Middle schoolers start school year with retreats by Fiat Ministries

By Grace E. Irion

In late August, 157 eighth graders from three schools gathered at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church to hear the truth of their identity: they are beloved sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. 

The middle schoolers had a unique opportunity to go on retreat for the day alongside religious sisters, priests, and even monks. The boys’ and girls’ separate retreats have been intentionally designed to proclaim the truth that they are highly favored, loved, and protected. 

The retreats’ recreation portions differed slightly, but both the boys and the girls were able to listen to reflections, share in small groups, and spend time before the Blessed Sacrament. This was the third year of such middle school retreats conducted by Fiat Ministries. 

Disconnected calls

As with all its pursuits, Fiat Ministries sought to develop the middle school retreat under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. While serving in youth ministry, Fiat Ministries’ foundress Emily Savage wondered if young people were either:

• Hearing a call to a priestly and religious vocations, but turning away in confused identity during middle and high school; or

• Simply not hearing the call at all. 

As she consulted with priests, women religious, and vocation directors across the country, she detected a common theme: The choices many young people made during their middle and high school years had prevented them from pursuing religious vocations. 

“How then,” Savage posed, “can we support young people’s vocations, knowing the culture is attacking the identity and virtue of people in this particular age group?” For her, it meant creating a retreat specific to this age group to help a foundational truth take root in participants’ hearts and minds: “We are wanted and we belong.”

Although Fiat Ministries seeks to help young people hear God’s call for their lives, how can they answer without knowing who they are and to whom they belong? Understanding identity is important, but Fiat Ministries takes it another step so that young boys and girls are able to hear foundational truths about their identity proclaimed by priests, brothers, religious women, and even their own parents. 

In this way, the priests and religious water the seed already sown in the home by the students’ mothers and fathers. As Resurrection Parish Pastor Fr. Andrew Labenz put it after helping with the retreat, “It was incredible seeing the young men throughout the day understand more and more that their identity is beloved sons of the Heavenly Father and of their earthly parents too! As they left the retreat, they had a joy, a renewal of life, and a peace that clearly came from that solidification of that innate and God-given identity!”

This year, Fiat Ministries had the privilege of serving three of the diocese’s Catholic schools, all from Wichita:

• St. Thomas Aquinas was first with 21 girls and 31 boys. 

• St. Francis of Assisi was next with 24 girls and 31 boys. 

• St. Elizabeth Ann Seton attended with 23 girls and 27 boys. 

Also serving on retreat were seven sisters from three religious communities for the girls and five Capuchin Franciscan brothers for the boys. Each day, two or three priests from the Diocese of Wichita offered their own reflections for the boys and also provided the sacrament of Reconciliation. Both the girls and the boys were able to spend a holy hour in silent reflection. Some of the reactions from students included “I am loved and protected,” and “(this retreat) helps you deeply connect with yourself and God.”

Bridging the gap

Boys and girls experience separate retreats to better free them to deepen their respective relationships with Jesus. Both groups receive different but complimentary messages; the boys hear a message tailored towards their masculinity while the girls are able to reflect on their femininity. 

The reflections, small group discussions, Eucharistic adoration, and recreation are all intentionally designed to help each participant grasp the truth of his or her identity. A particularly powerful aspect of the retreat centers on the letters parents are encouraged to write. When sons and daughters read these letters from their earthly mothers and fathers, it is not uncommon to see the truth of their belovedness prompt many tears.

Accepting this truth from their parents bridges the gap between knowing and receiving an infinitely profound and perfect love from their Heavenly Father. “The Fiat middle school retreat appeals to the fundamental identity that each person has as a beloved child of God,” said St. Thomas Aquinas religion teacher Steven Farley. “The students are able to embrace this truth – with meaningful guidance from the religious – that will impact them for the rest of their lives. This is one of the best retreats I have seen in the diocese.” 

Creating the middle school retreat has been an exciting opportunity to walk alongside and support middle school students during a critical point in their lives. Fiat Ministries seeks to help young men and women anchor themselves to the foundational truth that they are beloved children of God, which will help them weather the storms of adolescence. Time will tell if this will increase religious vocations, but one thing is certain – Fiat Ministries considers it a privilege to to support middle schoolers and help them recognize how the Lord sees them.

Fiat Ministries will host its annual Feast for Fiat on Saturday, Nov. 14, at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School. If you are interested in purchasing tickets to attend this event – themed “Our Lady, Queen of Heaven” – e-mail Emily Savage at [email protected]. 

Fiat Ministries is in its 12th year of serving girls aged kindergarten through vocation with mother/daughter events and discernment retreats. For information on upcoming events, please visit fiatministries.org. 

Grace Irion is a contributing writer and member of Team Fiat.