Some high school students wrapped up their summer at Discipleship Week, a diocesan retreat to help deepen their faith and hone their leadership skills.
There were presentations and small group discussions.
There were games and friendly competitions, including a relay race and a pool noodle joust.
There was free time in which the youth could do such activities as swimming, talking with newfound friends or spending time in the chapel. There was zip-lining, there was archery and there were roasted marshmallows over a bonfire.
But most found eucharistic adoration to be their favorite part of the retreat held Aug. 16-19 at Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center in Toano.
As 10th grader Sophia Killian from Christ the King Parish, Norfolk, explained, adoration “is powerful” because “not only do we reveal our self to Christ, but he is in our presence.”
“It’s just really nice being before the Lord, spending time with him,” said M.J. von Spakovsky, an 11th grader from Holy Spirit, Christiansburg. “He can do incredible things through adoration and during adoration.”
Twenty-four youth from 15 parishes across the diocese attended Discipleship Week. Packed with presentations, small-group discussions and recreational activities, the retreat was based on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) document titled “Living as Missionary Disciples,” explained Katie Yankoski, associate director for youth and young adults with the diocese’s Office for Evangelization.
“I think Discipleship Week is important to have because it gives teens who are in their second half of high school an opportunity to really learn what it means to be a disciple in a way that will stick with them for the rest of their lives,” said Yankoski.
“It also gives them a support system of meeting kids from other parishes in the diocese,” she continued, noting that being surrounded by peers interested in faith “changes something for them.”
Praying with peers
During the retreat, youth ministers from several parishes led workshops on developing witness talks, developing a rule of prayer and leading small groups. The teens sang worship songs and learned about saints, different forms of prayer and how to pray over others.
There was Mass, benediction, reconciliation, and praise and worship.
The retreat culminated with the diocesan middle school rally EPIC in Richmond Aug. 19, which the Discipleship Week teens had a significant role in leading. By doing so, they immediately practiced the faith-based leadership skills they acquired and did it in the community in which they learned the methods. Working with their peers makes it more fun and gives them the confidence to continue evangelizing, Yankoski explained.
“Discipleship Week was a good opportunity to get to come closer to God and be with my peers who also love God,” said Catherine Fraser, an 11th grader from St. Stephen Martyr, Chesapeake. Deepening faith with teens of the same age was a motivator to attend the retreat for 10th grader Kylie Morton, also from St. Stephen Martyr.
Following the USCCB document, the retreat addressed four areas of faith: encounter, accompany, community and sent. Using biblical references and personal experiences, Meg Hunter-Kilmer, writer and international Catholic speaker, explained the topics in her presentations.
For “encounter,” she said she asked the teens “to imagine what kind of man would have made a man like Zacchaeus run and climb a tree” and encouraged them to think about how they first met Jesus.
For “accompany,” Hunter-Kilmer recounted how St. Peter asked Jesus to save him in the walking-on-water account. She explained St. Peter needed to reach out to Jesus in that moment because nobody else was walking with him or encouraging him. She stressed that we are called to walk alongside others.
To emphasize the importance of “community,” she explained how the community of friends of a paralyzed man was necessary when they lowered him on a stretcher from the roof into a house where Jesus was teaching the Pharisees and teachers of the law.
For “sent,” Hunter-Kilmer used the story of Jesus commanding St. Paul to tend his flock and addressed how the teens could be missionary disciples as they share their faith with others.
Hunter-Kilmer said Discipleship Week is important because “a lot of times the evangelization for young people as Catholics is very focused on the experience in the moment, but it doesn’t give them action items … or any real practical understanding of what does it look like going forth from here.”
Ryan Castro, co-coordinator of the retreat committee and coordinator of faith formation, youth and evangelization at Holy Spirit, Virginia Beach, added, “We’re gathering kids from different parishes around the diocese, and we’re trying our best to equip them with a deeper spirituality and understanding of their spirituality, but also giving them things they can use in their parishes, in their youth groups, to bring things back home.”
“I have a lot of friends, and I want them to experience the sacraments like I experience them and how powerful they are to me,” said Phillip Brady, an 11th grader from St. Mark, Virginia Beach. “I want just to put them all in my car and take them to reconciliation, take them to adoration.”
Strengthening their faith
Von Spakovsky said, “The retreat made me more aware of aspects of my spiritual life than I wasn’t really of before, and it made it easier to make a plan to go forward.” He plans to strengthen his prayer life, bring his deepened spirituality and leadership knowledge to the community, and stay in a relationship with friends he made at Discipleship Week.
Brady said what resonated the most with him was when the teens prayed over each other in their small groups.
“I just felt like I could help others. I felt like I had an impact. I felt like my prayers were being directed towards helping my friends,” he said.
What most resonated with 10th grader Sarah Hansen, from St. Bede, Williamsburg, was prayer, personal discernment, and going to the chapel “when I went to bed and when I woke up.”
Izabella Rainaldi, a junior, from St. Stephen Martyr, said the retreat solidified the belief that “you’re allowed to feel emotions.”
“You can feel sad about something or angry at God, and you can talk to him about it and get through it,” she said.
Ariel Smith, a senior from St. Matthew, Virginia Beach, said she most enjoyed the stories of saints which emphasized that both ordinary and extraordinary people can become saints.
Rainaldi said she attended the retreat because “I was struggling in my relationship with God, so I thought this would help strengthen it, like it would be a renewal.”
It was.