Retreat days for the young people of the parish of St. Grigor Narekatsi of Moscow were organized under the leadership of Most Rev. Fr. Petros Yesayan, the parish priest, and titled “From Heart to Heart”. The retreat was held on March 11-13, for girls, and on march 28-31, for boys, in the monastery of Franciscan fathers of Moscow.

The main theme was the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart, with the main reference on the encyclical letter of Pope Francis titled “Dilexit nos” and published on 24^th of October, 2024. The young people had daily participation in the Holy Mass, listened to the commentaries of their spiritual father on passages from Sacred Scripture and papal encyclical, had silent moments for reflection about the perfect love of Christ, the intensive expression of which is His pierced and Most Sacred Heart, also about the response of human beings to that love.

Retreats help to detach yourself from the everyday engagements for a short period of time and to contemplate on the vocation of holiness of one’s soul, on misdeeds and on their correction. The young participants used their phones very little on those days, were mainly silent and prayerful, which helped them to better entrench themselves in faith, analyze their relations with the Lord in peace, be filled with hope and get answers for some questions puzzling them.

One of the young has shared his impressions:

“We open our hearts to people and our desires every day, but we have a task not to forget the Lord, the One, who gave His life for us, who is the Truth, the Light and the Savior. Evidently, many people act as faithful, but God knows everyone’s heart… In these two days’ time we plant the seed of grain, which will grow later, the important thing is to make relevant conditions for growing. Lastly, an idea has stuck in my mind: Love is not a sentiment; Love is a decision”.

Fr. Hovsep Galstyan

Secretariat of the Ordinariate of Armenian Catholics

16^th of April, 2025.