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The newly confirmed candidates of the St Joseph RC Church, Scarborough gathered at the parish hall for their ‘Blueprint’ lock-in retreat on June 12.
This special overnight retreat, which lasted from 7 p.m. to 5.30 a.m., was successfully facilitated by their six catechists along with six guest speakers: Frs Peter St Hillaire and Mathias Mulumba Ssajjabbi, Ayanna Valere, Hayden Belton, Jerome Alexander, and Anna-Maria Baptiste.
This retreat focused on core aspects of Theology of the Body in five different sessions with breaks and refreshments in between each session.
The evening began with a welcome dinner followed by opening prayers and remarks from Frs St Hillaire and Ssajjabbi. In their message to the newly confirmed candidates, they reminded them that their milestone of Confirmation was not the end, but rather the beginning of their journey as young, involved adults in the Church. Each session, they said, aimed to help with different challenges they would face in building and living out their faith.
The first session by Valere and Belton explored the topic of ‘Friendship and Dating’. The speakers highlighted the biblical wisdom found in Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 and other verses on the strength found in godly relationships. They emphasised that setting and enforcing healthy boundaries and respecting the boundaries of others were the foundation of friendships. After the break, Belton began the next session on ‘Premarital Sex and Abortion’. He spoke on the beauty and seriousness of marriage, warning against the emotional, spiritual, and physical consequences of premarital sex, particularly soul ties. He also addressed abortion, explaining that life began at the point of conception and that life itself was sacred to God.
The session on ‘Pornography’ was delivered by Alexander, a representative of the organisation ‘Fight the New Drug.’ He presented statistical data on the rising levels of pornography viewing in T&T and spoke on the effects of pornography on a viewer’s brain, relationships, and its wider link to societal issues such as human trafficking. He ended his session sharing various websites and organisations that can help people break the addiction and correctly inform others about the topic.
The final session, on ‘Suicide’, was led by Baptiste. By examining various aspects of the life of Jesus through the lens of being fully human, she explained how we were called to handle suffering and disappointments in our lives.
She then stressed on the worth God sees in human lives, noting that Jesus did not commit suicide but instead sacrificed His life for us so that we could have life in Him and with Him.
She ended by sharing the early warning signs of suicide ideation, reminding participants of the support which can be offered by their home family and the church family. She also offered some websites and emergency contact information.
Early Friday morning, the retreat concluded with a reflective ‘Sip and Paint’ session, where participants were invited to express what stood out to them the most in the comprehensive and long but fun retreat. –Chinedum Nwokolo
