Eighteen Academy students spent a weekend serving at the second annual Diocesan High School Youth Retreat held in Pembroke from January 28-30. Over seventy teenagers from across the Pembroke Diocese participated in this event. Entitled “A Revelation Revolution,” the retreat was based on Jason and Crystalina Evert’s “The Pure Life” series from EWTN.

As at last year’s youth retreat, the OLSWA students contributed in a big way. They helped with music ministry (Kathleen Dunn, Elliott Warner, Julian Zakrzewski and Don McGeragle), gave talks and testimonies, performed in skits, led small groups, facilitated games in the gym, and chaperoned the teens overnight, sleeping on gym floors. They shared with the teens their own personal journeys of striving for purity in their life, and for truth and real love in their relationships with God and others. Talks given by members of the Academy included: The Power of Modesty, Pure Pressure, Virginity, Standards, Finding the One, and Starting Over.  

Yvette Bourque, Director of Family Life and Youth Ministry for the diocese, and coordinator of the retreat, expressed her thanks to the OLSWA volunteers, “I am personally very grateful to all the Academy students who generously volunteered their time and God-given talents to help. The students have a maturity and spiritual formation that is essential for the roles they take in the retreat. As we are blessed with growing numbers of youth attending this annual event, it would be nearly impossible to hold a retreat this size without the Academy students. The youth both enjoy and benefit from the fact that the Academy students are not too much older than they are and most can relate to the issues and pressures of life as a teenager. I feel this retreat offers a wonderful opportunity for the students at the Academy who are striving to live their Catholic faith to evangelize and be a witness to Christ’s love and His wonderful Church.”

OLSWA Chaplain, Fr. Paul Burchat, who gave one of the talks, also noted the important leadership offered by the students from the Academy, “but most especially for the witness the students gave to the participants that living chastely is not only possible in today's culture but is a very real and satisfying alternative to the sexually immoral lifestyle that society is promoting.” The Academy students were more than happy to be there and found the weekend a marvellous opportunity to do ministry and outreach in a practical, hands-on, meaningful way. “It was a blessing to spend the retreat weekend with high school students who are in love with Christ and are not afraid to joyfully follow Him," said third-year student, Anne-Marie Doyle.