When is the Confirmation Retreat?

 December 1, 2011 for the St. Clare Religious Education Students and the Saint Clare School Students. 

The Retreat will be held from 8:00 a.m. to approximately. 3:30 p.m. 

Permission Slips are required.  Students will be transported by bus from St. Clare's parking lot. 

Religious Education students will have their public schools contacted by the religious education program to be excused from classes on December 1, 2011.

Is the retreat a requirement for Confirmation?

Yes, all St. Clare Parish candidates for Confirmation are required to attend one of the Confirmation retreats.  All St. Clare school 8th grade students and all public-school 8th graders in the religious education program are required to attend the retreat.  If a student is absent due to illness, or other unforeseen emergency, the child's parents are required to contact another parish in the SERF Vicariate to ask if their child may attend a retreat at the other parish with their group of students.  Attendance at a neighboring parish is at the discretion of their parish staff. Parents are required to make all make-up retreat arrangements themselves, to pay the cost of the make-up retreat, and to provide transportation to the make-up retreat.  Parents must also produce verification of attendance at the make-up retreat to our director of religious education.

Where is the Confirmation Retreat held? 

·     The Retreat is held at Subiaco Retreat House.  This is located on the grounds of St. Benedict Monastery in Oxford, Michigan.  The students have the opportunity to meet Benedictine monks, learn about their monastic life and discuss the gifts they have received from God and how they will use their gifts in service for others in the Church and the world.  See the monk's web site at:  http://www.benedictinemonks.com/bnframe.htm The photo above shows the retreat center chapel.

        Who Leads the Retreat?

·     The Retreat is led by Benedictine Monks, who  have been ministering to junior high school and high school youth since 1975.  Mary Cummings, a youth minister in the Archdiocese of Detroit, assists them on retreats and has worked with them since 1975.

·     What is expected of the students while on the retreat? 

·     Parents are asked to please remind your children that this is not a day off from learning and good behavior.  We need the cooperation of all students to make it meaningful for everyone.  All students are asked to treat everyone with respect and as a child of God, while on the retreat.

What is the cost of the Confirmation Retreat?  What does that include?

·     The cost of the retreat will be $40.00. The cost includes: Bus transportation, a retreat center fee, which includes a morning snack and lunch. Partial or full hardship scholarships may be available, if necessary. Please contact the Director of Religious Education about hardship scholarships.  Parent-Signed Permission slips are required.

How are public schools notified that our children will need to be excused from school that day?

·     Letters from the religious education department are sent to junior high school principals in advance, informing them that St. Clare students will be absent on those retreat days.

Why should our children make a retreat for Confirmation? 

·     A retreat refreshes and revitalizes, gives the opportunity for more time spent in prayer and contemplation, and rekindles and deepens one’s relationship with God.   Our young people may take this opportunity to more clearly hear God’s call and to seek God’s healing grace and thereby attain a degree of spiritual renewal.  The purpose of a spiritual retreat, as an addition to daily spiritual activities, is to temporarily leave behind the usual distractions we all face for a time long enough to allow relaxation and for an inner change to occur: the ongoing conversion of heart that is critical to deepening faith.   The Catholic Encyclopedia describes the necessity of such retreats: “In the fever and agitation of modern life, the need of meditation and spiritual repose impresses itself on Christian souls who desire to reflect on their eternal destiny, and direct their life in this world towards God.”

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et,  Yet it is not only modern life that sends us forth to a period of quiet contemplation.  A scriptural basis for understanding the importance of retreat that long preceded the modern world is easily found.  We can turn to Jesus’ actions and his suggestions to others as transmitted in the gospel accounts.  Near the beginning of Mark’s gospel, this is relayed: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.  Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” (Mark 1: 35–37; see also Luke 4:42)   He undertook his solitary respite not when there were no other important matters to tend to, but because of the essential need to make time for prayer despite all the things to be done.   Sometimes Jesus would spend an entire night in retreat: “In those days he departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. (Luke 6:12).  And, this is also relayed: “The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught.  He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.’ People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.” (Mark 6: 30-32)  No doubt, the apostles were energized by the response of the crowds they encountered, but they still needed a chance to recharge before carrying on. A Confirmation retreat is also a chance for our young people to re-charge their relationship with God and with the Church.