New lessons, familiar Scriptures: High school retreat centers on Emmaus Walk
Students sing and worship during the Emmaus retreat for high school students at the Holy Family Religious and Retreat Center, Saturday, November 16, 2024. (NTC/Rodger Mallison)
FORT WORTH — Many Biblical stories are so rich, we can return time and again for new insights.
The Walk to Emmaus is one of those weighty passages, and those well-known verses from Luke served as the theme of the annual high school retreat again this year, for the second of three years.
About 200 students from nine parishes and Cristo Rey Fort Worth High School met at Holy Family Religious and Retreat Center in Fort Worth for a full day of activities — from small group exercises to lively music, from engaging talks to quiet opportunities for reconciliation and prayer — centered around when the disciples walking with Jesus to Emmaus recognized Him in the breaking of the bread. The students concluded the retreat with the breaking of the bread in the holy Eucharist, with the celebration of Mass by Father Robert Strittmatter.
Victoria Ramon, diocesan director of youth, young adult, and campus ministries, said last year’s retreat focused on Jesus opening the disciples’ minds to Scripture on the Road to Emmaus, and next year’s retreat will highlight the disciples’ actions after they recognized Jesus: they departed to tell others.
The purpose of the three-year concentration on the Walk to Emmaus, said Ramon, is “for these high school students to really dig in and understand what happens on that Road to Emmaus with the disciples is the same thing the Lord desires for each and every single one of us.”
Emmaus today
Katie Prejean McGrady, an author, international speaker, and radio show host, delivered the keynote presentation, weaving the lessons of Emmaus into recent stories from her life.
She emphasized the surprises in the Bible story — an unrecognized Jesus joining their walk, the “stranger’s” knowledge of Scripture, Jesus revealing Himself in the breaking of the bread, His disappearance afterward — and related them to the surprises God gives to those who trust Him.
She shared the surprises God showered on her and her husband on his birthday in May, including a private tour of the Sistine Chapel, where they met country music superstars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.
“If we can get to a place of trust in our lives, if you can let Jesus surprise you, if you can believe for just a moment the reality that God has planned for you, then it’s better than the plan you could make for yourself,” she said.
“He wants to give you something. He has something for you. And when He gives that to you, oftentimes a profound surprise, a whole new world opens,” she continued.
McGrady compared her daughter’s recent episode dribbling the soccer ball in the wrong direction for the length of the field to the disciples on the Road to Emmaus. Seemingly unrelated, both stories suggest some questions for reflection. Where am I going? Who am I going with? What will I do when I get there?
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McGrady told the North Texas Catholic it’s important for Catholics to make a substantial commitment to their faith in their youth. She said, “If a young person has an authentic experience of Christ at this age, then they realize, ‘This is something for me. It’s not something that I just have to watch other people do. It’s mine.’”
High school students are receptive to learning and growing in their faith, she continued. “When you give kids permission to just be fully present, they actually embrace it,” she said. “If we challenge them to invest in a day and fully buy-in — turn the phone off, be present to us — they will.”
Ramon added, “They’re at a place in their journey where they’re trying to figure out who they are.” Youth ministry “gives them the opportunity to say, ‘yes, I am a son or daughter of God, the Father. Yes, I choose to follow Christ.’”
In addition to the fall high school retreat, the Diocese of Fort Worth has planned a confirmation retreat for April.