CARRYING a stretcher through a channel of mud and water can teach you a lot about your faith, Toowoomba priest Fr Nathan Webb says.
He was chaplain to a group of 20 young Catholics who came together for a weekend of faith and fellowship from across Toowoomba diocese.
The group was formed from St Patrick’s Cathedral’s young adults Monday night sessions, which had grown from 15 to 30 attendees in the last year.
Fr Webb says the group gets together to discuss topics of faith formation – Marian devotions, dignity of human life, exegesis and the reality of evil and suffering.
The weekend retreat was organised by Toowoomba North parishioner Ava Naug, who wanted to try something different with the group.
She says Catholics should get together more often than just Sundays, be it a dinner or a dance.
She and Fr Webb had brainstormed ideas for the retreat and come up with the idea of a hands-on session about suffering.
Add in some mud, some tough outdoor tasks and a lot of deep conversations and it made for a great weekend of fellowship and fun, she says.
“Frankly, no one is good at crawling through the mud,” Fr Webb says.
“It’s a humbling experience doing it with others.
“Really, it brings out the comradery and the good spirit in one another.”
The weekend also had time for celebrating the sacraments as well as Eucharistic adoration and Benediction.
Ms Naug said her favourite part about the weekend was the level of conversation.
She said there were “so many cool moments” when they were debriefing after a challenging exercise.
She said it brought them together even more as a group.
Fr Webb says it can be challenging for young Catholics to find each other, whether they are new to the area or longstanding members of the community.
He says being able to journey with other people who are going through the same stages of life with you is invaluable.
“(The Monday sessions) help them feel more confident, they can feel at home and settle into that space to take on interesting topics of discussion,” he says.
He praised the efforts of Ava Naug who organised the weekend and said he was looking forward to the next one.
