The source and summit

Bella Bailey

Multimedia Correspondent

The Office of Youth Ministry hosted the annual SUMMIT retreat, at Thomas More University, Crestview Hills, Feb. 27–March 1. Twenty-two schools and thirty-four parishes were represented at the retreat making it one of the most diverse and robust in retreat history.

The weekend retreat focuses on the Eucharist and how to connect with Christ through the Blessed Sacrament. Hannah Ubelor, core team member and associate director of youth ministry at the Jesuit Spiritual Center, Milford, Ohio, said, “the goal is for the teens to really encounter Christ, specifically in the Eucharist. Our main goal is the Eucharist, it’s adoration, it’s Mass and really having an encounter with Christ and personal relationship with him.”

Between guest speakers and breakout sessions, students had the opportunity for spiritual renewal through confessions, adoration and Mass. On the second day of the retreat, following guest speaker Mercedarian Sister Eucharist, Father AJ Gedney, parochial vicar at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Cold Spring, led the students in Eucharistic Adoration. Joined by seminarians Will Fuller, Joseph O’Bryan, Aaron Batson and Evan Ihrig, Father Gedney processed throughout the Mary, Seat of Wisdom Chapel holding the monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament.

Many students, moved by the reverence of adoration, chose to lay prostrate as the Eucharist passed.

“They all have a heart for Jesus in the Eucharist,” said Ms. Ubelor. “They were all very reverent. For most of them their favorite part is adoration and just being with Jesus, nothing can beat that.”