There are two Greek words for time: chronos and Kairos.  Chronos emphasizes duration, succession of moments, chronological time.  Kairos does not.  Kairos is the Lord’s Time, and is judged, not by its succession or duration but by its value, the intensity of the experience of God’s presence in the midst of the Christian community. Kairos as a retreat is a three day lived experience of Christian community for high school seniors.

The Kairos Retreat program is basically an adaptation of the Cursillo for teenagers, but one extraordinarily appropriate and cohesive in its theology, philosophy and psychology.  Originally called the “Christian Awakening Program”, it was developed in 1965 by a team of priests, brothers and laymen under the direction of Fr Douglas Brown of the Diocese of Brooklyn.  In 1970 it was brought from Brooklyn to St. Xavier High School in St Louis to the Diocese of Joliet by Fr Robert Colaresi, O.Carm., Principal of Joliet Catholic High School in the 1975-76 school year.  In the autumn of 1981 Kairos was introduced to Providence High School, New Lenox. It was Providence High School that helped Br Rice High School, Chicago, hold its first Kairos Retreat in February, 1987.

In 1997 Brother Rob Callen participated in several Kairos Retreats in the U.S.A.  And in July, 2002 Bellarmine Prep from San Jose California, brought the first Kairos Retreat to Trinity College, Perth. In 2006 the Trinity College Students and staff acted as leaders and initiated our first Kairos Retreat at St Norbert College in Queens Park.

Aims:

• To give the candidate an experience of Christian community;
• To open the eyes of the candidate to their own goodness, as well as to the goodness of their God, their families and their friends;
• To bring each candidate to an honest appraisal of themselves, 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 the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist;
• To introduce the candidates to the Scriptures and to both personal and communal prayer in an experiential community setting;
• To develop Christian Leaders;
• To provide youth (the team Leaders) with an experience of ministry;
• To call youths to live their faith as active, vital members of the Church, a believing community.