By: Asher Korycka
On the 13th-15th of November, the Northeast Diocese of the Charismatic Episcopal Church held their diocesan-wide Young Adult Winter Retreat at the Marist Brothers Retreat House in Esopus, NY.
At the start of the three-day retreat there were icebreakers which helped all the youth from different states to connect with each other. Following this was some awesome praise music done by Church Of The Intercessor’s youth band. Throughout the weekend there were very good teachings mainly focused on God calling the youth to Him, to live a life for Him and to stand out with Him. These teachings were done by Fr. Peter Donatelli, Bp. Gregory Ortiz and Jamie LeGrand. In Fr. Peter’s word he taught us two great acronyms, one of which really stuck with me. R-O-C-K, taken from the prayer of Clement of Rome*, stands for: Reveal, Order, Confirm, Keep. What this taught me is that God wants us to ask for what we don’t know to be revealed, what is lacking order/make complete. The rest of the acronym is just saying we can always ask for God to confirm the things we do know and keep us in him.
After each teaching was a great time of worship. During the worship on Saturday there was also amazing prayer and prophesying in which I and bunch of others received a word from God about our lives. During all this time we got to grow more in Christ.
We also participated in some very unusual, but entertaining, team-building games such as: pretzel passing, bubble gum sculpting, pass the pulse, and plank races. In and around the fun activities there were meaningful small group discussions led by really great and courageous Christian adults of the CEC such as Daniel and Amanda Fowley, Dn. Eric Okrin, Dn. Keith Libolt, Lisa Saccone, Bridget Hunt, & Joe Armetta just to name a few. I believe that over the weekend lives were touched and the Youth of the CEC grew stronger in their Christian walk.
*ALMIGHTY GOD, FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
GRANT, WE PRAY, THAT WE MIGHT BE GROUNDED AND SETTLED
IN YOUR TRUTH BY THE COMING OF YOUR HOLY SPIRIT
INTO OUR HEARTS. WHAT WE DO NOT KNOW
REVEAL TO US; WHAT IS LACKING WITHIN US;
MAKE COMPLETE THAT WHICH WE DO KNOW;
CONFIRM IN US AND KEEP US BLAMELESS IN YOUR SERVICE,
THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.
