Archdiocesan youth seek deeper spiritual experience
April 7, 2015
KINGWOOD — Energizing our youth regarding faith isn’t always easy. However when a group of young people take it upon themselves to expand their spiritual development, the process flourishes almost on its own. Students at Kingwood High School did just that by forming a Christian club, F+SHS (Father plus Son and Holy Spirit), with the purpose of sharing their faith with like-minded individuals.
The students then approached Cindy Mosby, Marcela Chamoun and Deacon Ed Kleinguetl, all from St. Martha Catholic Church, to support the desire for a retreat where the participants could develop a closer relationship with the Lord.
Late in February, nearly 50 teenagers from eight Houston-area high schools participated in a one-day retreat with the purpose of developing a closer relationship with the Lord.
“Initially we thought maybe 12 young people would participate and we would meet in someone’s home,” Deacon Kleinguetl said. “The Holy Spirit had much bigger plans.”
The retreat was organized in 45 days using materials that were adapted from one of St. Martha’s Parish Action Plan objectives that Deacon Kleinguetl, Mosby and Chamoun worked on last year. The specific objective, called Expand Spiritual Development Opportunities, has the specific purpose of developing programs in the areas of personal prayer, the Mass as prayer and selected spiritual devotions.
In support of this objective, a series of six individual evening prayer sessions were developed: The Jesus Prayer, Praying with Icons, Liturgy of the Hours, Praying with the Saints, and a play entitled Saint Faustina and Eucharistic Adoration. These prayer sessions were conducted at St. Martha last Fall.
“For the retreat, we used the materials from these prayer sessions and also combined Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium with the Gospel messages of encounters with Jesus,” said Mosby, St. Martha pastoral plan shepherd. “The end result was very well received. The retreat energized our youth regarding their faith and they are now giving us ideas of how to carry forward with this journey.” Mosby says that other high schools have expressed interested in starting similar clubs.
This all began among a few amazing teenagers with a yearning for a closer relationship with God.
For more information on St. Martha’s Parish Action Plan objective and/or retreat materials, contact pastoralplan@archgh.org.