Today is ‘sports’ day and a morning to sleep in until 8:30 am! Awesome! We needed the extra sleep to help us prepare for the upcoming events of the day. Grey Wolf/Akela being the first one up has the joy of waking up our ‘sleeping beauties’.. who after some prodding slowly rose up to shower, brush their teeth and pull on their sports clothes. After a hearty breakfast, we made our way to a set of beautiful sports fields. There were four artificial turf soccer fields and four awesome basketball courts.
We quickly formed teams with the youngest boys selected first and began our soccer tournament. Our boys played fairly, with a sense of determination and in some cases heroism as they battled on to do their best, If our boys were tired..they did not show it for the solid 2-hour long tournament. After we close our soccer and basketball tournament we trekked our sweaty bodies off to the pool for a swim. The cool water of the indoor pool was very refreshing. Some boys walked on water (well for a few moments or so), others displaced large amounts of water with cannon balls, and the others played cards at the side of the pool. We all had so much fun.
After expending a considerable amount of energy in the morning, our boys ate very well at lunch time. After lunch we split the boys into their teams and rotated them through confession, board games and the Seminary’s gift shop. At the gift shop our boys used the opportunity to purchase items for their loved ones, friends, and teachers. The two brothers operating the gift shop demonstrated great patience with our boys as they asked many questions and handles many items before deciding on their purchases. At any one time we had two groups playing board games, Chess, Battleship, dominoes, and cards. They used the dominoes to build forts and the cards to make castles. There was much howls of laughter and squeals of delight.
Each group had time to happily and eagerly attend chapel for confession. Brother Nathan provide great instructions to our boys to help them prepare their conscience. He ensured that there three priest available for the process. Some comments from our boys included:
- “I felt very happy after confession as my sins were forgiven”
- “Before I went to confession, I felt really bad for having sinned against God, but after confession I felt really good that Jesus was with me once again.”
- “Before confession, I wanted to be forgiven by God so that I can receive many graces. After I felt happy with the fact my sins would be forgiven and I felt very joyful and relieved.”
- “Before confession, I felt guilty because of my sins and after confession I flet refreshed.”
As the afternoon drew to a close we headed off to our beds for well needed sleep to help us prepare for the Easter Vigil Mass. Much to the surprise of the leaders, all but a few boys too advantage and slept for an hour. At 7:50 pm we woke up our boys so that we could have their dinner of pasta, chicken, cheese, ham, salad, bread and water.
After dinner our boys cleaned up and cleared away their dishes in record time before heading back to their dorms to change into their suits and ties for Mass. We noted that our boys are becoming more proficient with clearing their tables. Parents, your sons look so grown up and handsome in their suits.
Before the Vigil Mass began, we arrange two talks with each group of boys. We had one talk for the Timber wolves and another for the Explorers. Brother Nicholas shared his exciting life story with the Timber wolves (our boys listened very carefully to his every word), while Father Thomas spoke with our Explorers on personal holiness and purity. In this difficult and challenging world filled with many temptations, trends and peer pressure we still need to take a stand for the right things.
The Easter Vigil Mass started with the lighting of our Easter Candle. The ceremony took place in total darkness. As each of us lit our candles you could see how much brighter it go in the foyer. Similarly, we should let our light shine a make the world a brighter place. The singing at the Mass was breathtaking. Baloo read the one of the seven reading s and our own Dennis Less participated in the prayers of the faithful in Korean. Both of them did an awesome job.
During the Mass we renewed our baptismal vows and listened to an awesome homily. The FNE Explorer were included in the homily as example of waiting for victory. Father used the example of the Toronto Maple Leaf on their quest of another Stanley Cup. This example drew quite a response from all present. Mass lasted for more that 2-1/2 hours. We were proud of our boys and how well they listened attentively, prayed sincerely and received the body and blood of Jesus on their knees respectfully and with great joy and love. Only a few boys required prodding from our leaders in order to stay awake through the Mass. It was awesome!
We then dragged our tired bodies off to bed for 5 hour of sleep as we need to be up early for Easter Mass with our Pope.
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