Ava Nicoll is on fire for her faith and excited about her upcoming confirmation.
But that wasn’t always the case. When it came time for Nicoll to be confirmed with her classmates, she struggled. She was questioning her faith, so she decided to wait.
What lit that flame for her was a TEC retreat.
Nicoll’s mom, Sarah Jane, is involved in Together Encountering Christ, or TEC, and has introduced many friends and family members to the weekend retreat program over the years. When Nicoll turned 16, her mom invited her to attend a retreat.
“I saw the love of Christ through everyone at TEC,” she said. “I learned about God‘s amazing love and how God is love. Being surrounded by these people made my faith grow so much stronger, and I decided that I wanted to be confirmed.”
Now a senior at Cathedral High School in St. Cloud, Nicoll experienced that first TEC weekend nearly two years ago and has been on four more since then. She plans to be confirmed at the 2025 Easter Vigil at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Sartell.
“They find the best part of you and you get to join this community and grow in this community together. You get to find out what gifts God has given you and how you’re going to use them,” Nicoll said. “I think that’s the coolest part about TEC, just learning about who you are as a person and how you can contribute.”
Since the first TEC retreat held in the diocese in 1978, more than 42,000 people have had a similar experience on the three-day weekend. More people have gone through the St. Cloud program than any other TEC program in the world.
“You’re so profoundly impacted by what happens on the weekend, that your faith is not ever really going to look the same again,” said Mike Lentz, coordinator of Central Minnesota TEC.
Started in 1965 as Teens Encounter Christ, a retreat for high school seniors, the program has been used around the world and adapted to include teens and adults of all ages. It is now known as Together Encountering Christ, or simply TEC.
Central Minnesota TEC will host their 646th retreat in December at the TEC Center on the grounds of Holy Family Parish in Belle Prairie.
“Pope Francis invites us to work for this culture of encounter, just as Jesus did,” Lentz said. “To truly encounter someone means that you commit yourself to the person and to get to know that person in a real and genuine manner … Not just passing people by, but walking with them. Not just saying, what a shame, poor person, but allowing yourself to be moved with empathy, to have compassion enough to enter their journey. And that’s exactly what I think TEC is.”
The retreats are based on the Paschal Mystery and have been following the same formula since the beginning. Participants experience the message of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ through participation in music, discussions, talks, prayer, Scripture, liturgy and celebration.
The organization hosts nine TEC weekends each year and many participants return to help out after their first experience.
“TEC focuses so much on serving one another and praying for one another,” Lentz said. “You receive all that on your first weekend, but it’s almost like you get to complete the process by coming back and doing that for somebody else. And that’s why people keep coming back over and over again.”
“Our kids have gotten more involved beyond just going on their weekend, volunteering on other weekends,” said Joe Schulte, a member of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Sartell. “It’s just so great to see them finding happiness through that service to others.”
Liz Hamak, Emergency Services Volunteer Coordinator for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud and a CMTEC board member, said when she went on her first TEC weekend six years ago, she didn’t expect to connect so easily with people that were not her age. She believes it’s the Holy Spirit bringing people together, she said.
“Having it be intergenerational, I think is one of the greatest strengths of the program,” Hamak said. “It’s the friendships that we all have with people of different ages and at different stages of their lives. Because that’s what the real world is like.”
There is a little bit of mystery around what actually happens at a TEC retreat, and that can be concerning for some people, Lentz said. But the reason they don’t publicize the details of a weekend is so that each person can experience it for themselves.
“We’ve used the analogy of a really good movie,” Lentz said. “I can tell you all about the parts of the movie, but that ruins the experience for you. So, I want you to experience it for yourself. You know that I enjoyed the heck out of it, and that makes you want to see it too.”
The program is set up so that everyone is welcome from any faith background. They will be introduced to the Catholic faith through the sacraments but the intention is not to convert people.
“We really are intentional about how that’s presented so that everybody can find a place and feel welcome in our program,” Hamak said.
There can be up to 25% non-Catholic participation on a given weekend, Lentz said.
A lot of people are hesitant to go on a weekend because they don’t know what to expect, but personal invitation is important. Hearing someone else talk about the impact it has had on them is a big reason people go on their first TEC weekend and then want to keep going back.
Like Nicoll’s mom, many parents invite their kids to be involved so they can experience the love of Christ themselves.
“There’s no greater armor that you can put on your kids than the armor of Christ,” Schulte said. “You send them out in the world and you can’t protect them but there’s nothing greater that you can do, than provide this kind of experience.”