Dawn and all Christians

secret_life8 wrote:Hey Dawn, I just wanted to share this song with you. I just returned yesterday from this weekend retreat and it was awesome. God was present among the 2300 teenagers present and the Holy Spirit touched so many lives. If you wanted me to tell you more about it, just let me know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSfR5u0-Q5U

secret_life8 wrote:Hey Dawn, I just wanted to share this song with you. I just returned yesterday from this weekend retreat and it was awesome. God was present among the 2300 teenagers present and the Holy Spirit touched so many lives. If you wanted me to tell you more about it, just let me know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSfR5u0-Q5U

secret_life8 wrote:Hey, sorry for the late reply.

Friday Night:

Keynote speaker was Leah Darrow, former model on America's Next Top Model and model in NYC. She told us her conversion story and it was very inspirational and touched my heart. We listened to praise and worship music (I'll post some if you want). Adoration was okay but Saturday night's was epic.

Saturday:

Listened to Deacon Ralph (last name?) talk about the martyrs and what they had have spiritually to be able to surrender their lives over to Christ. More praise and worship music and watched some entertainment. We also prayed in the small grotto there. Four other girls and myself prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Adoration was amazing. The Holy Spirit was present among us and the whole event touched me deeply. I ended up visibly shaking and my friend had to support me as I stood up. I sat down on the chair and then ended up on the ground where I was praying. I had a friend praying over me. Suddenly, there were many people surrounding me and catching me as I feel sideways. They helped me sit up and gain strength (I felt so weak in the presence of my Savior). I, throughout all of this, was bawling my eyes out. I needed to be calmed down and I was. After adoration, I got something to eat and drink and then we broke into small groups to talk. In small groups, we talked about the need to form a sisterhood of Christ and build each other up instead of tearing one another down. During adoration I was hit with the pain and pure agony of what this world would be like without the love and compassion of Christ. It was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Someone pointed out how Our Lady of Fatima revealed hell to the children and how Christ was showing me something similar. (Many people I know think that hell is living forever without the presence of God.) It was one of the most powerful adoration I have ever attended because I allowed myself to be vulnerable before Jesus. Mass was good. We listened to the chastity talk by Leah Darrow and it was AWESOME! She invited anyone who had something on their hearts to share to come forward, and so I did. I saw beautiful and brave women tell their stories of almost rape and lacking self-worth to finding Christ. And I learned something new. I deserve CHRISTMAS! (You would have had to been there to get it.)

Sunday:

We had more praise and worship music, mass, and an awesome homily. The reading was about the weeds and the wheat and how they will be separated in heaven. He had 1/2 of us be the wheats and 1/2 be the weeds and then slowly the wheat started to due because of various reasons--lack of faith, losing hope, etc. Then we had small groups again to talk about growing in our faith. On the bus home we witnessed and one women commented on how spiritual I am for my age. I got into a deep conversation about Our Lady of Fatima. Our bus ended up breaking down on the way home on the side of the highway. It took us 2 1/2 hours of waiting before another bus came to pick us up. We made the best of it though and played games on a grassy area by the side of the highway. Then we transferred buses and ended up taking 3 buses in total home.

The whole retreat consisted of prayer and reaching out for Christ. I talked with other teens about my faith, even people I have never met.