Xavier started hosting Kairos for its seniors in the spring of 2019, and has continued this tradition every year. Four times a year, a group of seniors spend a week in God’s time, learning about their faith and growing closer to God.
Danielle Lambert and Kaiti-Lynn Beazley oversee Kairos and plan everything. They choose a group of seniors to lead each Kairos group and give talks to the retreatants.
Both Lambert and Beazley also lead the Sophomore Prayer Day each year. They spend months planning the perfect day that centers the sophomores’ faith in Christ.
Sophomore Prayer Day has always been based on reflecting on a relationship with God and how it looks in daily lives. “We have noticed a need from our students for something to help them when they are still underclasswomen,” Lambert said.
Inspired by the Sophomore Prayer Day, along with Kairos, Lambert and Beazley are implementing a new summer program for a select group of sophomores. It will model after Kairos in some ways. It will be a two-night retreat hosted twice a year at Xavier. Only 50 students will be able to participate.
“The hope is that we’ll have some time for the girls to talk in small groups with each other just like they would in Kairos and to talk about some of the struggles in their day-to-day lives, and they can work on that together,” Beazley said.
The implementation of a sophomore retreat is because some girls will go on Kairos during their senior year and realize they wish they had the opportunity to do some sort of retreat sooner. By having a retreat based on Kairos, sophomore girls will get to experience a snippet of it, but not the full Kairos experience.
“Kairos is more geared toward mature conversations and more mature students, so sophomore retreat is going to be a shorter, simplified version of Kairos rather than an extended prayer day,” said Beazley.
Along with these changes, there have been some new updates with Kairos, which only seniors go on. Kairos is led by seniors for seniors. It is a 4-day retreat focusing on a person’s relationship with Christ through small groups and talks led by seniors. “Kairos emphasizes student leadership,” Lambert remarked.
Through five years of trial and error, Beazley and Lambert, along with everyone else who helps behind the scenes, have seen what works and what doesn’t for the retreatants.
Due to COVID-19, Kairos had to be readjusted to make it safer and healthier for everyone. Retreats during the summer were added, but they will now be canceled. Also, the format of Kairos and who is allowed to go have shifted slightly.
More people are allowed on each retreat due to fewer health restrictions and juniors are allowed to go during the last two Kairos events of the school year in preparation for being leaders their senior year. These juniors see if they want to be leaders or if they are qualified for it. Beazley and Lambert observe them to see if they are prepared to be leaders.
These changes are all reflected in the new application process, making the process clearer and more transparent. It starts with a Google form which leads to an interview with Lambert and Beazley. Then, each junior goes on a Kairos retreat where she experiences what it’s like to be a retreatant.
Father Elario Zambakari, who attends each Kairos and celebrates Mass with the seniors, joined in the small group activities on his first retreat. “It is just excellent that one goes and experiences Kairos for oneself.”
