Year-round retreat center gives summer camp vibes, brings young people to Jesus

Our Lady of the Fields Camp offers faith-filled fun with opportunities for prayer, fellowship and team-building, director says

BRIGHTON — While most summer camps close up at the end of the season, activity at Our Lady of the Fields continues despite changes in weather and school schedules. For 12 months a year, youth from the Archdiocese of Detroit and beyond visit the camp to have fun, grow closer as a group, and dive deeper into their faith.

The camp and retreat center has grown from its humble beginnings when the Southfield-based Chaldean Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle purchased the property in 2007. Bishop Francis Y. Kalabat named the site Camp Chaldean to offer summer youth camps for the Chaldean diocese, then changed the name to Our Lady of the Fields in 2018 to serve a broader audience.

Since then, Our Lady of the Fields has expanded to encompass 218 acres with a shrine, a lakefront, sleeping cabins, pavilions and a dining hall. Though the beach sits idle during the winter months, retreatants head outside for a walk in the crisp air or a group activity. Sometimes a snowball fight breaks out.

Regardless of the season, the Brighton camp exists for one reason: to make Christ known, executive director Mike Hickey told Detroit Catholic.

“Faith and fun go together. We provide fun that’s purposeful, with a goal to start conversation,” Hickey said. “We’re always looking to give the kids opportunities to meet Christ in Mass, confession, adoration, and the beauty that’s all around them here.”

Parishes and schools book one-day or weekend retreats for sports teams, youth groups, confirmation classes, Kairos groups, and more, as well as young adult groups and parish staff. In 2023, the Archdiocese of Detroit hosted its "World Youth Day at Home" pilgrimage at Our Lady of the Fields.

For most, the drive time is less than an hour, but the expansive property makes participants feel like they’ve taken a trip up north.

“The beauty of it all is a component of the experience here,” Hickey said. “I’ve been here since 2018 and it never gets old, to look out across the lake and see the shrine and the wildlife.”

Hosting a weekend retreat for middle school and high school students without summer temperatures can be a challenge, but there’s never a dull moment once a group arrives. Group leaders with the schools and parishes may plan their own programming or allow the Our Lady of the Fields staff to lead team-building activities, talks by camp staff, and praise and worship in the chapel.

“The discomfort that the chilling cold offers adds significance when groups make their way around the lake to the chapel, making the journey into more of a pilgrimage and the chapel into a true place of refuge from the world around,” said Josh Burcroff, director of development.

Working together to make Christ known to youth

Burcroff joined the Our Lady of the Fields staff last year after teaching at Holy Redeemer Catholic School in Detroit. He sees the value of the camp to teachers and youth ministers, who wear many hats and might never have time to plan an experience like the one at Our Lady of the Fields.

“It’s all about relationship here,” Burcroff said. “If we can help facilitate a relationship between these kids and Jesus while they’re here, that will have a ripple effect on relationships with their peers, teachers, families. We’re providing the tools to help them relate well.”

At St. George Shrine, the chapel that overlooks the lake on the property, Eucharistic adoration is a key component of every retreat or summer camp. Both Hickey and Burcroff have seen its impact on young people.

“It’s powerful because so many times in ministry, there’s a tendency toward a ‘savior complex' in which we feel we have to deliver the right words or come up with the best content,” Burcroff said. “But adoration puts things into right order and perspective. I’m not in control, so I can bring the kids in front of Jesus and then the real savior is going to do the real work.”

In all forms of ministry, Burcroff says, Jesus is the golden ticket.

“Why would we not use him instead of trying to do it ourselves?” he said.

A perfect partnership

For the third consecutive year, Damascus, a missionary movement based in Ohio, will host eight weeks of camps this summer at Our Lady of the Fields called Catholic Summer Youth Camp (CSYC) Great Lakes. Damascus brings carefully vetted and trained counselors and staff to run the camp’s activities, with Our Lady of the Fields staff offering support where needed.

The partnership between Damascus and Our Lady of the Fields is a natural fit. Damascus’ website leads with the sentiment, “Jesus isn't boring. His Church isn't, either.” Much like the Damascus staff does in summer, the Our Lady of the Fields team helps retreatants encounter Christ while showing them that living a life of faith is an adventure, as St. Pope John Paul II asserted.

“I’m incredibly edified by Damascus and what they’re doing. I think they’re playing an important role in the Catholic Church in the United States,” Burcroff said. “It’s a true sense of evangelization in that, together, we’re all just trying to share the good news with these young people.”

This year’s CSYC Great Lakes camps will be held June 8 through Aug. 1 with four weeks of middle school camps and four weeks of high school camps.

With statistics showing five out of six youth confirmed in the Catholic Church today will no longer be practicing their Catholic faith within 10 years of their confirmation, Hickey sees ministries like Our Lady of the Fields as essential in helping to form young people in the joy and beauty of the faith.

“I’m thankful to the Chaldean Eparchy for their commitment to growing the camp and for sharing it with all of us,” Hickey said. “Our Lady of the Fields is giving kids the courage to follow their faith.”