Ring in the New Year with an ‘explosive’ youth retreat

By Ambria Hammel, The Catholic Sun
December 7, 2006

Explosions from firecrackers, party poppers and champagne bottles are sure signs New Year’s Eve is upon us.

The Phoenix Diocese is offering another kind of “blast” that night just for young adults, an event organizers hope leads to an explosive surge in faith.

Young Catholics throughout the diocese are invited to the first C4 New Year’s Retreat, Dec. 29-Jan. 1, 2007, at the Young Life Camp in Williams. Sponsored by the diocese and the Franciscan University of Steubenville, the four-day event will provide a practical look at how young adults can find meaning in their lives and be of value to the Church and community.

“A lot of them just kind of drift because the Church isn’t clearly speaking to them on their need and their giftedness and what they can bring,” admitted John Beaulieu, director of youth and young adult outreach at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Beaulieu is helping coordinate the retreat.

The program focuses on how to become a “C4 Catholic,” a dual term referring to moldable, plastic explosives, and the four-step process to becoming a powerful Catholic through conversion, catechesis, community and commissioning.

“As young adult Catholics, we are to go before God and let Him mold us, shape us into what He wants us to be. We are called to be filled with the explosive power of God’s love,” Beaulieu explained.

The first step to becoming a powerful Catholic is conversion. Young adults on retreat will explore related topics in workshops including breaking free from sin, living in the power of the Holy Spirit and personal prayer.

“It’s real practical follow-ups to these keynotes to give young adults the tools that they need to move forward,” Beaulieu said. “I think it’s very challenging to remain pure and to walk the narrow path of God with so many things to distract you and pull you away.”

The second step is catechesis. A professor will present a talk on that topic and the ongoing need to form the mind with Church truths.

Community makes up the third step in becoming a powerful Catholic. The young adults will attend Mass, join in communal prayer and then have the afternoon free to tour Sedona or the Grand Canyon.

They return that evening for a theatrical performance of “The Jeweler’s Shop,” a play by the late Pope John Paul II. It explores love and the relationship between men and women through two engaged couples and a married couple.

The young adults will ring in the New Year celebrating Mass with Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted.

“The passage of time and the marking of a New Year remind us that God is with us all our days,” Bishop Olmsted said. “At our New Year’s gathering, we shall celebrate God’s love together and prepare ourselves for the challenges and blessings of 2007.”

Beaulieu expects it to be powerful for the young adults to gather in prayer on New Year’s Eve and say, “We’re not making just another resolution. We are coming together to say, ‘yes,’ that we want to embrace the call that Christ put on us.”

He will challenge the young adults to live out the commission — the fourth step to becoming a C4 Catholic — at the end of the retreat.