By Carroll College’s annual Men’s and Women’s Retreats recently hosted 40 to 60 students each for two days in the Montana Wilderness.
The Women’s Retreat was Jan. 23-25, and the Men’s Retreat was held on Jan. 30 through Feb. 1
At the Women’s Retreat, young ladies kicked off the spring semester, focusing on building relationships and forming identities in the eyes of God.
“The underpinning objective is to kick off the year, just really connecting with a great awareness of how beloved you are by God,” said Deidre Casey, an assistant director of campus ministry. “So this year’s theme, we’re gonna be exploring our identities in relationship with one another and with God, being daughter, sister, bride, and mother.”
The Women’s Retreat was held at Camp Utmost in Potomac, Montana, making for a weekend filled with activities, both relationship and faith-related.
According to Casey, students participated in icebreakers, board games, prayer, and heard from guest speaker and alumni Maggie Phelan.
“She lives here locally and is working currently for the chancery for the Diocese of Helena,” said Casey. “Next year, we will have some sisters coming from Chicago.”
Students who attended Women’s Retreat returned to campus feeling spiritually reset, said Ava Goodwin, a sophomore psychology major from Portland, Oregon.
“You can expect a fun, relaxing time, but you also should expect a lot of conversation and deep talk that you don’t get in your day-to-day life,” said Goodwin.
Both retreats are mostly funded by the campus ministry’s budget, allotted by the institution, but students were asked to pay a $45 fee to offset location, food, and travel expenses. However, Casey said no one would turn students away from the retreat.
“We never want that to be an obstacle to somebody coming,” Casey said. “We wouldn’t turn anybody away who wanted to be there.”
The annual Men’s Retreat concluded at St. Thomas camp in Monarch, Montana, Jan. 30 through Feb. 1.
The goal of the Men’s Retreat was to build strong identities and a culture of faith among the men on campus, said Father Tyler Frohlich, the college chaplain and director of campus ministry.
“And these young men who come, coming from every aspect of campus, then go live these things in their respective place… so it’s a really good outreach for the whole campus,” Frohlich said.
The next campus ministry retreat is Spring Search, which occurs Sunday, April 19, through Wednesday, April 22. Registration will open on Sunday, March 1, on Carroll’s website. The deadline to sign up is Sunday, March 22.
All students are welcome to attend Spring Search and any other upcoming campus ministry retreats, as Frohlich put it, “it’s an invitation, not an imposition.”
