The Kairos Retreat
Back Row: Luke Webster, Luke McGinnity, .Kris Kaminskis, Michael Lush, Nathan Howe, Liam Courtney, Dominic Sinagra, Andrew Edwards. 3rd Row: Michael Smith, Lloyd Reidy, Jonathon Glen, Marya Stewart, Julian Misso, Brendan Dee, Robert Norman. 2nd Row: Hagan O’Connor, Andrew Taylor, John Rengel, Martin English, Emmanuel Solana, Mathiew Marks, Alex Mavrick, Alex Majewski. Front Row: Martin Tobin, Vinh Tran, Geronimo Desumala, (Rector), Larry Harden, Rob Callen, Pat Taylor, Rob Marshall, Jake Casey, (Assistant Rector), Bob O’Connor.
Kairos: faith development in action “It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life!” That was the profound reaction of one of the 22 Year 12 students from Trinity College who recently participated in the College’s inaugural Kairos Retreat. Having its origins some 15 years ago in the Cursillo Movement out of the United States, the Kairos Retreat is credited as having ‘turned around’ the faith life of those schools in which it has been adopted. Initially embraced by a number of Jesuit High Schools, the initiative has since expanded throughout the United States and has now arrived in Perth (in its entirety) due largely to the persistence of Trinity College’s Director of Campus Ministry, Br Rob Callen. “Kairos” is the Greek word for time, but unlike chronos, it means the Lord’s time – that special moment in one’s life. The Kairos retreat runs for four days and three nights, and is offered only to Year 12 students.
he recalled. “What really stood out was the retreats brought the Catholicity of the schools to the fore; they were not simply Catholic by name.” In the five years since his return, Br Callen continued to push for the introduction of Kairos to Perth; the success coming earlier this year with the endorsement of his proposal by the College. Introducing Kairos In order to lay a strong foundation for the continued operation of the retreats, four senior students and two staff members from Bellarmine College Prep. in San Jose, California (a host school during the 1997 tour) were sponsored by the College to introduce and facilitate Kairos #1 that was held at Moore River (Guilderton). This was a necessity as the main feature of the Kairos retreat is that it is run by students, with adult supervision. As it was their first retreat the Trinity boys hadn’t had any previous exposure to the operations of Kairos, hence the invitation to the Americans. Future retreats will now be led by a core group of four students from the retreat held immediately previous to the current one. In fact, Kairos #2 was held at the end of August and was conducted by Trinity students.
The Kairos phenomenon Br Callen was first introduced to the Kairos phenomenon in 1997 during a knowledge sharing tour of eight US Jesuit high schools. “I remember being taken aback by the effect these retreats were having on the young people who participated in them,”
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