Connections

Year 8 Residential Retreat (3/5 days)

The ‘Connections’ programme will allow our young people to recognise God’s call for us to live in unity with others. It will encourage young people to explore their connections, and understand the influence of their friendships, emotions and words on the people around them; reconciling any previous grievances and moving forward towards God in unity.

Unity
“The Church is one because of her source: The Church is one because of her founder: for “the Word made flesh, the prince of peace, reconciled all men to God by the cross, . . . restoring the unity of all in one people and one body.” The Church is one because of her “soul”: “It is the Holy Spirit, dwelling in those who believe and pervading and ruling over the entire Church, who brings about that wonderful communion of the faithful and joins them together so intimately in Christ that he is the principle of the Church’s unity.” Unity is of the essence of the Church” (CCC, 820)
“Christian unity is the business of all Christians, regardless of how young or old they are. Unity was one of Jesus’ most important concerns. He prayed to the Father, “that they may all be one . . . so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn 17:21). Divisions are like wounds on the Body of Christ; they hurt and fester. “ (YOUCAT, 131)

Christian Friendship // Fraternal Love
“The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit.” (CCC, 2205)
“No one gets to heaven by the asocial route. Someone who thinks only about himself and the salvation of his own soul is living a-socially. That is impossible both in heaven and on earth. God himself is not a-social; he is not a solitary, self-sufficient being. The Triune God in himself is “social”, a communion, an eternal exchange of love. Patterned after God, man also is designed for relationship, exchange, sharing, and love. We are responsible for one another.” (YOUCAT, 122)

Forgiveness // Reconciliation
“Forgiveness is a high-point of Christian prayer; only hearts attuned to God’s compassion can receive the gift of prayer. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love is stronger than sin. the martyrs of yesterday and today bear this witness to Jesus. Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their Father and of men with one another.” (CCC, 2844)
“the teaching of Christ goes so far as to require the forgiveness of offenses. He extends the commandment of love, which is that of the New Law, to all enemies.” (CCC, 1933)

Concupiscence// Human Inclination to Sin
“Concupiscence stems from the disobedience of the first sin. It unsettles man’s moral faculties and, without being in itself an offense, inclines man to commit sins.” (CCC, 2515)
“Sin creates a proclivity to sin; it engenders vice by repetition of the same acts. This results in perverse inclinations which cloud conscience and corrupt the concrete judgment of good and evil. Thus sin tends to reproduce itself and reinforce itself, but it cannot destroy the moral sense at its root.“ (CCC, 1865)
“Baptism does snatch us from the power of sin and death and brings us into the new life of the children of God, but it does not free us from human weakness and the inclination to sin. That is why we need a place where we can be reconciled with God again and again. That place is confession.“ (YOUCAT, 226)