In the late fall and early winter, 35 students set aside their academic stresses and embarked on an impactful three-day Christian Awakening Retreat.
Participants took advantage of a great opportunity to leave behind their comfortable day-to-day lives and dove deeper into self-discovery and their spiritual journey. The feedback was universally positive and students described the retreat as life-changing and a safe space to embrace vulnerability.
A central factor of the retreat experience was the experience provided by senior student leaders, who guided their brothers throughout the three days. Harris Overton and Liam Whelan all lead the first retreat of the year and had equally formative experiences as the students and were thankful for the opportunity to see retreat from a leadership perspective.
While the retreat experience as a junior is meaningful, the long-lasting impact that results from being a student leader is incredibly unique.
“The experience of leading a retreat daresay had a larger impact on me than being a participant,” Overton said. “Being a vessel to others’ retreat experience is something that I am so thankful for. Watching the guys, whose shoes I was in last year, visibly grow spiritually is something that I will never forget.”
The senior leader experience, while impactful, is much different than first-time participants. If you’ve been on retreat, you understand quickly why everyone raves about the experience, and why retreat alumni reveal nothing to those who’ve never been.
It’s something you can’t quite put into words and need to immerse yourself into to truly understand it. Senior retreat leader Liam Whelan was inspired to guide juniors whose shoes he was once in this past month.
“The leaders are constantly told not to go on retreat a second time to relive their experience, but to help those juniors and seniors in your group grow in their faith life and as a person,” Whelan said. “The fact that I had the chance to make an impact on the lives of the retreatants is what sold me to become a student leader. The leaders from my retreat as a junior were embodiments of what I aspire to be as a person and I hope the guys I led felt the same way during our time on the Mount.”
Every student that’s been on retreat should consider signing up to be a retreat leader. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing firsthand the growth of juniors during the Christian Awakening Retreat over the course of just a few days. The Christian Awakening Retreat has and will continue to serve as a main highlight of the careers of St. X students.
