Monday

  • Continental breakfast in the lounge area of our guest accommodations at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville.
  • Morning Prayer at 8am.
  • The rest of the morning was consumed by a superb presentation on the sacraments (the first of two) by Mother Beth Maynard, followed by a 40-minute presentation from YFNB on "What is it to be a human being?", which might be more succinctly described as "an introduction to theological anthropology." Only I didn't use that expression with the kids!
  • Votive Mass of the Holy Trinity at noon, at which I presided and Fr Wetmore preached, preceded by 30 minutes of "choir practice"--learning/reviewing some of the service music for both Mass and Evensong.
  • Lunch catered by the shrine staff in the same building as our meeting area.
  • The afternoon was devoted to recreation. We car-pooled to a rock wall gym in St Louis. With my nearly pathological fear of heights, I didn't even make a pretense. But I was certainly a watcher, encourager, and picture taker.
  • Having arrived back of OLOS to clean up, we prayed (sang) the evening office on the late side (most of 6:45 by the time we got underway), then braved a torrential thunderstorm to make our way to a pizza den (yes, that's what it calls itself) in Fairview Heights for dinner. 
  • We got back around 9pm, and I was proud of these youth for still being awake and attentive to Fr Bauman's second of five presentations on prayer. This was capped off by Compline, and we were back in our rooms by 10:00. A full day.

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