Journey Retreat Celebrates Christ in the Eucharist

“I get to spend time with Jesus.”

For Rebecca Olson, a teenager from Our Lady of the Snows Parish in Dover-Foxcroft, the annual Journey Retreat is a weekend not to be missed.

She’s not alone.

“I like the whole experience. It’s hard to explain,” says Krystal, who attends Our Lady of the Valley, Saint Agatha. “Everyone just, they form this close bond with God, and it’s very special.”

Nearly 500 youth and young adults from Aroostook County to York County gathered at St. Dominic Regional High School in Auburn for the annual retreat which is a celebration of the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

“The Eucharist is always about thanks and praise. It’s always a sacrificial memorial of Christ and His body, and it’s always about the Lord’s decision, out of love for you and me, to create a remarkable way to be present with us always,” Bishop Richard Malone told the young people during the retreat’s opening Mass. “Jesus, on the night of the Last Supper, knew He was about to be arrested and crucified and would rise from the dead, and He wanted to give us a personal, deep, real way to experience His living presence with us.”

The annual retreat includes exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and perpetual adoration. There is also daily Mass, morning and evening prayer, the praying of the rosary and Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, reconciliation, workshops and teaching, and time for silent reflection and meditation — all designed to help the teens and young adults strengthen their relationship with Christ.

“It helps them to root themselves in not only a loving God, but a Church that is so rich in bringing about the love and the mercy of Jesus Christ,” says Father Robert Vaillancourt, the diocese’s vocations director. “I think the Church needs to continue to teach and to help our youth, all of God’s people, to truly be rooted in truth, in knowledge of not only who God is but what He wants to do for us and with us. Our God is a God who longs to hold us and a lot of these experiences, rituals, and sacraments, they are all encounters of a God who fiercely loves us.”

The youth say it is those rituals and experiences that make Journey stand out. They say it is different from other events they attend, which is why they come back year after year.

“It’s a lot more spiritual and stuff, but it’s more than that,” says Justin Kesteloot, who attends Our Lady of the Snows, Dover-Foxcroft. “It’s hard to explain. It’s more serious.”

“It seems like it does more to help people along their spiritual walk through life. It focuses more on that, where you need to focus in life, bringing you back to those places where you need to be,” says Marianna Bury, who also attends Our Lady of the Snows,

The theme of this year’s retreat was “He is there,” words often spoken by St. John Vianney who would often spend hours in adoration. It was chosen because St. John Vianney is the patron saint of priests and the Church is currently celebrating the Year for Priests.

The Journey retreat is also intended to help young people learn more about the priesthood and religious life and to help them discover their own vocation, whatever that may be.