Friday, March 5, 2010

SEARCH!!!
















This weekend over 50 college students from St. Paul's Newman Center will be attending the Spring SEARCH retreat. The title of this retreat is, "For this I was born, to testify to the Truth." For several weeks now dozens of students have been preparing to shepherd their peers as Directors (a young man and young woman); presenters of topics about the faith and personal experience of living the faith; hospitality; and a range of other ministries. I've been truly inspired by how much prayer, thought, and time has gone into every aspect of this retreat experience. This retreat is "put on" by the college age students themselves for their peers. It is definitely one of the most successful retreat experiences in our diocese! I've noticed that many of those leading this retreat were searchers themselves last Fall! All of them have regularly participated in mass, night prayer, and campus ministry. The fruit of their prayer, the daily living of their lives with a contemplative eye, is that the testimonies that they give is so real. The potency of the retreat flows from the willingness of everyone involved to be vulnerable, humble, and honest with their experiences. What a call to me and to all of us about taking the "stewardship of the mysteries of God" seriously. What is striking and attractive about this retreat is the joy that permeates every aspect of it. I'm always encouraged when the searchers return to see the genuine community that is born of the experience, very much like witnessing Penticost all over again. Pope John Paul II recognized the power of youth, and the youthfulness of the Church. This weekend let us all consider why our lives are so exciting, challenging, and meaningful, "we were born to testify to the TRUTH!" May this Lent be for us a SEARCH experience, an entering into the mystery of our relationship with God in a deliberate concerted effort with a view to passing on the truths of our faith with our peers, those who live with us, those who are new to us, to all who overtly or not are searching for the Truth that will set them free!