In typical Toronto fashion, The Valley of The Mother of God and the Shalom missionaries welcomed young adults from many ethnicities and backgrounds into a world warmed by the presence of the Holy Spirit. The peaceful beauty of the centre and the presence of brothers and sisters looking to deepen their experience with God hinted that they were about to step outside of their regular daily lives into something greater than most of them would have expected.
“I was thinking that Level Up would be just like another retreat, but it was something totally new that God wanted to give me, where I felt His presence in my life again after being a little away from Him and with my faith very low.”
– Eduardo
As a preparation for the moments of prayer and adoration the retreat had some amazing preaching from members of the community:
- God’s love: the participants learned that we are precious to God, the creator of everything, that God’s love comes with no conditions, we only have to desire it. His love is eternal, timeless, so it isn’t bound within the past, present or future: it can heal us no matter when we were hurt and protect us no matter how bleak the future looks. And more: that nothing can separate us from God’s love.
- Sin and Salvation: the second preaching was about how to sin is to stray away from God. God made us free to love Him, and his love is unconditional but we are also free to fall. But fear not! We’re not doomed: there’s salvation, his love for us free and eternal, He wants us to live His plan for us, to walk away from sin, to repent after our falls.
- The lordship of Jesus: the last preaching of the day explained that God’s love is a person: Jesus, sent for our salvation. He wants to take us by the hand and to save us from the many traps of this world, to give our heart completely to Him, to renounce what isn’t His.
In the afternoon the participants enjoyed fun and intense outdoor games going from classics like water balloon fight to a modified version of a Vietnamese game called “Steal the Strawberry” and some soccer.
After learning and bonding and enjoying nature the participants gathered for Eucharistic adoration. It was an intense moment of healing and closeness with God.
And then the day ended with a salsa party and a bonfire with marshmallows; a moment of fun, bonding and many laughs.
Sunday, the last day of the retreat, started early with mass at St. Timothy church in the beautiful town of Orangeville. And as the retreat was getting close to its end many of the participants were wondering how to go back to the “real world” but keep that feeling of closeness to God that they felt during the retreat. The last preaching taught them that the Apostles had quite a similar question in their time:
“Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” – John 14-5
And reminded them of these words of Jesus:
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever” – John 14-16
They learned that even if they don’t know exactly how to act when they go back to the world they left on Friday, the Holy Spirit wants to be in our lives now. The Holy Spirit will make us go from where we are to where we should be, and will give us the power to move forward! The role of the Holy Spirit is to sanctify us, and to be a saint is to be like Jesus: to talk like Jesus, to see the world like Jesus.
After these beautiful teachings the participants prayed once more, to feel the Holy Spirit acting among them, to let knowledge become experience.
Daniel, one of the participants shared about his experience:
“Two weeks ago I didn’t know I was coming, I think this was a really special moment for me. I know that God told me to come.
Everything connects! And I can see a Daniel different, I met a lot of nice people, but I also know that I grew as a person and specially more with my faith. It was really a special moment.”
At the end of the retreat the participants went back home feeling renewed, strengthened in their faiths and carrying the memories and friendships made in such a blessed weekend.
