Retreat participants gathered for a group photo at St. Theresa Church. (Maddie Pascual / Courtesy St. Anthony Church)
By Agnes Terao-Guiala, St. Anthony parishioner
Special to the Herald
The idea of having a retreat for the young people of Maui and Lanai originated after a Dec. 9, 2023, one-day retreat at St. Anthony Church and School in Wailuku.
At the end of this event, the 30 young people who attended it commented that they wished the retreat were longer than just one day as they wanted to spend more time together.
Taking their comment into consideration, the Youth Leadership Team, after some discussion and prayer, decided to plan and organize an overnight retreat for the Maui-Lanai Vicariate in order to give our youth more time to get to know one another.
The result of the planning was a two-day “Face to Face” retreat April 26-27 at St. Theresa Church in Kihei, attended by 75 youths from Maui and Lanai.
At the beginning of the retreat, Father Ace Tui, parochial vicar at St. Anthony, did something almost considered sacrilege by many of the young people who were in attendance: He did the “Catholic thing,” as he called it, and collected their cellphones, promising to return them at the end of the retreat. There were audible gasps from the young people who acted as if their livelihoods, not just their cellphones, were being taken away.
There were five break-out sessions in this retreat for the cellphone-less attendees. The first one was “face to face” with yourself. The second one, face to face with friends. Then, face to face with family. Next, face to face with God and, finally, face to face with the community. All sessions were related to each other.
At the end of the retreat, the young people in attendance seemed to have received what they had wished for in December — more time. But there was also an additional request: for “more retreat.”
The Youth Leadership Team of the Maui-Lanai Vicariate shared the consensus that the young people are eager not only for more time or more retreats, but for the formation of relationships with friends, family, God and community.
Father Tui revealed that one of the most powerful moments of the retreat that he witnessed was during the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
“I looked around and saw stillness, tears, affirmations. We had three priests there who had volunteered their time to come and hear confessions. I thought three priests should be enough, but it ended up with each of them having a long line of people waiting for confession. I had to grab a purple stole and help!” Father Tui said.
The retreat reinforced what the Eucharistic Revival is all about — an encounter with the living God, an encounter with Jesus.
Many thanks to the Youth Leadership Team of the Maui-Lanai Vicariate who joined together to make this overnight retreat a success. We hope that this retreat marks the start of many more to come.