Campus Ministry Hosts First-Ever Ignite Retreat -

Image courtesy of Ella Foret.

By Grace Meisenhelter

This past January, CUA Campus Ministry held its first-ever Ignite Retreat! Almost fifty undergraduate students gathered at Camp Wabana on the Chesapeake Bay for a weekend away to learn more about God, themselves, and others. Ignite had no prerequisites, only an invitation: come and see. It may have been freezing cold outside, but God’s warm love burned bright inside the retreat and stirred the hearts of the retreatants to come and see all He had to offer them.

Image courtesy of Miguel Villalobos.

Ignite was born to create a place of encounter for any CUA student looking to learn more about Catholicism, go deeper with Christ, or bring practicing the faith back into their life. Unlike the large and playful freshman retreat with the goal of welcoming new students to the Catholic community or the smaller and silent women’s and men’s retreats seeking to take students deeper in faith, Ignite hoped to reach any freshman through senior, male or female, with any level of curiosity about having a spiritual life. The retreat found a welcoming balance between meaningful encounter with Jesus and fun community building, meeting students where they were at and, for some, changing their lives.

Image courtesy of Miguel Villalobos.

Short but powerful, retreatants spent Friday night to Sunday morning listening to student witness talks, sharing in small groups, taking silent reflection time, and participating in the sacraments. Catholic musician Josh Rosa and his team came to lead students in praise and worship and teach them about how to incorporate music into prayer. Appropriate to the retreat theme, Josh and his team kicked off Friday night by guiding students through the lyrics “set a fire down in my soul, that I can’t contain, that I can’t control”. It was clear from that first moment of praise that a spark had been set in the retreatants that only continued to grow and burn brighter throughout the weekend. A pinnacle of the retreat was the penance and reconciliation service on Sunday and adoration later that evening. Separating the sacrament of confession from adoration, retreatants were given the meaningful opportunity to understand God’s mercy in the midst of sin, experience that mercy in the sacrament, and then meet Him with an increased receptivity of His love and awareness of His presence. The night ended with the first-ever Ignite I Winter Olympics, where small groups went head-to-head in light-hearted minute-to-win-it games, and Associate University Chaplain Father Bernard even stepped in to showcase peak elite athleticism in cup stacking.

Image courtesy of Miguel Villalobos.

Sunday morning, retreatants gathered for the closing Mass and to share testimonies of how the Lord worked during their weekend. It was an emotional end of retreat for many students who encountered Christ’s joy during the weekend, made new friends, and were sad to leave the retreat but excited to bring their new community back to campus. Student Megan McCormick shared how “the Ignite retreat helped me to rediscover how God works in my daily life and make beautiful connections with my classmates.” Not only was the retreat impactful for the students attending, but also for those who helped to lead it. The campus ministry retreat team undertook different roles from the freshman retreat, leading small groups and walking with retreatants in addition to organizing logistics. Junior Ella Foret enjoyed her experience helping to lead Ignite greatly, witnessing not only fruit in the retreatants but also in herself. She shared that “I watched Ignite not only place the Lord’s love on the hearts of each student there, but it set my heart, as a leader, even more on fire. I have never felt the Lord so fully there and working than I did on retreat.”

Photo courtesy of Ella Foret.

As it was the first-ever Ignite Retreat, the retreat team went in with not many expectations that the Lord absolutely blew away. Student Retreat Coordinator and MC Charlie Hyland experienced firsthand the unprecedented planning and hopeful prayer that was put into Ignite for months preceding the retreat. He summed up his experience working with a new retreat by saying how he “is incredibly grateful to the students, retreat team, and staff for their openness and willingness to be a vessel for what the Holy Spirit wanted to do during the weekend. There were many unknowns with this being Ignite I, and everyone’s approach to surrendering this retreat to Christ resulted in a beautiful weekend and hopefully a new CUA tradition”. Already, preparation for Ignite II is in the works, and students who attended Ignite I are applying to be on the Retreat Team and pass on the meaningful experience they had to more students. Campus Ministry is hoping to have one Ignite Retreat per semester in the future to accommodate more students’ schedules and give everyone a chance to experience God’s goodness through this new tradition. If this retreat is calling to you, listen for the next opportunity to go! Ignite has no prerequisites, only an invitation–come and see.