By: Ellayna Morasch (12) 

Kairos is one of the many retreat options offered for the junior class at Helias Catholic High School. It is a faith-filled weekend that helps the retreatants grow in community with one another. 

“This is one of the best retreats we have to offer here at Helias,” Fr. Clever, who was the chaplain during the retreat said. 

Kairos is over three days at Camp Macomi. The main focus is what the Greek word 'kairos' actually means, which is “God’s time.” There are many aspects and details that the campus ministry class puts into planning it. 

“I think Kairos is such a meticulously planned retreat, even to the last detail, which is what makes it such a great retreat for all those who attend it,” said Noah Doolittle (12). 

Some aspects of the retreat include talks given by some of the peer ministers and teachers. They put months in advance planning and assigning roles for the retreat.

“I tried to just let the Holy Spirit guide me in what I need to say and just talking to God helped me prepare for my talk,” said Doolittle. 

  Another big part of the retreat is small group discussions after each talk to dive deeper into what each talk is about. Small group time is used as a platform for students to share personal stories and build connections with one another. 

“A big part of Kairos is just the vulnerability that everyone shows, and that helps to mesh everyone in small groups, but also throughout their retreat,” Doolittle stated. 

One of the key aspects of Kairos is to show that you are a result of God’s friendship and these results have been present your whole life, even through the ups and downs. There are many pivotal moments in the retreat, but the one many keep coming back to is being in adoration in front of Jesus in the blessed sacrament. 

Jonah Metzger (11) said, “It was so powerful being able to go to confession and then come back to adoration and appreciate Jesus in his true form without sin with everything that we had learned from the weekend.”

“I really enjoyed the adoration and the peace it brought me,” Anna Price (11) said. 

The community also helped play a role in the Kairos retreat as well. There was even a parallel retreat the peer ministers who couldn’t go on Kairos did called Journey. During this retreat they were assigned specific people on retreat to pray for. 

Atticus Barnes (11) expressed, “I liked the sense of community that we had: everybody really came together, and instead of individuals growing in faith, it was a big group growing in faith together, especially through prayer."

Even now, the Kairos retreatants have stayed on their journey of faith. They have formed a Bible study that meets every one to two weeks.

“I wanted to continue our community and everything that we learned, especially focusing more on God; I’m glad we were able to get this Bible study together,” Barnes said. 

You don’t always know what is coming next on this retreat because it is on God’s time, but each aspect is made to touch each retreatant's heart in a different way.

“This really helped get my life back on the right path,” Parker Johnson (11) said. 

“The retreatants had this unique opportunity to experience something they may have never experienced before and that is realizing how loved they are by Jesus and others even though they may never have realized it before,” Clara Underwood (12) expressed.