Patrick Owen
Shares his Retreat Experience
The Faith Movement is a group of Catholic clergy, religious and laity who strive to spread the Catholic faith whilst making it relevant in the context of the modern world and do so with a focus on evangelising to young people. Amongst other things, the movement holds biannual residential conferences for young Catholics.
The avid reader of this particular website’s news page may recall an article in which I delineated upon my experience of attending the ‘Faith Summer Session 2025: Christ Our Eucharist’ and the really astute reader may even recall that I concluded that particular piece of literature by setting out my expectation of attending a similar event this January.
Patrick
The event to which I alluded was the ‘Faith Winter Session 2026: Called and Chosen’ which took place in the stately grounds of Stonyhurst College: a Catholic boarding school and the home of a monastic community of Jesuits, which is situated in the heart of Lancashire’s Ribble Valley. In common with the Faith Movement’s summertime conference, the Winter Session offers an array of catechetical, spiritual and social activities for young Catholics aged between sixteen and thirty. However, the event does differ from its summertime counterpart in several respects: chief amongst which are its setting, to which I have briefly alluded, and its duration. The Winter conference takes place over only three days, rather than five and, when one considers that the first and last days of both events are only partial, the extent of the difference does become apparent.
The Winter conference was structured around four talks which developed upon this year’s theme of vocations and discernment. The universal call to holiness was the subject of the first talk and made for an apt beginning to the conference: setting out that all the baptised must strive to become holy and to discern and embrace the plan which God has for each of our lives which will be different for every individual. Building upon this, the remaining three talks explored specific vocations which can aid us on our journey towards holiness; these were priesthood, consecrated life and married life.
Following the talks, we had ample opportunity to develop upon these ideas in the setting of informal discussion groups.
In addition to the catechetical side of the conference, our spiritual needs were also catered for with Mass and morning and evening prayer daily. With a dozen Faith Movement priests in attendance but only three Masses to celebrate, there was far from a shortage of clergy and various voices could be heard chiming in with different prayers throughout the Mass.
In addition to the Masses, there was a reconciliation service on one evening. Scripture was read and a homily preached and then, with the Blessed Sacrament exposed, we had time to complete an examination of conscience which was helpfully provided in the service sheet and there was then the opportunity to receive the sacrament of confession.
However, it wasn’t all scholarship and piety. There was ample free time in which one could fraternise with one’s fellow conference-goers, meander around Stonyhurst’s impressive grounds or even wander into the quaint nearby village of Hurst Green. Myself and several others decided to pursue the latter avenue of pleasure in order to partake in a particular pastime which is so pleasurable for young papists; we went to the pub!
Having exerted ourselves so arduously throughout the day, we were glad of the opportunity to unwind in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere in the evening. Refreshments were available from a makeshift bar which purveyed a small though adequate selection of lager beer, cider and wine and did so at competitive prices.
Also of considerable note was the ceilidh (that’s Scottish dancing for any Sassenachs) which took place on the final evening of the conference and was arguably more enjoyable to those who observed than partook!
The setting of the event must be expounded upon further. Stonyhurst College is situated just outside of the village of Hurst Green, around eight miles North of Blackburn and is a Catholic boarding school and the home of a monastic community of Jesuits. The grounds of the college are replete with fine architecture, central to which is the imposing frontage of the school building. As I first approached Stonyhurst and walked along the arrow-straight driveway of easily half a mile’s length and which is flanked at the at the farthest end by two sizeable man-made lakes, the bastion which is Stonyhurst made a remarkable impression upon me. The striking edifice dominates the landscape and is surmounted by two central turrets upon which perch a pair of statuary birds of prey which watch knowingly over the grounds. I wonder if W. Aubrey Thomas took some inspiration for the Liver Building?
Set slightly aside is St Peter’s church: the largest church in the grounds. Its ornate interior, with an open feel and a theme of light colours, created an almost ethereal atmosphere. No less impressive was the smaller college chapel, in which we spent a greater portion of our time. The chapel was no less well embellished than its larger counterpart but its smaller size and darker colour scheme lent it a rather different atmosphere. It felt closer an more intimate, perhaps more akin to a crypt than a conventional church.
Both of these Jesuit churches at Stonyhurst made the Benedictine abbey church at Ampleforth Abbey (the setting of the Faith Movement’s Summer conference) seem positively Spartan by comparison. That being said, I do not fail to appreciate the more simplistic architectural approach of the Benedictines and found myself quite taken with the churches at both Stonyhurst and Ampleforth.
Stoneyhurst
