This past weekend, young people in the Bourbonnais-Kankakee region participated in Kairos 1 at St. George Parish. It is the first retreat in the newly restarted Kairos program through the shared Viatorian youth ministry of Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. George, our two parishes in Bourbonnais, IL.
Kairos involves talks, journaling and reflection, discussions, and prayer and liturgy; then, it also depends upon great hospitality (top left – thank you, St. George Parish!), time for affirmations (top right), breaks to decompress (bottom left, at the pavilion and firepit), and games and activities (bottom right, at the giant Jenga tower).
Amanda Fierce, Coordinator of Viatorian Youth Ministry for the two parishes, and Amy McCrary, Parish Administrator for St. George, took four teens on a Saint Viator High School Kairos retreat earlier this year. Amanda used that retreat as her framework for planning and brought in bits from her own experience and the program at Bishop McNamara Catholic School.
Viatorians in this region are always keeping public-school students in mind and intentionally reached out to those parish families for this retreat, thinking also that the summer timing also avoided academic year conflicts. Ultimately, Kairos 1 had young people from St. George, Maternity BVM, and St. Patrick, our parish in Kankakee, and these participants represented several local public high schools (and Bishop Mac) as well as a wide footprint of hometowns.
“In our area, we have just a few parishes with dedicated youth ministry,” Amanda said, pointing also to St. Patrick and some local diocesan parishes’ youth ministry. “There is definitely an unmet need among these underserved young people. The hope is that these kids from Kairos 1 connect with their friends and start spreading the word year after year.”
You can always find Viatorians accompanying youth on retreats! Kairos 1 included Bobby (left with Amy) as a small-group leader and speaker and Fr. Moses (right) celebrating Sacraments.
For this first round, the leadership team brought together three teens from that Saint Viator Kairos trip with other teens who had previous leadership experience from Bishop Mac and our Viatorian Youth Congress. Associate Bobby Lampley, former MBVM youth minister Patty Bailey, St. George choir leader Heather Johnson (who also teaches at Bradley-Bourbonnais High School) joined the small-groups and gave talks, and a few more parish volunteers coordinated extraordinary hospitality, especially for meals. MBVM Pastor Fr. Jason Nesbit, CSV, MBVM Parochial Vicar Fr. Moses Mesh, CSV, and St. George Administrator, Fr. Patrick Render, CSV, celebrated Masses and heard confessions on the retreat.
The persistent, joyful invitations from Amanda and Amy helped bring together a group of 15 teen participants, and the vitality in these young people excited them. “Some of these kids knew each other beforehand, and some kids did not,” Amy said, noting how much more easily they gave up their phones on each of the four successive days. “All of the kids here were able to become friends since we mixed together from so many places.”
left to right: Amanda, Amy, Heather, and Patty
When the signups were coming in slowly at the start, Fr. Pat committed to supporting the retreat and its leaders, no matter the final number of participants, insisting they would not cancel. “This is a unique opportunity, and our parish communities are starting to sense that. Our parishes sometimes don’t think of our young people at public schools, and now we are creating an opportunity for that,” Fr. Pat said – and he made direct appeals to families at St. George Sunday Masses. “I want people with students in public schools to know we are reaching out to them.”
Amanda and Amy witnessed strong buy-in and focus from these young trailblazer, and they are eager to plan Fourth Day follow-up meetings, empower a next wave of leaders, and dive into another round of invitations heading into next year – and Kairos 2.
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