Notre Dame Encounter

Make God Known, Loved, and Served

Notre Dame Encounter is an opportunity for men and women to come together to examine one’s faith and commitment to follow Christ. It is a weekend retreat open to all Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s, and Holy Cross students. This retreat is based on the spirituality of Blessed Basil Moreau, CSC, particularly when he says:

“By zeal is understood that flame of burning desire which one feels to make God known, loved and served and thus save souls. Apostolic activity is therefore the essential character of this virtue, and ministers and teachers who are animated by this virtue will fulfill their duties with eagerness, affection, courage, and patience.”

NDE finds its direction from the inspiration of Fr. Moreau by which the participants will have the opportunity to discover how they are living their life in Christ through the lens of the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist and Reconciliation. The theme is Make God Known, Loved, and Served.

The NDE retreat focuses on how we make God known, loved and served. This requires work and action which is supported by a strong faith through personal prayer and a willingness to be a part of the faith community, to worship together and to contribute all our prayers, talents and skills to a common purpose. For the purpose of this retreat, you may be coming at this from the opposite direction: the weekend strengthens each person’s foundation of personal and communal faith so that, motivated by zeal, retreatants desire to make God known, loved, served through their apostolic activity; that is, the active life of faith.

Overview of the retreat

Make God Known

• To know God, we need to know ourselves.
• We know God through prayer, scripture, and those around us.
• We know God with our hearts and minds.

We begin the retreat by seeing that we come to know ourselves by reflection, listening to each other and the Scripture and coming to see how we are in relationships. We come to understand that when we know who we are and where we are going, that we will come to be in a deeper relationship with God. We end the day by reconciling in the Sacrament of Reconciliation or conversation with a Campus Minister.

Make God Loved

• We know we are loved through the love of others.
• We show our love of God by how we treat one another.
• God shows love by claiming us in the Sacrament of Baptism.

We focus today on the resurrection and the blessing of God’s love for all creation. Rejoice the Lord is risen! We know we are loved by the expression of love by many people. We read the palanka and share our feelings. This love leads us to know God’s love and then we look at our response by accepting this love through Baptism which brings us into the Church. We renew our baptismal promises and we end this day by affirming the members of our small groups by sharing how they have shown Christ to us this weekend.

Make God Served

• The heart of discipleship is to use our gifts for the service of others.
• The Sacrament of Confirmation seals us with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
• What gifts do you have to build the kingdom of God?

We leave today and return to our lives on campus. We recognize that we are sent and we find strength by the Holy Spirit who sealed us in the Sacrament of Confirmation. We have received gifts and we look at them as individuals and as a community. Our challenge is to go forth and continue the work of Christ.

When will NDE take place?

2012 -2013 Academic Year

November 9 – 11, 2012
April 5 – 6, 2013

Where will it take place?

The Sacred Heart Parish Center

How do I apply?

NDE #112 – March 2-4, 2012 (Print Registration Form)
NDE #113 – March 30 – April 1, 2012 (Print Registration Form)

Contact Mary Olen or 574.631.6633, or come to 114 Coleman-Morse.

For more information, please contact Fr. Joe Carey, CSC at 574-631-3390 / jcarey@nd.edu or Tami Schmitz at 574-631-3016 / tschmitz@nd.edu