Interested in Experiencing a St. Michael's Retreat? (By Dr. Josh Coleman, Director of Campus Ministry & Theology Instructor)

This year’s Junior retreat focuses on encountering Christ in those who have suffered material and spiritual alienation from homelessness. Specifically, we will be spend the mornings of February 5 and April 8 at Community First Village, a Mobile Loaves and Fishes tiny-home community for those transitioning from living on the streets. While there, we will be doing such practical activities as tending the garden, restocking shelves in the community store, landscaping in and around homes, tending chicken coops and goats or laying new pathways. Critically, however, these activities will be done alongside residents who are full members of the community and who were themselves formerly homeless. In this space of working alongside one another, we move away from the idea of “serving” another person and into the reality of kinship and oneness with the other. Jesus asked that we may be one, just as He and the Father are one.

Later in the day, after having lunch with our new co-workers, Catholic Charities will be putting
on a “poverty simulation,” an exercise in which students will take on various adult roles having to make real life financial decisions based on low-income budgets. This exercise makes more tangible how easy it is to fall into economic ruin. But more than these material concerns, and to paraphrase the founder of Community First, material struggles are not solved by housing alone. Rather, they can be solved by forming a community which serves as both the means and end of eradicating homelessness, the healing of soul and body at once.

We look forward to friends and family of St. Michael’s participating, as this retreat has always
been transformative for those involved. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at (505) 920-1996. Should you wish to join us for the day, please use this link to sign up. We welcome all participants.