From my first peek at Happening—as a “backstage” mom of a Happener—I knew there was something incredibly holy and special about this teen retreat weekend called “Happening.” What is Happening, you ask? By teens and for teens, with a little support from adults, the weekend is—for lack of a better way of putting it—an intense time of experiencing the love of Christ and the love of community. Teens are invited to become part of a nurturing community and to share with one another, to grow together, and to learn how very much they are loved by God. That’s the big message for the weekend: We are all God’s beloved, in all of our sorts and conditions, in the magnificent and marvelous ways that we are made in the image and likeness of the Creator. Our prayer is that any teens who arrive at Happening and are questioning whether they are truly loved by God will leave knowing the answer: Yes, without a doubt and immeasurably.

It was my privilege to serve as Spiritual Director for Happening #100 at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in March 2026 and to be surrounded by teens for that holy weekend. It was my first time serving in that role here in the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi, after having served a number of times as a Spiritual Director in West Tennessee—and I certainly hope it won’t be my last. I grow myself from the experience of being with our teens.

From the first note we sing together, to the amazing prayers that young people share with us all, our time together is Spirit-filled. I sat in awe of the depth of prayers and witness, and the vastness of their imaginations. (Did I mention that teenagers can EAT?!?!?! We’re all so, so grateful to everyone who brought meals for our time together and made certain that we all ate heartily and well!)

We sing at Happening. We pray at Happening. We experience some stillness and quiet at Happening. We make lots of holy noise at Happening. We listen to teens vulnerably share stories of their young faith journeys. We pray at our holy healing service for the things that have troubled us and perhaps strained our relationships with God and neighbor.

We eat…and eat…and eat. We’re nourished in Word, Sacrament and of course, food.

If your teen hasn’t yet experienced Happening, I can’t encourage enough to make the time on the jam-packed calendar for your teen to experience it. Your teen will thank you; that’s pretty much guaranteed. And, if your teens are anything like my two, they will experience Happening and then yearn for more. My daughters applied and staffed every Happening from the time they went through as sophomores until high school graduation. They dearly loved those weekends of spiritual highs with friends.

It’s good for us all to know that our young people are being grounded in faith. Happening does that—and affords us grown-ups a great opportunity to support them.

Look ahead to next month’s issue, when TME will celebrate the milestone of 100 Happenings in Mississippi.