Each year, Benilde-St. Margaret’s holds many retreats for the different grade levels. Each grade gets together for a day and participates in team-building activities, lectures, group discussions, and more. Retreats are important to the structure of the BSM community because they not only help students grow in their faith but also help students build relationships with their peers. This year’s recent ninth-grade retreat was no different.
The retreat was held on October 23rd-24th at Camp Eden Wood. Approximately 185 students were present, and the retreats lasted about the same duration as an average school day. While at the retreat, the ninth graders were separated into small groups. They met with these groups multiple times throughout the retreat, discussing all types of questions, from icebreakers to big spiritual questions. Retreat leader and advisor Nick Brady looked forward to the peer ministers stepping into their roles as leaders with the ninth graders, “I’m excited to see what the peer ministers can do for the small groups… [and to gain a] better understanding the group dynamics and being able to support the games better and just make things run smoother overall,” Brady said.
Every year, the retreats have a common theme. The retreat theme for this year was Character of a Red Knight, meaning that the retreat aims to show students, especially new ones, what it means to be a red knight. Brady feels it’s important for the ninth graders to embody the true meaning of being a red knight because he wants to create a great sense of community throughout BSM, “It’s just a good opportunity to help ninth graders understand what it means to be a red knight, a person of character, and a person who lives out the virtues we hear about in the Gospel,” Brady said.
Along with the theme selection, BSM’s peer ministers helped plan this year’s retreat. Starting last year, the peer ministry club’s popularity has grown tremendously this school year. Peer ministers help out at all the retreats, whether that’s helping in the planning process, volunteering at retreats, or leading small groups. Peer minister of two years, Abbie Marusich, is happy to be more involved in the planning, “This year I had a better understanding of what the retreat was going to look like. We were able to come up with some of the activities and practice [them] beforehand,” Marusich said.
Each retreat aims to serve as an opportunity to grow stronger in faith and understand the meaning behind what it means to be a red knight. Through retreats, the student’s takeaway important information and life lessons to use in and outside of school. “If I had one hope for every ninth grader leaving the retreat, it would be that one of those three virtues that we’re going to talk about in connection to the character theme, either patience, generosity, or integrity. [And that] every ninth grader is able to look at one of those virtues and see how it can apply to their life in a deeper way,” Brady said.