By Reagan Scott
for the Register
Eighth-grade students at St. Peter School in Lincoln had the opportunity to participate in a class retreat at Our Lady of Good Counsel Retreat House in Waverly Tuesday, Dec. 5.
The theme for the day, “Live by a Calling,” was aimed at forming the students in the ability to listen for Jesus’ call in their lives.
The retreat included a talk given by Sister Mary Gabriel, C.K., on the topic of discerning God’s will in the ordinary events of life, followed by small group discussion. Students also listened to a vocation panel, where speakers shared their personal faith journeys. The panel included a parish catechist, a priest, a religious sister and a married couple.
Janna Walkowiak, assistant principal at St. Peter, said she had fruitful discussions with the small group she led after Sister Mary Gabriel’s talk, and enjoyed seeing the students engaged throughout the day.
“Students in the small groups interacted in a thoughtful way with the small group leaders and their peers, and they had meaningful, pertinent questions for the vocation panel,” she said.
The eighth-graders walked over to Villa Marie School for Exceptional Children, where they spent time with the students there, writing letters to men and women discerning calls to the priesthood and religious life in the diocese, and decorating bags to support Meals on Wheels. Afterward, they were able to play kickball in the unseasonably warm December weather.
The afternoon included a holy hour and confessions, followed by Mass before the students returned to St. Peter.
The retreat, which allowed students the opportunity to depart from their typical school schedule and grow in their ability to discern God’s will for their lives, is part of a new retreat model for middle school that St. Peter is working to implement.
Curt Feilmeier, principal at St. Peter, said the conversations for this model began when he came to the school last year. He said one of the strategic goals the leadership team discussed was a retreat program for the school’s sixth, seventh and eighth graders.
When he was principal at Lourdes Central Catholic School in Nebraska City in 2016, Feilmeier said a group of parents put on a retreat for the middle schoolers there. When those students advanced to high school, the administration worked to establish an eighth-grade retreat, and a combined sixth- and seventh-grade retreat for the students.
Now, at St. Peter, the administration is working to establish a retreat model that can be used each school year, with themes that will help students build a firm foundation of faith before high school and equip them to help others grow in faith as well.
“We endeavor to build a middle school retreat program that flows from a Catholic culture built in the way St. Paul established communities to help students become disciple-makers,” Feilmeier said.
He said the goal of the model is comprised of a few different elements, “…to compliment the fifth grade retreat that we do for those students who are receiving the sacrament of Confirmation but then also to, in a sense, prepare the students for when they go to Pius X High School and get to participate in the retreat program there.”
Feilmeier said his hope is that the retreats will enhance the sacramental aspect of the school’s overall faith program.
The model for the retreats was presented at the school’s faculty meeting in January this year.
The theme for the newly developed sixth-grade retreat, “Need of Community” aims to build a culture of Christian friendship. For seventh-graders the theme, “Needful Prayer and Discernment” will work to deepen the students’ prayer lives. Eighth-grade’s theme is “Live by a Calling,” which the students experienced at their retreat earlier this month.
Feilmeier said the themes came from the brainstorming of the parish and its efforts of discipleship, which the parish desires to cultivate in the students.
Feilmeier described the current school year as an “ice breaker” for the rollout of the program. In the proposed model to be implemented next school year, eighth-grade students will go on retreat in the first few weeks of school, with follow-ups held before Advent, Lent and the end of the school year. Seventh-graders will have their retreat before Advent, with follow-ups before Lent and the end of the school year, and sixth-graders will attend their retreat before Lent, with a follow-up in May.
All the retreats are planned to be held off campus, and the follow-ups will be held in school.
Sister Edith Marie, C.K., who serves a dual role in supporting student and administrative efforts for the school, said holding the retreats away from St. Peter will give students the opportunity to leave the distractions of their normal routine behind, to better focus on what the Lord might be trying to say to them.
Sister Edith Marie said that while administrators are still working on a template for the retreat follow-ups, they recognize the importance of returning to the themes of the retreats with students throughout the school year.
“We want them to see that grace they received over and over again,” she said, “so that when they go to Pius, it’s something that is forming them and their foundation for how they’re going to follow Christ.”
Feilmeier said revisiting the moments that stand out to the students on their retreats can keep the lessons they learn fresh in their minds, giving them the opportunity to carry them throughout the seasons of Advent and Lent, and then into their summer vacations.
Walkowiak said as part of the eighth-grade retreat, the students were tasked with writing down “God moments” that they experienced throughout the day.
She said, “We’re hoping that they take those moments that were really impactful to them, and reflect upon those throughout the year before they go on to Pius, and also take those lessons that they learned from the speakers and our vocation panel and apply them to their future decisions.”
As the program is being tested this school year, the administration intends to follow up with the eighth-graders about their retreat before Lent and graduation, and plans are being made to hold the first sixth- and seventh-grade retreats in the coming semester.
Feilmeier sees lots of opportunity for growth in this endeavor as the school works to get the program in place. He hopes the model is something that could be shared with other schools, or even lead to retreats held with other Catholic schools so that the students have the opportunity to meet other kids pursuing the same goal of growing in faith.
Walkowiak, Feilmeier and Sister Edith Marie were encouraged by the positive comments the eighth-graders had about their experience and are excited for the future of these retreats, and the impact that they will have.
Sister Edith Marie concluded with this reflection: “St. Irenaeus said, ‘The Glory of God is man fully alive.’ Through these retreats, we desire our children to grow in being fully alive as sons and daughters of the Father.”
