If I told you that the weekend of January 21–23 I was away at the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s O’Dwyer Youth Retreat House with fifty or so people who were singing, crying, talking and, yes, even going out in the middle of the night to have an impromptu sledding party I daresay that you might not find it strange. But would you raise an eyebrow if I told you that there were not any young people on retreat that weekend?

The people taking the time to “play and pray” were actually the youth ministers who seized the opportunity to nurture their prayer lives and personal spirituality by participating in the bi-annual Youth Ministers Retreat which was sponsored by the Division of Youth and Young Adult Ministry. Paid and volunteer, rural, suburban and urban, the youth ministers came together to share their stories and faith journeys. They also found in doing that they where challenged to look at their priorities and prayer lives.

Kate Kleintank, a newlywed and youth minister at St. Mark’s Church in Catonsville, stated, “I went to renew and refresh myself. It gave me the opportunity to reflect on my own call to youth ministry. However, it also challenged me to reflect on youth ministry in its appropriate place in the larger context of my life. I was reminded that my husband married me, not my ministry. It gave me the chance I was looking for to reflect on who I am and what grounds me.”

The retreat was lead by directors Steve and Jenni Angrisano. The overall theme to the retreat was taken from the Gospel of Matthew, “You are the salt of the earth . . . You are the light of the world.” This theme was creatively broken open during the prayer services and five sessions by examining the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary through storytelling, journaling, singing, small group sharing, and prayer. By reflecting on these five pivotal points in Jesus’ public ministry, the community was challenged to ask themselves: “What are some of the barriers to believing that I am ‘beloved’?” “Who invited me to ministry?,” and “How do I find my way out of the desert?,” and “Do I sit in awe at the feet of my loving God?” One of the most poignant and passionate moments on the retreat was Steve Angrisano’s witness to the need for ministers to be sacramentally oriented and challenged us to nourish ourselves by turning to Christ in the Eucharist.

Christ very clearly instructed his disciples that they should “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”(Mk 6:31) When was the last time you . . .

• Took care of yourself?
• Allowed yourself to relax and play?
• Remembered to participate in a prayer service rather then planning it?

Sarah Holst, middle school youth minister at Pius X parish, reflected, “It was a weekend of ‘soul tending.’ So often we tend to the prayer lives of and souls of others . . . it was healing to tend to our own.”