Kairos Retreat

The Kairos retreat is probably the single most defining experience and memory that I can think of in my life so far. Kairos, in a dictionary sense, means "the perfect, or opportune, moment" and the retreat is a spiritual (often Catholic) four day retreat that takes place during your junior or senior year of high school.

Some of you may have heard of this retreat or even gone on it yourself, as it is pretty popular throughout the country. In my church, it's student led by 8-10 student senior leaders, and usually accompanied by 3-5 adults who supervise the time and make sure things flow smoothly. I went on the retreat as a junior, and then led the retreat twice as a senior. It really is way too powerful to go into much detail over, as I could (and probably would) turn this blog post into a novel, but I want the audience to get the gist of what happens on Kairos.

The retreat is compromised of a multitude of activities, but the main element are the eight student-led talks that are given throughout the weekend. The talks are:

Know Yourself

Faithfulness

Ideals

Study & Prayer

Christian Leadership

Sacraments

Love In Action

And there are four accompanying adult talks as well:

LifeGraph

God's Friendship

Results of God's Friendship

Obstacles to God's Friendship

These talks are the most important element of the retreat, each one can range from anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour, and they are usually full of wisdom and profound theology. The talks always encompass some kind of hardship that the writer has faced and how their specific topic relates to their own life. The retreat gives kids a better idea of the faith that they claim to practice, and inspires them to choose for themselves what they believe. There are often tears shed, and small groups usually lead retreatants to feel compelled to share stories from their own lives as well. I could go on for days explaining the process or giving an overview of the talk I gave, but lets just save that for another time. If ya ever want to talk about it, or talk about anything, I'd love to chat.

Doubt, Cry, Trust, Live.