Mercy Center Hosts Retreats Throughout the Year
Mary Grace Donaldson
Issue date: 11/21/09 Section: Opinion
The Mercy Center for Spiritual Life hosted its annual Fall Retreat, "Dive In!" over the weekend of Nov.6-8, 2009 at Sacred Hearts Retreat Center in Wareham, Mass.
As a participant and a member of the leadership team that planned the retreat, I am here to give a first-hand account of an incredible weekend.
Our group consisted of Salve students, along with Anna Mae Mayer, director of the Mercy Center and Fr. Kris von Maluski, Salve's university chaplain. This was Fr. von Maluski's first retreat and he took an active leadership role in the planning of the retreat.
The theme of the retreat was based on a song titled "Dive" by Steven Curtis Chapman. Many sections of the song had corresponding activities and presentations. Some of these important lyrics included "thirsty," "I have been carried here," "as I walk to the edge," "it's time to take the leap of faith" and "caught in the rush, lost in the flow." Those of us on the leadership team took some of these lyrics and made them into presentations of our faith.
We were, however, in for some wonderful surprises once we arrived in Wareham. After a few welcoming activities, Fr. von Maluski "dove in" to facilitating student presentations, and corresponding small group discussions. We created paper divers that represented ourselves, to place on a large mural of an ocean. These divers would represent to what degree each of us was "diving in" to the retreat, to each other, and to our faith. In that same evening, we listened to two presentations by Cait Pugliese, a junior, and Olivia Marquart, a freshman. We concluded with a slightly unusual activity for a college retreat. Father von Maluski supplied each of us with play-doh with which we would create a sculpture that resembled 'being thirsty for God.' While we were surprised by the nature of this activity, we were very enthused about flexing our creative muscles. Once we got deeper into the meaning behind it, we had some truly awesome results.
Saturday morning we were eager to begin day two. The highlight of the second day on our journey of faith was Fr. von Maluski's labyrinth prayer. We entered into an outdoor labyrinth with an individually guided meditation. At each turn of the labyrinth, we were to meditate on one person who influenced our lives and who we are today. On the way back out of the labyrinth, we were to meditate on a turning point in our life at each corner. We had to come up with eight people and eight turning points, but the effect that this exercise had on our group for the rest of the day was overwhelming. We all came out of it having learned something about ourselves, or having dealt with an experience in a new light. However, the only negative to it was that it used up a great portion of our emotional energy, and the meditations were not over yet.
As a participant and a member of the leadership team that planned the retreat, I am here to give a first-hand account of an incredible weekend.
Our group consisted of Salve students, along with Anna Mae Mayer, director of the Mercy Center and Fr. Kris von Maluski, Salve's university chaplain. This was Fr. von Maluski's first retreat and he took an active leadership role in the planning of the retreat.
The theme of the retreat was based on a song titled "Dive" by Steven Curtis Chapman. Many sections of the song had corresponding activities and presentations. Some of these important lyrics included "thirsty," "I have been carried here," "as I walk to the edge," "it's time to take the leap of faith" and "caught in the rush, lost in the flow." Those of us on the leadership team took some of these lyrics and made them into presentations of our faith.
We were, however, in for some wonderful surprises once we arrived in Wareham. After a few welcoming activities, Fr. von Maluski "dove in" to facilitating student presentations, and corresponding small group discussions. We created paper divers that represented ourselves, to place on a large mural of an ocean. These divers would represent to what degree each of us was "diving in" to the retreat, to each other, and to our faith. In that same evening, we listened to two presentations by Cait Pugliese, a junior, and Olivia Marquart, a freshman. We concluded with a slightly unusual activity for a college retreat. Father von Maluski supplied each of us with play-doh with which we would create a sculpture that resembled 'being thirsty for God.' While we were surprised by the nature of this activity, we were very enthused about flexing our creative muscles. Once we got deeper into the meaning behind it, we had some truly awesome results.
Saturday morning we were eager to begin day two. The highlight of the second day on our journey of faith was Fr. von Maluski's labyrinth prayer. We entered into an outdoor labyrinth with an individually guided meditation. At each turn of the labyrinth, we were to meditate on one person who influenced our lives and who we are today. On the way back out of the labyrinth, we were to meditate on a turning point in our life at each corner. We had to come up with eight people and eight turning points, but the effect that this exercise had on our group for the rest of the day was overwhelming. We all came out of it having learned something about ourselves, or having dealt with an experience in a new light. However, the only negative to it was that it used up a great portion of our emotional energy, and the meditations were not over yet.
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