Faith in Action

This week I helped lead a retreat for high schoolers called Faith in Action. Each day, our four teams of about ten students, one college-aged leader, and one adult leader headed out to different work sites, where we played games and did art with kids at a Boys and Girls Club, helped with Hispanic Ministry Vacation Bible School, painted at a youth shelter, visited and played games with the elderly, and cleared trails and a downed tree at Mount Saint Francis, the Franciscan retreat center where we stayed. Each day had a theme relating to the cross, and a morning talk set the tone for each day. In the evenings we had guided discussions to reflect on the meaning of what we'd experienced. We also created beautiful crosses out of copper with ever-so-patient Artist in Residence Guy Tedesco. It was an intense, sleep-deprived week of social justice work, but I loved seeing how the real-world experience of seeing Christ in others and nature touched these kids. They were a good reminder to me to be conscious of the presence of God "always and everywhere," as St. Benedict puts it.