URLVD Retreat participants find space on stairs for a meaningful conversation. The retreat was held Jan. 17-19 at Carol Joy Holling Camp near Ashland. SUSAN SZALEWSKI/STAFF

Encountering Jesus

URLVD: Teens discover God’s love at weekend retreat

It was a sight to behold: High-schoolers wrapped up in blankets and in lengthy one-on-one conversations; at other times all 120 of them praying and singing devoutly at Mass and during adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; and yet again listening intently while their peers shared stories of their struggles and transformations.

And all this while being willingly separated from their phones for a weekend.

Sound remarkable?

It was, for the teens involved, for the families they went home to, and for the future of the Church and holy vocations in the Archdiocese of Omaha.

The scenes described are from a URLVD (text-like code for You Are Loved) Retreat held Jan. 17-19 at Camp Carol Joy Holling near Ashland and organized through St. Patrick Parish in Elkhorn.

The weekend retreat was a second for Rory Wright-Kent, a senior at Marian High School in Omaha. She liked her first URLVD Retreat in August so much that she wanted to do it again.

“I felt so loved the entire weekend,” she said, “I felt a pull to come back.”

Wright-Kent is not officially Catholic yet. She is taking classes as part of the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA, formerly RCIA) and is set to become a full member of the Church at Easter.

She said she can’t wait for Confirmation and receiving her first Holy Communion. But already, the 17-year-old is embracing being part of a youth group at St. Patrick and spending time before the Blessed Sacrament, both at the invitation of a friend.

Through those activities and the URLVD retreats, Wright-Kent said, she’s feeling fulfilled, loved and supported.

The idea for the URLVD Retreat was conceived by Alex Zimmerman, a member of St. Patrick Parish and chief financial officer at Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha. Zimmerman borrowed parts of other retreats and combined them for the URLVD Retreat.

The husband and father aimed to recreate the retreat he experienced as a high school sophomore in Tucson, Arizona.

That retreat, required for Confirmation, “just totally changed my outlook on my relationship with God and my life,” Zimmerman said. “And from that moment on, from the time I experienced that, I wanted to share that experience with others.”

Alex Zimmerman, right, founder of the URLVD Retreats, talks with a retreatant at Camp Carol Joy Holling.

The URLVD Retreats began under that name in 2017 and were held twice a year, in August and January. This year, the retreat expanded, and a third one was offered.

Zimmerman helped St. Columbkille Parish in Papillion copy his URLVD Retreat on Jan. 3-5 at the Ashland camp. That retreat drew 53 participants and used the same tested formula of teens witnessing the faith to each other, Mass, Adoration, Reconciliation, as well as time for fun, games, relaxation and a few surprises.

“That’s kind of an exciting development for us to see this blossom at another parish now,” Zimmerman said.

The URLVD Retreats have become fertile ground for religious vocations. Several archdiocese seminarians – and other young men currently considering entering the seminary – made the retreat when they were teens.

That’s why the retreats have gained the attention and support of Father Scott Schilmoeller, vocations director for the archdiocese.

“It is events and cultures like the URLVD Retreats that are the foundation for vocations,” Father Schilmoeller said.

Father Scott Schilmoeller, vocations director for the archdiocese, gathers with teens for Mass at the retreat.

Certain organizations and events – like the URLVD Retreat, Camp Virtus et Veritas for boys, parish youth groups and college Newman Centers – “are the places where an authentically lived faith can grow and a foundation can be solidified,” the vocations director said. “And from this, a vocation can grow out of it. These are the places that I find young people discerning.”

“What defines these cultures,” he said, “is they’re introducing people to Jesus, they’re centered around the Sacraments, they’re a supportive Christian community of peers, with adult leaders who are passionate about the faith.”

The URLVD Retreats have flourished as participants have spread the word and invited their friends, even when those friends have been wavering on their faith.

“This retreat is built to take someone who is only going for the social experience, only going because their friend invited them,” Zimmerman said. “Even if it’s just a little bit of openness to that invitation, we want that person on board.”

When the URLVD Retreats started, the first participants were members of St. Patrick’s youth group, who already were well formed and strong in their faith, Zimmerman said. Since then the retreats have been building on “multiple layers of friends, inviting friends, inviting friends.”

“I call them fringe layers of kids,” the retreat founder said. “Many of them do not already have an active relationship with God, but they’re open to this experience because they hear their friends talking about it and compelling them to check it out.”

“I’ve given up trying to recruit through sort of your traditional means of bulletin announcements, pulpit announcements, emails,” Zimmerman said. Growth through peer invitation “is just head and shoulders above” other recruitment methods.

“We’re really trying to meet people where they’re at and slowly bring them along through authentic conversation,” he said.

The witness talks, typically given by teens who have already experienced the URLVD Retreat, are especially powerful.

“Young people expect that the Catholic adults around them are going to talk about Catholic things,” Father Schilmoeller said, “and they should expect that from us. But it’s powerful when someone who is a peer, who you find relatable and normal, talks about their story because they can see themselves instantaneously in the story of the other person and relate it back into their lives.”

Young people often hide behind phones and other devices, perceiving what their peers are like through social media, he said. “So when a young person expresses their humanity – their trials, difficulties, Jesus meeting them – those who are hearing get permission to get in touch with their own humanity.”

For those teens who grew up with easy access to cell phones and social media, having an hour- or 90-minute face-to-face conversation with someone they’ve just met can be a new experience.

It’s a way for the teens “to have substantive conversations and to allow themselves to be authentic and real with each other,” Zimmerman said.

Cathy Campbell, youth ministry coordinator at St. Columbkille, said she’s grateful to Zimmerman for sharing his retreat model and  helping and coaching her in organizing it. She said she hopes to continue offering the URLVD Retreat annually to members of her youth group and anyone else interested.

The students at the St. Patrick retreat hailed from various public and Catholic high schools in the Omaha metro area. Male and female students slept in separate buildings. Small groups and one-on-one conversations were split by gender.

A Reconciliation service is always part of the retreat. Teens at the St. Columbkille retreat had an opportunity for extended time with a priest in Confession, Campbell said, and talks beforehand helped prepare them to make thorough and heartfelt Confessions.

Father Michael Voithofer, founder and spiritual director of Ablaze Worship Ministry, led students at both January retreats in song and praise during Adoration and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.

“The lights are all dimmed, and it’s beautiful,” Campbell said of the Adoration time.

Some retreatants may have entered the weekend with some apprehension or nervousness, she said, but “all fears were lifted by the end of the weekend.”

  

“My experience of the URLVD retreat was really impactful,” said Kiara Pantoja, who went on the retreat organized by Campbell and St. Columbkille Parish.

“I learned a lot about myself, about having good friendships, and about how much I’m loved,” Pantoja said in a written evaluation of her experience. “That really helped me because I had been struggling with not feeling valued for a while.

“It was also really fun hanging out with other people who cared about their faith. I made good friends and strengthened old relationships, too, which was awesome. (And the food was really good too.)

“After the retreat I got the courage to have a conversation with my parents about how life had really been going instead of giving them vague answers,” Pantoja wrote. “My faith was strengthened immensely and so was my family dynamic because I learned how much God really loved me. This changed my point of view of myself and my life, and I still have a long way to go, but I know it’s all going to work out because God loves me wholly and completely as I am.”

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