Christian Formation
Cathedral Teens Retreat at Camp Stevens
Feb 23-25, 2007
The theme of our retreat was gratitude. We all decided to go to Camp Stevens, a retreat in Julian, to appreciate the earth and realize all the things we were thankful for back at home. We shared many spiritual experiences together. One of our favorite experiences on the retreat was when we hiked up a mountain, and sat on the rocks, grass, and twigs, and just enjoyed the sun and the earth. There, we meditated for 20 minutes. All of the kids had their own spiritual experiences during meditation, such as:
“I felt like the sun was coming closer to me.”
“I felt like I was morphing into the rocks.”
“I was in a different state. I felt like I was dreaming but I wasn’t asleep.”
“I felt more part of nature than ever before.”
Another activity everyone in our youth group enjoyed was the towering ropes course. On the ropes course, all of us worked together to make our way along the ropes without falling. Many were quite frightened and nervous about putting their lives in the hands of friends and ropes. Some of us were experiencing the “shakes,” and yet we all tried to tackle these fears and let God guide us across the unsteady poles and ropes being held by our fellow teen group members. Afterwards, we talked about how this ropes course made us realize how strong we are within and how we can conquer almost anything if we truly trust ourselves and God.
The most peculiar activity the camp leaders made us do was climb up a 12 foot wall, using only our group members. It was like a puzzle because we had to figure out who would climb and help out at the top and who would support people on the bottom and still be able to climb up. Each person was only allowed to help other people 3 times. It required faith, strength, and assurance in ourselves and others around us. The most challenging part was when little Jonny and Hannah had to put their knees together to lift 6’2’’ Alex to the top of the wall.
At the dining hall where everyone at the retreat met to eat all of the meals, we were given the chance to say a prayer. Since we are all teenagers, we put all our youthful energy into making a song, using all the instruments we brought and had available: a bass guitar, African drums, a piano, dancing feet, and our voices. We jammed for a while and people actually enjoyed our rhythm.
“Food for Livin’, Food for Lovin’
Food for women, Food for men,
We are grateful, We are grateful, We are grateful
A—men!”
Overall, we all came together at this retreat and shared different, but united spiritual occurrences. We are already looking forward to our next experience at Camp Stevens!
Peace
--Hannah Pierce and Cherish Burtson
