Creating space to reflect on your own personal story, what is happening in your lives, and where God may be calling you. That lay at the heart of the third menALIVE reCHARGE weekend held from 28–30 August.
The historic town of New Norcia provided the perfect backdrop for the 24 men who left the routines of everyday life behind to gather for the event.
In making the outer journey to New Norcia, the men were also invited to make an inner, personal and reflective journey.
New Norcia’s Benedictine tradition of prayer, hospitality and community provided the weekend with a deeper context: two days spent in a place shaped over generations by people seeking to listen for God and live faithfully.
The participants joined the monastic community for Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours, with time also set aside for personal prayer and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
The sessions facilitated by menALIVE invited participants to reflect on their journey with God, listen to the stories of other men, and consider how they wanted to move forward.
Small groups provided space for honest conversations about faith, uncertainty, struggle, hope and ordinary life without needing to have everything worked out.
Saturday evening provided a particularly powerful moment. One by one, the participants stepped forward and placed into a fire something they wished to surrender to God and a commitment they wanted to take forward, while the other men prayed for them.
David Brockett, from St Joseph’s Subiaco Parish, said the Saturday night fire ritual was particularly significant.
“I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but as I reflected on what I wanted to let go of, and what I wanted to take on, placing those things into the fire provided a powerful moment of clarity,” he explained.
Shared meals, coffee, laughter and happy hour in the hostel bar were equally part of the event that allowed friendships to form and conversations to continue.
The weekend was hosted by a menALIVE team drawn from Western Australia, Brisbane and the ACT, with Fr Stephen Truscott accompanying the men in a pastoral care role.
The generous support of the Knights of the Southern Cross WA helped make the event possible that attracted participants from across metropolitan Perth and regional WA, including Bridgetown in the state’s southwest.
The weekend fostered an underlying sense of hope: when men are given space, encouragement and companionship to attend seriously to their spiritual lives, something comes alive.
