Kairos Retreat

"Kairos is a decisive, momentary unveiling of the eternal."

- C.S. Lewis

Kairos is a two night, three day experience for CHS Juniors and Seniors led by a team of their fellow students and faculty members. It is held at Cradle Beach Camp, on Lake Erie, in Angola, NY. 

Building upon the foundations established as underclassmen, participants of Kairos engage in a more substantial and challenging reflective experience. An in depth focus on relationships with family and friends helps clarify and deepen one's understanding of and relationship with Christ. Most significantly, Kairos challenges each student to embrace the Christian call to service. This, ultimately, becomes the primary focus of the retreat, and the springboard for senior service projects.

All juniors are invited and encouraged to participate. Seniors who did not make Kairos as a junior are likewise welcome.
A BRIEF KAIROS HISTORY

Named for the Greek term meaning, "The Lord's Time", Kairos is a nation-wide spiritual growth program. It is not originally a Jesuit retreat per se. It was adapted from the Roman Catholic Cursillo (Spain, 1944) program by the Diocese of Brooklyn in 1965. Kairos made its main inroad into Jesuit circles when faculty at St. Ignatius HS in Chicago adapted the retreat soon after, incorporating more specifically Ignatian elements and language. It has also been formed into a prison ministry movement.

Just as did the original Cursillo program from which it is derived, Kairos incorporates several fundamentals of Ignatian spirituality, with a strong influence from the Spiritual Exercises. Most Jesuit high schools and colleges in the United States now center their retreat programs around various adaptations of Kairos, retaining the basic structure and core elements of the retreat. The distinctive Jerusalem Cross has become associated with this experience, and alumni of the program often wear it.