Retreat is a time where a person reflects on how he or she spent his or her life with God and the people around him or her. It is the time to know your classmates and friends better. A time to forgive and to ask for forgiveness to the people you have offended intentionally or unintentionally. It is a time to be close with God and to bond with your friends.
Our batch has its retreat last Saturday and Sunday, March 24 and 25, 2007. I bought my snacks a night before the retreat together with my girlfriend. The next morning, I arrived in school at around 8:00 in the morning as what was planned. We would all meet in school before going to the venue of the retreat. There was a little orientation about the retreat inside the classroom of IV- Tan.
I did not expect that the first part of the retreat would be in school. Our batch was grouped into two. The first batch stayed inside the classroom and forming a circle with their eyes closed and the second half stayed outside the circle that was formed of the first group. The person who stayed outside the circle would say something positive to the person in front of him or her and he or she would rotate to the next person and so on and do the same thing. Then the people inside the circle would exchange to the people outside and do the same thing. This activity is called Positive Stroking. Many of my friends cried because they never expected that they are like this and like that. They were like surprised with their personality. After the activity, we ate lunch and departed UP High at 1:00 in the afternoon to St. John’s Mission. This is a monastery and is where we would spend a night for the retreat. The road to St. John was very steep. The angle of the hill was like 70 degrees. The trip was very exciting.
When we arrived at the monastery, the boys and girls were separated. We had a separate quarter with the girls. I love the beautiful landscape of the venue. It was very peaceful and quiet and is really the perfect place for the activity. We had some talks in the conference room and I learned how to pray in the adoration. When it was 7pm, we all gathered and ate and after eating, we all took a bath except for some people. I was together with Janua when I took a bath.
After everyone was fresh, we again proceed to the conference hall and had an activity called Circle of Love. It was like an open forum. Everyone were given a candle to be given to the person they have hurt or who have hurt them. Many of my classmates cried and I can understand of course because this was a very emotional activity.
After the activity, we, the boys proceed to our quarters. We talk many things. We talked about love and even fart. We were laughing. me and my room mates slept at around 3 am in the morning. We had plenty of topics that we talked about and we even had magic tricks on cards. When i woke up at around 5 in the morning, I immediately took a bath and my eyes were very irritated. There was a mass at around 10:30 am and my girlfriend and me joined the mass. 12 pm was our departure time from the monastery to our homes.
The retreat was very memorable to me. It was only the time when my friends and me bonded compactly together. Retreat does not mean surrender. It is just backing down to reflect on the things we have done to be guided in our future life.
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