Barkeley Lodge at the Estes Park YMCA has breathtaking views of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains. Going there gives me the strange feeling of returning home, even though my current home is thousands of miles away. For the past four summers, I have flown from California, bringing at least one of my daughters to attend the Venturers’ middle school vacation organized by the Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo priests, sisters, and staff from Nativity of Our Lord in Broomfield, Colorado. During the five days of the vacation, I serve as one of the parent chaperones. However, my main purpose for the trip is not to keep an extra eye on the kids, nor to participate in a parent service project. I am simply there to witness the presence and work of Christ for myself. Although the activities at the vacation are different every year, the outcome for us remains the same: when the vacation ends, my daughters and I go home exhausted yet elated.

Although the structure of the Venturers’ vacation sounds like a typical Catholic summer camp with daily prayer, mass, presentations, discussions, games, and songs, the essence of this vacation sets it apart from any other camps my daughters have been to — religious or otherwise. This is because the vacation organizers, who belong to the ecclesial movement of Communion and Liberation, boldly and tirelessly propose the importance of experiencing Christ in the present. Their emphasis on the fact that Christianity is “an event which takes place here and now” has been a unique and powerful method that transforms the youth of today. In an age when tradition and morality can no longer safeguard the faith of today’s youth, sometimes even becoming a divisive cudgel, and intellectual arguments have little power in winning the hearts of young people, the only way to convince them that Christ is real is through personal experiences.

In a world full of uncertainty and contradiction, our youth are constantly tempted to disengage from reality in order to be happy. It might seem impossible to find Christ in many personal experiences. However, the theme of this year’s Venturers vacation – Age Quod Agis (Latin for “do what you are doing”) — stresses the necessity of being fully immersed in not just some, but all the circumstances that are given to us. Yes, some of our circumstances disturb our equilibrium and upset us — they are completely out of our control. At the same time, these circumstances can stir up the deepest questions and needs of our hearts. To be completely engaged in every circumstance is crucial to our experiencing Christ in the flesh, because it is the impact with reality that awakens our hearts and helps us recognize our need for Christ.

At the Venturers’ vacation, the priest, sisters and volunteers are true educators of the hearts. They set high expectations but give clear directions and constant guidance to the youth to meet those expectations. For instance, in order to help the students observe silence after prayer each night, Fr. Accu, the priest leading the vacation, patiently restates the reason for keeping silence every evening. He explains that silence is the most adequate response in front of the presence of God, and kids who go to bed in silence will wake up with a fuller heart and more readiness to see Beauty the next day. To Fr. Accu, rules are not imposition on the freedom of the kids, but invitations to have a fuller experience at the vacation. Similarly, every activity, from mass, prayers, mountain hikes, competitive games, free time and silly songs, are all designed to help the kids discover meaning, beauty and happiness, which are the signs of the presence of Christ.

It is true that in the beginning, many kids do not want to participate in all the activities. However, seeing how much fun their friends have when choosing to follow the proposals, their desire for happiness propels them to follow as well. And the more they follow, the more they start to taste and live. Over the course of five short days, many students realize how much fuller their experience of the vacation becomes when they freely adhere to the rules, how deep friendships can form in the limited time span, and how all aspects of the vacation are united for a single purpose—to find Christ in the here and now.

At the end of the vacation, I was utterly moved by the powerful transformation of many kids. It seems that everyone is joyful and no one wants to leave. In their simple words, even the goofiest boy expressed how unique this vacation was for him and how much he had grown closer to God — in addition to all the fun he had. In his summary, Fr. Accu eloquently characterized the students’ experience as something exceptional. The source of this exceptionality is Christ, and He is present everywhere, all the time. To become more familiar with Him, we have to learn to look for Him by allowing ourselves to be fully immersed in reality, without dismissing anything.

Yunan, San Jose, CA