By KENNY KEANE, Globe staff reporter
August 28, 2003

A group of 10 high school students - seven from the Sioux City Diocese and three from Minnesota - recently got a chance to wake up the echoes calling them to a retreat at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Kathryn Keane, director of religious education (DRE) for the Holy Family Cluster in Sioux City, took these youth on the retreat July 14-18. Notre Dame Vocation Initiative, or ND Vision, is the name of the retreat, which allows youth from various locations to come together and discover the ways God calls them to be disciples in the midst of the modern world.

"They had small groups of five to six kids with one to two Notre Dame students in each small group," Keane said. "They each had a famous person or a saint who was to signify their group. The whole thing was how did these famous people and saints use their gifts to make a difference in the world, and how will you make a difference in the world with your gifts?

"That was kind of the main focus - where are you called in life for your future? Are you called to be a priest, a sister, married or single? What are your gifts that you will offer the world to make a difference?"

In addition to the group that Keane took, two youth from Alton St. Mary Parish, Heather and Ashley Schneider; one from St. Anthony Church in Hospers, Aaron Pohlen and one from Estherville St. Patrick Parish, Katie Severson, also attended the initiative.

All together, there were over 300 youth present at the retreat. One of the students who went with Keane's group, Andrea Jenson, said just being with that large number of people was an experience in itself.

"It was just really cool to see the worship with that big of a group of people," said Jenson, a parishioner at Resurrection of Our Lord Church in Pocahontas. "We had Mass every day in a different spot. We had it in the basilica, which is a beautiful church, and we went down to the grotto one night and had a prayer service.

"They had national speakers come talk, and after each session of workshops we got to break up into our small groups and actually discuss what's going on in our life dealing with the workshop. It was really good to get feedback form your group on that. Our small group leaders were college students at Notre Dame, and it was good that they were able to relate to us."

Another student from that group, Junior Darwin, a parishioner at St. Joseph Church in Sioux City, said that a variety of topics were discussed.

"We went from talking about teenage pregnancy to using drugs in high school," said the Heelan High School senior. "We discussed different Christian moral subjects - what we thought was right and what we though the Catholic Church should change.

"Every time we'd come into the auditorium on campus, we'd sing hymnals and things like that. They were always good ones that were fast and upbeat, and we all got into it. There was clapping, dancing around and singing. That was the highlight of it for me."

For Patrick Bottaro, a Heelan sophomore who also went with Keane's group, the experience at Notre Dame was nothing like he thought it would be.

"The college students were all really off the wall people - nothing that I'd expected seeing at Notre Dame," said Bottaro, a parishioner at the Cathedral in Sioux City. "It was all stuff that had to do with their faith and how they found themselves in their faith. They added their own little humor. They made it fun, and I think that's what counts.

"We talked about stuff like self-acceptance and how we could incorporate Jesus' teachings into our lives - not just saying we live them out but how we can actually live them out. It was just a lot easier because there were only four to five people in the group, so you could really get in depth on the stuff they talked about. It was just a lot of stuff you could relate to, so a lot of it was really helpful."

Aside from the group sessions and the Masses, the youth also had free time to visit with friends, go down to the grotto or just walk around the Notre Dame campus.

As a big Notre Dame fan, Darwin said he spent most of his free time - and money - in the campus bookstore, which featured a lot of Notre Dame clothes and other merchandise.

"My great uncle went to school at Notre Dame and played football there," Darwin said. "So that was kind of a special thing for me."

Keane said she plans to organize another trip next year, and anyone interested can call her at (712) 258-4962.

She said the one thing she liked about the Notre Dame experience compared to some other retreats that she's taken kids to is the small group sharing.

"It's not just entertainment where you go for three days and get really emotional and excited about God," Keane said. "It's more like, what is God calling you to do? They really bring it down to your level - what is your calling and what are you going to do?

"It's something for them to think about. They had such small groups of five or six kids to a group with one to two Notre Dame students, and they felt like they were in a small enough group that they could share and really start to think about their calling in life."