Special Events

Retreats/Conferences/Camps/Pilgrimages are perhaps the most effective ways St. Thomas Aquinas parish can offer its youth. These special events create short-term small faith communities where faith questions can be explored in an in-depth way over an extended period of time, usually a weekend. Since these special events are evangelizing events, they intentionally draw together teens lived experiences and relationships and place them in the context of the divine mystery.

Every special event is different. Some are to draw several dozens of teens into one shared experience. Others are intentional about keeping numbers small. Much depends upon the theme, the psychological and spiritual development of the participants and the goals of the event. Whatever the circumstances, these special events often provide intense and profound experiences of God’s loving presence in the lives teens.

Advantages of our special events:

• They are designed specifically to meet the age/development/spirituality of the participants.
• Since most of these events occur off-site, getting away for a few days enhances the experience of “doing something unique and different.”
• Like summer camp, retreats/conferences often mix different types of activities together in order that different learning styles are engaged.
• When youth are voluntarily present, they usually are committed to active participation and invest themselves in the success of the program.

These special events planning starts from 6 months to years before the event and the are well worth it for our teens to experience. Some of the events that we offer are:

• Spring Retreat
• Summer Camp
• Steubenville Conferences
• Life Teen Leadership Conference
• World Youth Days
• Mission/Pilgrimage Trips