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First Youth Leadership Retreat
Peterborough August 13th – 15th, 2004
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From Friday August 13th to Sunday afternoon August 15th about 20 youth from around the Diocese came together at St. Anne’s Church in Peterborough for a Youth Leadership Retreat. It was a first such event in our Diocese and was designed as a training retreat for those who might be able and willing to take on some leadership role at our Diocesan Youth Days SONfest ’04 to be held within two weeks. The training sessions were led by members of YEO (Youth Evangelizing Others) from North Bay area, where YEO has over the last few years developed into a very successful and effective youth ministry group similar to NET (National Evangelization Team). Leaders presented talks and skits on the Catholic faith and stimulated quite a bit of discussion, sharing and exchange. Centerpiece of the retreat was an evening adoration on Saturday which was scheduled to last for about one hour, but due to popular demand was extended into the night until about midnight. It was amazing to see what this one-on-one time with Our Lord did for the retreat and its participants. Once we allow Jesus to talk directly to us, there is no telling what he can do for us and with us. We all could see the result of it the next day towards the end of the retreat, when one of the youth very spontaneously got up and shared with the rest of the group how Jesus, pretty much unknown to him until then, became very real to him, someone he could actually talk to and converse with. This is pretty much the idea of Catholic youth ministry and the mission of this Youth Office: to allow more young people to experience Jesus’ presence and to come to know him and his Church in a very personal way. The first leadership retreat, small as it was, was certainly encouraging enough to start planning ahead for more to come. Stay tuned.
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