01/16/2026
Our Pastor, Fr. Cartwright, wrote a bulletin article about our upcoming retreat for teens. Full text below. To register for the retreat: https://pothe.org/glm
Our parish is once again blessed to offer God, Love, & Marriage, this year as a one-day retreat for our middle school and high school students. In a world that is deeply confused about love, relationships, identity, and the purpose of sexuality, this class could not be more timely or more necessary. This is not simply “another program,” it is a vital opportunity to help our young people understand God’s beautiful plan for human love and to stand strong in a culture that often distorts it.
Every teenager today is growing up in a world saturated with sexual imagery, broken understandings of marriage, and the widespread plague of po*******hy. Po*******hy is not a “harmless phase”. It damages the ability to love, distorts the meaning of the body, harms relationships, and has destroyed countless marriages and families. The Church, as a loving Mother, wants to form our youth to see their dignity, to understand that their bodies are sacred, and to know that God created love and sexuality with a purpose: communion, holiness, and self-giving love.
This retreat will address topics such as: why God created us male and female, what love truly is (and what it is not), the difference between lust and love, what dating should look like, the beauty and purpose of marriage, how virtue helps us live freely and joyfully.
A major focus will be the virtue of chastity, which the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls a lifelong virtue of “successful integration of sexuality within the person” (CCC 2337). Chastity is not repression, shame, or fear; it is freedom. It means ordering our desires rightly so that we can truly love, rather than using others or being enslaved by urges. Chastity is not the same as celibacy. Celibacy is a specific calling; chastity is for everyone: married, single, widowed, young, or old. Every Christian is called to live chastity according to their state in life. Chastity leads to deeper peace, healthier relationships, clearer thinking, and true joy.
Our young people deserve to hear the truth spoken with clarity, compassion, and hope. They deserve to know that God is not against love; He is the very Author of it. They deserve to know that the Church’s teachings are not burdens, but treasures that protect the human heart and lead to real happiness. They deserve to be equipped to navigate friendships, dating, and their future vocations with confidence, maturity, and faith.
Parents, I strongly encourage you to send your children. Parishioners, please pray for our presenters and for every teen who will attend. The retreat will take place at Holy Martyrs Church in Falmouth on Saturday, January 31 from 9 am until 3 pm. Teens from other parishes are welcome to join. There is a $15 registration fee to cover breakfast and lunch. Middle School and High School catechists from Parish of the Holy Eucharist will be giving the talks. May this retreat help our young people discover the beauty of God’s plan for love, marriage, and family, and grow in the grace to live it courageously. –Fr. Cartwright
GLM | Parish of the Holy Eucharist | A Catholic Parish Serving Falmouth, Freeport, Gray, Yarmouth, Maine
