The Confirmation Challenge retreat inspires students to live out their Confirmation in practical ways. The following are descriptions of the different sessions included in our Confirmation Challenge retreats. You can select sessions for your retreat, have us modify any of the sessions or we can create new sessions to meet the needs of your group.

Facing Life’s Challenges (1 hour) - Opening session
Challenge: Students lives consist of many challenges. In this session, participants identify challenges they face in their lives and in their spirituality. They are encouraged to seek and rely on God’s guidance when confronted with such challenges.
Activity: Participants name the challenges they face in their life and spirituality. They share those challenges and particpate in a group challenge activity.
Process: Small group sharing

Building God’s Church (1 hour)
Challenge: Many young people do not see how they fit into a faith community. This session helps participants identify their God-given gifts and abilities and how they are using those gifts at school and in their faith communities. Ways in which their faith communities support them and invite them into ministries in the church is also discussed.
Activity: Within their small group, participants must work as a team using their “gifts”, (materials like playdough, playing cards, tape, etc.) to build a church structure.
Process: Combination of small group/large group processing

Questing for the Grail (1-1.25 hours)
Challenge: Young Catholics often take one of the most important aspects of our Catholic faith – participating in mass – for granted. This session gives them a new, exciting way of thinking about liturgy and helps them to get excited about going to mass.
Activity: Students take part in the “Mass Challenge” activity. In teams, the youth must answer questions about the mass in order to earn bridge pieces and reach the grail.
Process: Large group processing

Finding Christian Role Models & Friends (1 hour)
Challenge: Students often struggle with moral decisions and need to find people in their lives that are effective role models in faith. In this session, participants consider the people in their lives that influence them as role models in life and in faith. They explore how they, too, are role models for others and discover that Jesus Christ is our ultimate role model.
Activity: Participants participate in an activity called “Devils, Saints and Sinners” to help them reflect on the importance of moral decision-making and how our daily choices affect the type of role model we are for others.
Process: Combination of small group/large group processing

Seeing Christ in Your Life (1 hour)
Challenge: It is a challenge for students to recognize where Jesus is present in their lives. This session helps participants realize that Jesus is not just a historical figure, but God -alive and with us in our daily lives. Students reflect on how Christ is present in their lives and are encouraged to find ways to build their personal relationship with Jesus.
Activity: Participants view a 30 minute portion of The Passion of the Christ and experience a guided meditation encounter with Jesus.
Process: Journaling

Choosing Faith over Temptations (45 min - 1 hour)
Challenge: Young people often feel vulnerable to the many temptations they face in life. In this session, participants name the temptations that are typical to their age group and recognize how to overcome temptations with the help of their faith.
Activity: Youth participate in a challenge exercise whereby teams of students try to cross the “River of Temptations” using their “Footsteps of Faith” (aspects of their faith they can rely on in those moments of temptation).
Process: Combination of small group/large group processing

Receiving the Gifts of the Spirit (1 hour)
Challenge: Many students have difficulty understanding what the gifts of the Spirit mean and how the gifts relate to their daily lives. This session helps students understand the gifts of the Spirit and how believers can use these gifts for the benefit of their lives and the lives of others. They are given a fun and easy way to understand the gifts and will then use those gifts in practical teen situations where God’s Spirit can help them.
Activity: Witness/teaching and the Spirit Alive Challenge activity.
Process: Large group processing

Seeking and Giving Forgiveness (45 min-2 ½ hours)*
Challenge: Many students never consider how holding on to hurts in our lives can become an obstacle to growing in our relationship with God. This session helps participants recognize the effects of forgiving others, of being forgiven and the consequences of holding on to hurts in their lives. They discover how handing hurts over to God enables us to live as God intends. Participants are encouraged to partake in the sacrament of reconciliation prior to being confirmed.
Activity: The Hurt Circle – Participants take part in a quiet ceremony where they are able to symbolically hand over past hurts, pains or concerns to God.
*The Hurt Circle is an option for groups who choose not to or are unable to include a formal reconciliation service as part of their retreat experience. Depending on the group, this portion of the session can last up to 2 hours.
Process: Small group sharing

Recognizing God’s Blessings in Our Lives (45 min - 1 hour)
Challenge: In our culture, it is easy for students to focus on things they want instead of appreciate the blessings God has given them. In this session, participants recognize the blessings of family and faith and are given the opportunity to affirm others in their group and build community.
Activity: Participants are affirmed by members of their small group. Letters of encouragement from parents and/or sponsors may also be incorporated into this session.
Process: Individual reflection (reading affirmations)

Lights, Camera, Faith in Action(1 hour)
Challenge: Young Catholics often feel awkward standing up for or sharing their faith with others. In this session students take the aspects from the retreat and incorporate them into their real life situations. Each group will make a video that convinces their peers that following some aspect of the retreat will be helpful to their lives.
Activity: Real life portrayal video taped and shown to the large group.
Process: Small group preparation and large group discussion

Living Your Confirmation (45 min - 1 hour) Closing session
Challenge: Young Catholics often struggle with living out their confirmation and moving forward in their faith life. This session helps participants create a plan for how they can put their Catholic faith into action and continue to grow in their relationship with God after they leave the retreat.
Activity: Participants write a letter to themselves highlighting a plan for how they will continue to grow in faith as they live out their confirmation. (These letters are given to the adult leader who sends them to the participants sometime after their Confirmation)
Process: Large group and individual reflection (letter writing)

Retreat closing (30 min)
Retreatants reflect on the retreat and God’s loving guidance in their lives. They create a prayer rock to remind themselves about the retreat and confirmation. The closing blessing is personalized by each young person coming forward and placing their hand on the crucifix while silently asking God to bless their lives and confirmation preparation.