The St. Francis Center for Spirituality Serves Young People

The St. Francis Center for Spirituality on Staten Island, New York  

The St. Francis Center for Spirituality on Staten Island, New York lies in a quiet, natural setting full of trees and shrubs. A Conventual Franciscan facility, the center serves the wider community in matters of spiritual development. Several years ago, Friar Philip Blaine – the director of the St. Francis Center for Spirituality – concluded that the center wasn’t serving young people as well as it could. He asked one of his coworkers Colleen Kelly to develop a retreat program focused specifically on young people.

Friar Philip Blaine

Today Colleen Kelly serves as the youth minister at the center. In the five or so years since the youth retreats began, thousands of boys and girl as well as young men and women have descended on the center and intensified their relationships with God. Colleen delights in seeing the retreatants perceive God in their lives. She says that many will come up to her and recount their moments of conversion. Colleen’s associate, Grace D’Aquila adds that many some young people today are torn in various directions. Cellular telephones, MP3 players, the internet, and television are just a few of the distractions in life that might take a young person’s focus away from God. D’Aquila says that "I try to bring them [the young people] ti the awareness of God's generous unconditional love for them and that God wants them to respond to his love with the same generosity."

Young people can also develop a strong relationship with God

Whatever the staff at the St. Francis Center for Spirituality is doing works because at a recent retreat, 80 boisterous young people who had arrived at the center by 9:00 am were in deep prayer only a few hours later.