Nairobi, 20 April 2011
The popularity of the 7 Step Retreat is now on the rise. Or it is that whenever I am asked to do a retreat for young people these days, I just follow this outline. This morning I concluded another two full-day retreat for about 200 youth at the Don Bosco Boystown. The Boystown is one of the Don Bosco institutions at Karen, Nairobi. It is a technical school that was started in 1985, following the model of Boystown of Father Flanegan, Nebraska, U.S. Our Boystown also admits girls for the secretarial courses during the day programme.
Using John 1:35-42 as the key text I elaborate a 7 step retreat that trace the pathway of the Christian Life Journey: Thirst (two disciples of John the Baptist), Signs (Look there is the Lamb of God!), Search (What do you seek?), Invitation (Come and see), Experience (They stayed with him), Transformation, and Proclamation & Mission (Andrew brought Simon to Jesus). These steps were elaborated with other examples of encounters with Jesus: The Samaritan Woman (Jn 4 – the thirst); The Magi (Mt 2:1-12- sign); The two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Lk 24:13-35 – search); Zacchaeus (Lk 19:1-11 – invitation); Wedding at Cana (Jn 2:1-11 – experience); St Paul (Acts 9:1-10 – transformation); Annunciation (Lk 1:28-40 – vocation and mission).
Participant reaction to the retreat was simply overwhelming. All work of the Holy Spirit!