beatitude@harrogate

20-22 feb 09

Thank you to everyone who attended beatitude@harrogate at St John Fisher Catholic High School, and who made it such a blessed and fruitful retreat!

Despite initial setbacks (when it was discovered last minute that the Youth 2000 van urgently needed a new exhaust…!) the prayer festival got off to a miraculous start, without any of the usual retreat equipment. When the van finally arrived at the end of the first evening, an incredible joint effort transformed the school in no time, and the retreat continued with no further hitches!

It was great to see 140 young people arrive at the prayer festival over the weekend. For many it was their first Youth 2000 retreat. A great mix of young, local people attended: university students from York and Leeds, Confirmation candidates from Ampleforth, young teachers, and teenagers and families from Wetherby. It was uplifting to see young people from many backgrounds spending time together in prayer and fellowship.

We were very blessed with some wonderful and talented speakers. Anna Cowell, Diocesan Youth Officer for Leeds, gave the opening talk based around the scripture verse, “Who do you say I am?” (Mt 16:15) which invited us to go more deeply into our relationship with Christ. Fr Philip Conner from Lancaster gave the second talk on how to pray. We were blessed to have the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal from Bradford with us throughout the weekend, and we were delighted that Fr Gabriel CFR, the Vocations Director from New York, who was visiting the UK, was able to give the third talk on God’s invitation to reconciliation. The retreat concluded when Fr John Wilson spoke on the call to evangelisation, the necessity of sharing what we have received.

In addition to the main talks, Kaye Smith, of One Love organisation, based in Glasgow, offered an optional workshop. Kaye is an inspirational speaker on God’s plan for love, sexuality, dating, relationships and marriage, and she was able to make the concepts of the Theology of the Body real and accessible to many of us who attended her workshop. Youth 2000 hopes to work closely with Kaye in the future, in order to be able to offer to all young people who attend Youth 2000 retreats the vital and exciting teaching she provides.

The highlight, as always, was the Reconciliation Service, where it was wonderful to see so many young people go to Confession, followed by a beautiful Healing Service, where each person was blessed by Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

We were grateful for the tremendous support received from the many local priests who were able to be present over the weekend. It was wonderful to see so many priests both hearing Confessions during the Reconciliation Service and gathered to celebrate the three Masses during the retreat. We were also pleased to be joined by four young Franciscan Sisters from Derbyshire.

As in previous years, Youth 2000 received a warm welcome from all at St John Fisher. We are deeply appreciative of the generosity of local people who helped provide food for those at the retreat, the hospitality of local families who hosted Youth 2000 leaders in their homes, and the welcome given by the parishioners as we joined them for Sunday Mass. It was a joy to be in Harrogate!