The “Encounter” Retreat is an essential component of the Year 11 Christian Service project “Prepared For All Good Works”.  It is the ‘reflection’ element of the project when the students are given the opportunity to spend an extended period of quality time reflecting on their four full days of Christian service.  It enables them to finish their written responses to the reflection questions in their journals and to share their experiences in a variety of settings – with one peer, in small groups and in a larger group.

This reflection process is then extended to “a theologizing process” whereby the students are encouraged to connect their experience with the Christian story.  Just like the Cardijn Y.C.S. method of see, judge, act, students, having shared their own stories and experiences then look at their experience in the light of the gospel.  This is the “judge” part, when they look at a situation and ask: “What would Jesus do?”

The final phase of this retreat calls on students to take further action – the praxis.  Having served others, and having looked closely at the gospel; having prayed and having made a commitment to on-going discipleship and to “doing justice”, students leave the retreat with a determination to commence their Senior Project and to be ‘prepared for all good works'.

Aims

• To provide some quality time for the student to reflect on their experience of Christian Service.
• To recall many of the minor and major incidents that happened during the experience of serving others.
• To bring each student to an honest appraisal of themselves, (especially in the way they responded to people in need), with both strengths and weaknesses, in a supportive atmosphere that will allow them to deal with both in a positive way;
• To awaken and deepen their personal love for Jesus Christ, and to provide a meaningful encounter with Him in prayer.
• To introduce the students to the Scriptures and to both personal and communal prayer in an experiential community setting;
• To develop their understanding that true Christian discipleship requires a commitment to doing justice;
• To provide an opportunity for students to make the connection between local issues and global injustices.
• To call youths to live their faith as active, vital members of the Church, a believing community.