How NET Retreats Bless My Life by Carson
Hi! Today I'm going to talk a little about NET retreats, what they are, and how they bring joy and holiness into my life. So, what is NET? NET is an acronym that stands for National Evangelization Team. I think there are about six NET teams that go around the U.S.A (though there are also NET teams in Canada and Scotland, and probably other countries) putting on Catholic retreats for sixth grade to high school kids.
Who runs these retreats? I don't even know where to get started. First, the missionaries who run it have a rare joy that makes them unique. You can tell that they all are on fire for what they do, which is spreading God's love in a deep, fun way. They're extremely funny usually too, and that makes it even better. When they come around to Springfield, we try to host as many NET missionaries as we can at our house. Right now, we have two NET missionaries staying at our house with us and they're awesome.
What's in these retreats? The retreats consist of testimonies, fun activities, dramas, skits, small groups, and best of all, NET retreats incorporate Mass, Adoration, and Confession into their retreats. You get to hear about some tips from the missionaries on how they grew and are growing in their spiritual life during the talks and testimonies they give.
In small groups, the boys and girls divide up into groups where you talk about holiness and the theme for that retreat. In many things I've been to, there's always friend groups who like to segregate themselves and such, but it's not like that in NET somehow. The kids there are all engaged, and I could feel a real friendship growing between us in the few hours I got to know these people. It's not just common shallow talk either, It's deep stuff. We do Lectio Divina, which is a type of scripture meditation, and talk about real things, and help each other out and give each other support.
As I said before, the best part of these retreats though is how they somehow manage to get Mass, Adoration, and Confession in there. So many kids who normally wouldn't go to Confession are encouraged to, and most do. They do Adoration in a special way with live praise and worship music and dramas, which are little plays about Jesus that are surprisingly impactful.
After these NET retreats, I go home with this crazy holy feeling in me that is better than anything else. It's like I can feel my mind cleared and God speaking to me. The only two other places I can think of being at and feeling like this in missions and when we visited the Seminary, where all the people there had this holy love, with a bunch of fun mixed in with it.
If you're reading this and you already know about NET, great; keep going to the retreats and tell others about it. If you are hearing this for the first time, I'm telling you to figure out when the NET missionaries are coming by you and go to a retreat. After going to one of these retreats, I always want more. I try to always try to convince my mom to let me bomb all the other NET retreats near me. So, with that, I've given you a brief overview of the program, but It's not something you can experience by reading. You have to go out there and experience one yourself!
