Marin Catholic Hosts Fall Parent Retreat
A group of Marin Catholic parents kicked off the school year at the Fall Parent Retreat. Modeled after our senior Kairos retreat, parents spent the day reflecting, journaling, discussing, and listening to several students speak about Kairos
A group of Marin Catholic parents kicked off the school year at the Fall Parent Retreat. Modeled from our Senior Kairos Retreat, the Fall Parent Retreat welcomed parents to take some of God’s Time (Kairos) to center themselves at the beginning of the school year. The day was spent listening to Kairos Alumni talks (students and staff), becoming versed on the building blocks of virtue (the path to holiness and happiness), and hearing God’s loving words. This was a wonderful opportunity for parents to participate in a similar way that our MC students do on their faith journey.
Principal Chris Valdez led the parents through an exercise on virtue incorporated in the Kairos retreat, which allows participants to identify how virtue in their own lives leads to happiness. Equipped with a new journal, retreatants ended in our St. Francis Chapel where Domenica Barbagelata-Miller ’18 gave her inspiring “Study and Prayer” talk. She recounted some wisdom of her mother’s, given when Domenica was young, on how to overcome all struggles, “Pray, pray, pray”. Domenica’s mother used to say, “If you have time to worry, you have time to pray.” Domenica left the group with this beautiful imagery: “Prayer is putting yourself in the hands of God. And when you think about it, whose hands are better to care for you than the person who loves you the most in the universe, the person that would have died specifically for only you.”
Huge thanks to our outstanding student Kairos alumni from the Class of 2018: Kyle Pult, Domenica Barbagelata-Miller, Tianna Pryor-Ramirez, Arianna Theofel, and Miguel Maldonaldo. The alumni team witnessed beautifully to the power of God in their own lives, through the beauty and struggles each has encountered. Grounded in virtue and what it means to be a Christian leader, the students shared stories of loss, hardship, loneliness, love, faith, and hope. These Christian leaders modeled for the parents how living virtue will lead to peace.
Parent Nancy Dowling reflects on the retreat:
“I found this renewed inner strength and calm that the retreat gave me. As a mom, I am on a treadmill every day. and I feel the anxieties of life, and the retreat reminded me of our gifts of virtues that God has given us: love, peace, calm and strength. The retreat (speakers, journaling, prayer and reflection time) helped me to put things in my life back into perspective. A week later, I am still feeling the amazing benefits of the retreat and it is a wonderful feeling. The young adults who shared their stories were amazing. The courage, strength, maturity, and love that these young adults embodied just blew my mind. What they have been through in their young lives was so moving to me. It really opened up my eyes to the saying that is so true: you never know the pain that others are carrying or the journey that someone is walking.”
675 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, Kentfield CA 94904 Phone: 415-464-3898 | Email: admissions@marincatholic.org
