Retreat's impact: she became leader

When she was 15, Jeanne Sause couldn't have cared less about teen retreats. However, she attended one at the insistence of her father and hasn't been the same since.

Jeanne even decided to become a retreat leader and joined the National Evangelization Team (NET), which is dedicated to the evangelization and faith formation of Catholic youth.

The group, headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., trains volunteers to lead retreats for Confirmation groups, parishes, families and individuals in dioceses across the U.S. Each year, the leaders facilitate 1,500-plus retreats for 100,000 young people.

On the road

Now 20 and a sophomore at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, Jeanne describes herself as "a retreat-aholic."

She and her team, made up of about 12 individuals, went through five weeks of intense training to lead the retreats. Then they hit the road in a 15-passenger van, carrying one bag of luggage each along with musical equipment and theater props used for Scripture-based plays.

She called the nine-month trip "awesome. We evangelized teens, young adults and families, and we showed them how to open their hearts to God."

Experience

Jeanne, a member of St. Mary's parish in Glens Falls, told The Evangelist that "our retreats last anywhere from two hours to three days, depending upon the needs of the particular parish. We ended up doing retreats six days a week, and we were going from the time we got up in the morning until we crashed in bed at night. It was the most amazing time of my life.

"Most of the kids at the retreats were in junior high school. That's a perfect age for evangelization because they are really open to everything and will listen to what you have to say. We do a lot of one-on-one with the kids throughout the retreat."

She discovered that teens have a "huge hunger for prayer," but often don't go to Mass regularly.

Prayer life

For herself, Jeanne has found daily prayer to be "very important" to her personal success as a retreat leader.

"My relationship with God begins each day with prayer," she explained. "As a matter of fact, all the retreat leaders begin their day with prayer. Prayer centers us for the task at hand."

That task is to evangelize teens, pray with them and show them how to open their hearts to God. She added that if they don't know how to pray, the team members teach them.

"I bet we use the Sign of the Cross 100 times a day when we are on retreat," she noted. "The teens see us doing it, and they pick it right up."

(Now in college studying as an education major, Jeanne Sause continues evangelization efforts with membership in several campus ministries, such as the death row ministry, which works against capital punishment and prays for inmates. She is a Eucharistic minister and a member of a ministry that facilitates eight retreats a year for students.)

(11/6/03) [[In-content Ad]]