“Thank you all… I’m healed.”
Those simple words, written in purple ink and modest handwriting, were found at the end of the retreat. There was no signature, but none was needed. Behind those five words lay an entire story… an open wound… and a miracle.
We don’t know exactly what that young man or woman was carrying when they wrote the note. Maybe it was a silent inner battle, a deep depression, an unspoken trauma, a childhood wound that had never stopped bleeding. Perhaps it was a broken life… or the loss of the will to go on. But that note whispered it to us with tenderness: I’m healed.
Can you imagine what that truly means?
In a world that often says “save yourself,” that heart found a place where it didn’t have to pretend… where it was seen, heard, and embraced—a place where survival gave way to real life.
Search #23 was that place. Were 290 people gathered, but God had His heart set on each one. And it was all worth it for that life—the one who wrote the note, the one who now breathes with hope.
That lost sheep Jesus loved so much—the one everyone thought was far gone—was sitting right there among us, in silence. And without anyone knowing, that weekend… they came home.
They didn’t come on their own. They were found and carried on the shoulders of the Good Shepherd, with joy, tenderness, and the promise of a new life.
One young person wrote in another letter: “Thank you for sharing your experiences. They helped me realize that, even in hard times, we must keep going and give everything to God.”
That’s how this retreat was built: testimony by testimony, glance by glance, hug by hug. Every single server—young, adult, seminarian, priest—was part of that miracle. Because when love is poured out freely, the Kingdom becomes real.
And what if that lost sheep had been your son? Your sister? Your best friend? You?
Seeking the lost doesn’t mean abandoning the others—it means understanding that God’s love isn’t divided, it’s poured out entirely into every soul that needs it. And that soul was with us. And it was healed.
Today, more than 90 young people begin a new chapter. And even if not all of them wrote letters, their eyes as they left said everything. They were touched. They were found. They were loved.
So if you ever find yourself wondering whether all the effort, all the sacrifice, all the exhaustion… was worth it, remember this note:
“Thank you all… I’m healed.”
And then you’ll know the truth:
It’s not just worth it… It’s life itself.
Leave a Reply