It has been a busy season of Franciscan hospitality this winter! We have enjoyed hosting a variety of groups. Here was the lineup:
In January and February, we hosted two different young adult discernment retreats, one from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and another from the Kalamazoo diocese. We love supporting our young people to hear and heed the call of God for their lives!
At the end of January, we hosted a weekend retreat for a longtime partner of ours, St. Agnes of Bohemia. They brought around 25 candidates for the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA) (formerly known as RCIA), people formally joining or completing their initiation into the Catholic Church.
In early February, we hosted a new group every weekend! One weekend was the Catholic Lawyers Guild; another, the discernment retreat as mentioned above. Another weekend we hosted a service retreat for the parish of St. John the Evangelist of St. John’s, Indiana. A unique aspect of this retreat was that it was open to anyone at their parish, so there was a lovely mix of couples old and young, singles, etc. They assisted with our monthly mobile pantry, and afterwards received talks from the Franciscans relating service, faith, and our love for Jesus in the Eucharist.
Closing out the month of February, the University of Illinois Chicago St. John Paul II Newman Center filled our Outreach Center to the brim: 50 college students on retreat to discover more deeply God’s love for them! It was a great pleasure to open our house to them, that they might realize with greater confidence their place in the Father’s house. The Franciscans enjoyed working behind the scenes to care for them, providing food, cleaning, etc., as well as getting to join them at meals for some laughs and wonderful conversations. A special highlight of this retreat was the holy hours of Eucharistic Adoration and Confessions that they had in the church. The music was wonderful, and Jesus showed up powerfully!
March is spring break season. This year a group of medical students from Michigan State University generously gave up their precious spring breaks (some even used paid time off days!) to serve the underprivileged in our neighborhood. We are grateful for how hard they worked and for the ways that they shared their medical expertise with our neighbors. We will continue to pray that the Lord blesses their work & their efforts to serve! We were also blessed to have Northern State at South Dakota students return for a second year. In addition to our normal pantry activities, they were able to do a lot of work with kids, too – at Kelly Hall YMCA, at some of the schools with the teaching Sisters, and working with our youth at the big Confirmation retreat organized by the Franciscans on March 16th. Our Lenten hospitality season ended with hosting the St. Clement’s young adults for a day retreat on “fearlessness” on Mar 23rd.
In conclusion – we have been BLESSED by the generosity, openness, and kindness of our retreat groups this season! It is a joy to invite people to serve Jesus in our neighbor and to worship Him in the Eucharist. Thank you to all who were a part of our lives and work these past months!