This last weekend we held our final 3-day retreat at Esker Monastery and had our highest turnout with twenty-one students who attended. The theme of the weekend was Real Love. The retreat was filled with games, dramas, talks from the Netters and a few testimonies from students. The highlight of the weekend was during our prayer ministry when a majority of students received the sacrament of confession. After a long and successful retreat, we finished the weekend off with a dodgeball tournament after Mass on Sunday night. The students said that this was the best retreat ever...really...the STUDENTS actually said that not us.
While we all returned from the weekend absolutely wrecked, it was totally worth it to spend some quality time with the youth and hear how much work God has done in them this year. After a few good nights of sleep, we got back to working hard in the office for our last week of ministry. Last night we took a trip to the cinema to see the much anticipated Iron Man 2 with the youth who participated in the Passion play. Let me tell you it did not disappoint. The movie was great, and definitely lived up to all its hype. So if you haven’t checked it out yet I highly suggest that you do.
As for the rest of the weekend, we’ve got a diocesan trip planned with the youth to climb Croagh Patrick tomorrow as well as our last and final LifeNight, entitled This Is IT. Yay for doing God’s work.
I know! I love doing God’s work. (This is Dynae now) I just wanted to tell everyone about our previous trip to Croagh Patrick, as a team about two weeks ago. I hope you don’t mind. We were on a bit of a tight schedule because we had to be back for a Thanksgiving Mass for Confirmation students at the Church in Athenry, so we had to climb the mountain, and come back down in about 4 hours at the most. We were all set to go in our gear, and multiple coloured layers (Yes, Nicole this does include you). We had some pretty fun experiences climbing up the mountain because the last stretch to get to the top is SO STEEP!! No lies! Some of it I spent on my hands and knees going up. Diana found out it was her un-birthday at the top, I just about broke my camera diving for my camera case, but the best part was going down.
I don’t know if you would agree with me Nicole, but your crab crawl on that top part was something to behold. The boys took off because we were taking “so long,” but overall it was a pretty unique experience. Get excited because we get to recreate it all again tomorrow!! Crab-crawl-Nicole here we come!
Nicole’s turn at team day was on Monday after the retreat, where we FINALLY got to go to Knock, which may I mention we’ve been talking about going all year. Excellent choice Nicole! You rock my socks. Diana was keeping a huge secret from me all day on Sunday, but telling everybody else because she figured I would be the only one really excited about it, which turned out to be true. The relics of St. Therese of Lisieux and her parents were at the Basilica at Knock! It was so cool to be able to say hello to one of my favourite saints like that. We got to meet one of Alex’s old teammates and visit the School of Evangelization. They only have about 7 students each year! I got to meet a guy named Thomas who is taking a year off from the seminary to go to the school which he says is great to be able to work with young people because he is usually working with the older generations in the seminary. He plans to go back next year and continue on to become a priest. Go Thomas Go!
We walked around Knock a bit, had the quickest Confession of my life, and then went to a pub called Kilkenny’s for team sharing where Kilkenny beer is not on tap...(the keg just ran out, but I thought that was a bit ironic). Back to you Nicole!
Thanks Dynae, I highly enjoyed the fact that you just came out of nowhere and took over my blog...typical. You are quite the shyster, but one of my favourite shysters on the team. J Still, I can’t argue with the truth and if it must be said I did reach a point of desperation on our way down Croagh Patrick (the Croah as I like to call it) and in that moment of break-down I did conclude it would be best to give crab-crawling a try, which believe it or not did work quite well for me. So don’t knock it until you try it Dynae.
Anyway, other than that there isn’t much else to report on. We’ve all really enjoyed our stay here in Athenry. Who knew that a tiny, little town like this could find its way into each of our hearts? A little sappy I know, but if you ask me the world needs a little bit of sap. Seriously though, this year has been fabulous. We’ve gone through some tough times and had some great victories. We’ve grown as individuals, as team mates and as children of God. It’s truly amazing what God has done through six ordinary people, who were complete strangers to each other and everyone in this town just nine months ago. May all glory be to Him who is and was and will be forever our Lord. So this is it! Can’t wait to see what God has in store for us next.
