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.

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,” 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.

Above: Back Row: Martin Tobin (Trinity), Larry Harden (Bellarmine), Rob Callen (Trinity), Pat Taylor (Bellarmine), Bob O'Connor (Bellarmine). Front Row: Rob Marshall (Trinity), Vinh Tran (Bellarmine), Marya Stewart (Trinity), Geronimo Desumala - Rector (Bellarmine), Jake Casey - Assistant Rector (Bellarmine) Below: Back: Jake Casey & Michael Lush Front Row: Dom Sinagra, Andrew Taylor, Alex Mavrick, Lloyd Reidy, Br Rob Callen.

Four main elements

Similar to programs such as Marriage Encounter and Antioch where students and teachers address participants on issues that build on personal witness and testimony, the Kairos retreats are essentially based on the four main elements of:

1. Who am I? 2. Who is Christ? 3. Who is Christ for me? 4. What now for the future?

In addition, there are certain key elements to each retreat that help to make the experience all the more powerful.

One of the main messages from the retreat is, if you want to know God, you don’t necessarily need to look for visions or miracles because he is present in all those around you.

I have been involved with school retreats both in South Australia and Western Australia for the last 20 years, but nothing I have seen has the profound personal impact on the kids as Kairos does.

For one of the participants in Kairos #1 the experience was likened to the excitement and anticipation of Christmas.

“You know on Christmas Eve when you’re lying in bed wandering what you’re going to get and then on Christmas morning you can’t wait to open your presents? That is what Kairos is like - it’s like opening a surprise package, and it’s a great surprise,” he said.

In order to provide consistency in its impact, every retreat operates under the same framework that is fully scripted in the accompanying Kairos manual. As previously mentioned, the person who facilitates the retreat (the rector) is a student, as are the assistant rectors. Similarly the students set the boundaries or ‘rules’ and oversee the entire operation of the event. Music is a special feature of the retreat and the leaders carefully select both contemporary and liturgical songs for each talk.

Personal faith development

At Trinity, the Kairos Retreat will become an integral part of school’s personal faith development program which consists of three elements:

1. Head – the formal academic Religious Education curriculum. 2. Heart – Campus Ministry: retreats, liturgy, prayer, spiritual direction, chaplaincy. 3. Hands – Christian Service: going out into the community and ‘living the faith’ – Christian witness.

One-off experience

With the Kairos experience now established at the College it is anticipated the retreats will be run each term. Those who participate only do so once, with the exception of the four leaders who facilitate a second. Given the ‘level playing field’ structure of the retreat program, it is not necessarily the natural leaders who become the Kairos leaders as the focus is placed on personal faith development.

The Christian Brothers were founded for the evangelisation of youth and Kairos is real evangelisation in action. At times in the classroom it can be a bit hit and miss, but with Kairos you can actually see the results of your efforts.

For a lot of the staff as well, Kairos has really clicked; it’s a new initiative that has captured the interest of the students who, suddenly, are proud to stand up for and profess their faith.

Once word gets out I would not be surprised if Kairos takes off as the ‘retreat of choice’ in our schools.

Brother Rob Callen Director of Campus Ministry