Ben Maley, pictured with his sister Madeline on the first day of school, September 2025.
At the beginning of 2025, I would make up excuses so that I wouldn’t have to wake up for Sunday Mass. I was pretty low on the “religious” spectrum. But the Lord works in mysterious, extraordinary ways.
It was at the beginning of the year that applications for Kairos, a retreat offered at Paul VI High School (PVI), went live. One of my friends, a senior, had been selected to lead that retreat, and she would not stop urging us to sign up.
I ended up going on this four-day overnight retreat thanks to her, and it was the most profound experience of my life for two reasons. Firstly, there were no distractions. Distracting electronic devices were collected at the onset of the retreat. We all live busy lives, and often we find ourselves so focused on other things that we forget our call to holiness—we forget to “be still and know that [He is] God” (Psalm 46:10). Kairos was that silence for me. It was a time to reflect on the wonders of our God, to escape from the chaos of ordinary life, and to recognize His immeasurable love for us.
Secondly, God revealed Himself to me. I learned that, in my life, God has always spoken to me in 3 ways: through prayer, through others, and through nature. Prayer is literally a conversation with the living God. It is the means by which we develop our relationship with God, just as we would with anyone else. People, too, provide encounters with Christ. “Christ is all, and in all” (Colossians 3:11). He voices what I need to hear through other people. He makes Himself known to me through the love of my friends and my family. Similarly, Christ is in nature, as its beautiful colors and scenery provide a glimpse of God’s own beauty and splendor. Knowing this, and walking among the trees without distractions, brings me overwhelming peace.
Kairos brought me out of myself and showed me the truth: God is the center of my life. Everything I have is His, and everything I do belongs to Him. It was only by surrendering myself to Him and allowing Him to open my heart that I became joyful. This week, I encourage all of us to find some time alone with God, possibly in the chapel, and intentionally step out of our busy lives to reflect on where God is working in us.
Ben Maley is a CTK lector and a student at Paul VI High School, where he plays trombone in the jazz band and sings in the Chamber Choir.