Friday: God's Unimaginable Grace
On our final full day of camp we began the day learning the Liturgy of the Hours, explained by Father Lickteig, and then we prayer Morning Prayer together as a large group. Before heading to the lake, we went to a votive Mass in honor of the Sacred Heart. Father Lickteig talked about the Gospel reading on "Storing the right treasures in Heaven" and praying for detachment from things that take us away from God and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
After Mass, we loaded the buses to head to Lake Placid, a lake about 5 minutes from Maur Hill campus, owned by the Benedictine Monks. We roasted hot dogs and ate s'mores for lunch. After lunch we had a "Big Exciting Competition" to compete for the Camp Savio trophy. There were 11 teams competing in the events. The events were: synchronized swimming with their small group, belly flop contest, inflatable whale race, canoe race, seaweed hair fashion show, swim sprint and sandcastle building competition. Our team, "Picture of a Cross," tried their hardest, coming out with a victory on the Sandcastle building contest and receiving a high score for their belly flop. The chaperones and Youth Ministers had the awesome job of judging each competition by giving them a score of 0-10.
For dinner that night, we had our second family dinner. It was really fun to look back to our first family dinner on Monday- several small parishes who at first didn't know each other and by Friday, we had become like family.
Our session Friday night was a big Adoration night, it is always a highlight for campers who have come in the past. Jon talked for a short time and here are some of the highlights from his talk:
1. God wants to be in a deeper relationship with us.
2. Jesus came down to Earth to suffer, so that when we suffer we have someone to turn to.
3. At the Last Supper, Jesus knew that his Disciples were about to betray Him, but He wanted to take the time to just BE with them, to spend one-on-one time with them for dinner. That is what Jesus desires with us, He wants to just be with us and to spend one-on-one time with each of us through Adoration. Lastly, he talked about about the Bible story of the women with the hemorrhage, who touched the fringe of Jesus' cloak and was healed. Jesus felt His healing power go from Him to her and He said "Your faith has made you well." Jon challenged everyone in the auditorium to reach out to Jesus for that healing power through our time of Adoration.
We had Adoration in the auditorium for about an hour, it was an intense time of prayer and worship of our God. During this time we had Praise and Worship music, led by our musician, Ben. After Adoration was over, we met for our final parish pow wow. We discussed what we would take home from Jon's talk Friday night, as well as for the entire week and what would be different when we went home. We also talked about our "Highs and Lows" for the entire week. It was a good, last full day of camp!
~ Jen DeCoster
Director of Youth Ministry & Camp Savio Director