-This weekend (tomorrow) is the freshmen retreat (Viaticus, meaning "on the journey"). I co-coordinated this with a friend and we picked up 3 sophomores to be on team (usually it's just four total). We give talks and reflect in small groups on what it means to be a Catholic freshman in college, as well as simply being away and on one's own for the first time.

(We have a good problem: we have 23 participants, not counting team and two extra drivers. While that is awesome (normally it is about 10), we scrambled to find enough cars to ride down to our Adult Campus Minister's beach house, and we will have to also be sleeping outside on the porch and in tents in the yard. WOW!)

-Two weekends later I and CCM friends and other Catholics from the Diocese head to ECCL: Empowering Catholic Campus Leaders. It's more of a workshop than a retreat, where we have talks about leadership and various aspects associated with Catholic teaching.

-In January I have a retreat in Baltimore which I hear is super awesome: a FOCUS Conference. While my campus does not have a FOCUS group, a friend has hooked us up with us going with a college that does, so we will be tagging along with them. Should be good, as I have listened to a few of their talks on my iPod, and they are really powerful. Which is why I decided to spend the $170 on it.

-CF