Learning about sacramental life at Llangasty retreat

On St Patrick’s Day, a dozen young adults gathered at Llangasty Retreat House in the Brecon Beacons. Ranging in age from 19 to their early 30s, each came to learn more about the sacramental life: how God works in and through this created world to draw us to His love and fill us with His life.

I organised the retreat together with Dr Mark Clavier, the diocesan Canon Theologian, and it was led by the Rev’d Yaroslav Walker, Assistant Priest at Holy Trinity Sloane Square in the Diocese of London.

Fr Yaroslav’s three talks encouraged us to think sacramentally: how the world, the church and the individual Christian is shot through with divinity. Fr Yaro spoke of God’s joy in His creation and His desire to be near to His people. Herbert, Lewis, Tolkien, and Chesterton were mustered to help us consider the Christian life as a journey into an ever-closer relationship with God. Besides the talks, there was ample time for wide-ranging and sometimes lively discussion, for fellowship, for exploring the beautiful landscape around Llangorse Lake, and for worship together. Time spent together silently adoring the Blessed Sacrament was especially powerful.

Like a majority of my own generation (and like me personally), most of those present did not come from a traditional Church background. Two grew up culturally Buddhist. Two others hope to be Baptised in the next month. One was a former Pentecostalist seeking something deeper and more sustaining. Several still classed themselves as “seekers” – on a journey towards faith, or even perhaps away from it. All responded to an open invitation – the diocese having kindly covered the costs of the retreat.

All who came had taken the decision at this stage of their emotional and intellectual maturity to engage seriously with the faith. One spoke of feeling as though he had been “in a long distance relationship with God” and needed now to meet Him face to face. Many recognised that they lived lives that were too on-line, too solitary, and lacking purpose. There was a palatable sense of the brokenness of community and creation and of the search for a deeper meaning than was possible through politics or social activism.

Fr Yaroslv said: “What I found most interesting and most heartening was the focused simplicity of the whole affair. All pilgrims were intentional in wishing to learn more about the sacramental life and the foundational principles of Christian belief. There were no questions or conversations that touched on ‘social issues’. The group were concerned with Christian apologetics and with deepening their spiritual understanding. I would go as far as to suggest that I felt they were most engaged when we explored doctrines most counter-cultural and theologically orthodox - discipline in prayer and teaching rather than self-actualisation and self-gratification.”

Fr Mark added: “How wonderful it was to be among these young men and women searching for God and for deeper meaning in their lives. The questions they asked were challenging, wise, and honest.”

If this group can be seen as in any way representative of those seeking Jesus in today’s post-Christian culture, then Millennials and Gen-Xers are repulsed by faith that is watered down, that speaks the language of politics, social policy, or management. They do not want a Church that tries to look like the world. Instead they long for authenticity: a faith that is lively, unembarrassed by its doctrines, and at ease with its strangeness. They are happy to get lost in the dappled light and dark of the mysterious, the numinous, the poetic, the deep and layered richness of the catholic tradition.

If there are strikingly few young adults in most of our churches then this does not reflect a lack of interest among that age demographic, but it should lead us to question how we are inhabiting the tradition of which we are the inheritors.

I’ll leave with a few comments from those who attended.

Connor, a creative writing student who came to faith during the 2020 lockdowns has written this. “I don’t have to fear God as ephemeral, fleeting or intransient… I can’t claim that I know it all, or that I’ve found a perfect infallible community. What I have found is a community that is aimed at the higher ideal. The Church and the people within are an oasis in a desert, manna from God.”

Xinhui, a student in comparative religion at UWTSD gave this feedback. “I had not understood how sacraments and rituals relate to the belief in God and Jesus (especially regarding the Holy Communion), but now I have gained some insights into how such rituals can help maintain the connection we have with God, just like how we treat our loved ones. I hope we will have more events like this to help young people understand how important faith and love are in our daily lives.”

Hannah, a Police Cadets volunteer from Crickhowell, sent this message of thanks: “I loved learning about the sacraments, I love praying in a group and for once, I was one of the oldest in the group! I feel renewed but yet peaceful in my mind and soul. I don't like to admit this but I was only recently thinking if I should stop going to church as there is no one there that is close to my age, but now I realise that it's not about me being the youngest, it is about God and maybe God is testing me to see how much I really want to praise him, and that it really doesn't matter the ages of other church attendees as we are one body”.

Thanks be to God.

Sam Aldred

(Vicar in Central Swansea, Bishop's Officer for Spirituality and Retreats, Assistant DDO )