterior noises. We will visit, however, during meal times, as part of the purpose of this retreat is to meet one another before we travel to Australia together. And in that sense, it would be good if you learned everybody’s name during these three days.
• The encounter with God is both personal and communitarian. Don’t forget to respect other people’s silence. If someone is talking during a time of silence, have the charity to help that person return to a climate of silence. Also, don’t just pray for your own needs, and your own families, and your own problems. Pray also for each one of the other Trailblazers who will journey with you to Australia, on the far side of the globe.

That should be enough to set our hearts high, to keep our interior selves in tune to God, to help us not only pray, but to want to pray. World Youth Day would be a bad experience for someone who went in with his interior self asleep. On the contrary, it can be the best experience of your lives, if you go in tune to the thins of the spirit.

For there are many fun things to occupy our time and schedule in Australia. One can’t go to World Youth Day and not have fun. We’ll go to another country, eat strange foods, meet hundreds of thousands of Catholic teens and twenties from every nation on earth, we’ll see many things and participate in many activities. But all that is just the outside. It needs to be energized by grace, like a lamp is useless unless it is plugged in to electricity. And see: our sockets have three points of connection; similarly, your interior life needs to be plugged into the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, or it will be a pointless thing.

Now let us move on to some of the more practical points of our retreat, how it will be, both spiritually and practically, so we can guarantee ourselves success.

• TAKE NOTES. Don’t let God’s graces come in one ear and go out the other. Write down inspirations, things that strike you, a prayer you wish to compose on your own, something about which you’d like to speak in spiritual direction or confession, to-do’s during the trip to Sydney, Australia, goals for your spiritual life this year, etc.
• About silence. Silence means not speaking. But that’s only the exterior part of it. For a person who observes silence isn’t one who just “doesn’t talk,” but it’s one who chooses with whom he speaks. Speak with God. Tell him everything that you want to say. Tell him your impressions, the new lights you just got, tell him if you’re finding it hard, ask him for help, expose to him your problems with great honesty. In response you will find that God only loves you, and you should trust him. The purpose of silence is to help you turn into your interior, and there you will find God. We will speak from after the prayer before meals to the prayer after meals, and at no other time. Those who have come with chaperones may speak to them, but only about practical matters at hand. Leave the rest for discussion together later. If you need to excuse yourself, by all means say something to one of the adults before you disappear. It’s not against silence to say “bless you,” to one who sneezes, to ask for a pen if yours runs dry, to say “excuse me” when necessary, and so forth.
• There will be a box available for you to put notes in, and I will read them. You may put anything in there: your personal reflections, questions for our “Questions and Answers” session on Sunday Morning (good if you wish to raise a point without doing so in the sight of everyone else), or comments on any of the talks. Also, on Saturday morning and on Sunday morning I will be available for spiritual direction. Spiritual Direction is when you talk to a priest, not just like in confession, that is, when you discuss your sins, but when you wish to discuss other things: personal questions, decisions about your state in life, prayer, situations about which you want either advice or counsel, and so forth. If you wish to speak with me, I’ll do my best to get some time with everyone who so asks during this retreat. On Saturday afternoon, we will have an extended period of time for prayer, during which three or four priests will be available for confession, and I hope everyone takes advantage to go.
• There will be a number of “free times” on the schedule. These are not so we can go into the gym and shoot hoops, or to tell jokes or visit with our neighbor – after all, we’ll have time for that at meals, and the rest of the time we should be in silence – but rather for any personal need. Stopping in the restroom, writing in your spiritual diary, take a few notes as points of discussion with your friends after the retreat is over, maybe some of you have certain private devotions which are not part of this retreat and you wish to have some time to do that, etc.
• These days are not days for the playful, perhaps immature, side of us to come out. These are days of serious interior work. The time for recreation and fun is later. I don’t take it very lightly to find youth who at night think it is somehow cute, or funny, to cause mischief at night. Sleep, and sleep with the angels.
• At night time, the young men and young women will be in separate parts of the building, for modesty. Whoever has the turn in the upstairs rooms will have the opportunity to shower in very good showers, which we’ll show you each night. Also, they will have nocturnal adoration in shifts. The ladies will be upstairs tonight, the men tomorrow night.
• For showers, please also observe silence in the shower room as well. The showers have stalls before them, where you can change with privacy; please do not come out of the stall without being dressed modestly, tops and bottoms.
• For adoration, there will be a sign up list, and each should take a half hour. If you do it in twos, that’s the best. The chapel will be in one of the classrooms upstairs, so you can sleep in one room, and when it is your turn, go to the chapel. You might wish to tell the person before you, on the sign up list, where you are, so they can wake you up. That would help minimize the number of alarm clocks going off through the night. If you do adorations in twos or threes, then one can go wake up the next shift a few minutes early, while the other stays attending to our Lord in the Host. The Eucharist in exposition should never be left alone.
• There is food on a food table: eat whenever you like, except during the talks and sacraments. Eat a lot! Young people need food, and everyone burns more calories doing mental work than just sitting there without that mental work. You need energy to be on your best during this retreat: leave fasting and dieting, I recommend to you, for another day. If you have your own food to keep you, feel free to eat it. Whenever you eat, please clean up after yourselves, attentive to crumbs, wrappers and spills; do so out of charity towards everyone else.

In Summary:

The Pope stresses very much how important it is for young people to pray, to go on retreats, and to experience silence.
• Set your goals high, for the spiritual and interior results you long for. Why not try to love God above all things? Who says you cannot obtain the greatest heights of mystical union with God?
• The results of this retreat should be two: your holiness, and a greater zeal to spread the Gospel in today’s world.
• Finally, I mentioned practical details about each of these aspects of the retreat: taking notes, silence, the questions box, confession, spiritual direction, how to use your free times, maturity in your conduct, showers, nocturnal adoration, and food.