Thursday, April 21, 2011

Day 6 – Day Two of Our Pilgrimage – Visit to Loreto - 19 April 2011

The day dawned bright and sunny. Our boys had been sent to bed with the code of no talking until 7:15 am until the next morning – not a single word. This was a promise that most of the boys adhered to. By 7:15 am, Akela/Grey Wolf got our boys up for a 7:45 pm Continental breakfast and by 7:45 am all our boys were in the lobby, dressed, packed and ready to go.

At 8:30 am we departed for the Little House of the Annunciation in Loreto and for our private Mass at 9 am. Upon our arrival, we paid a brief visit to the little house where Angel Gabriel appeared to Mother Mary informing her that she was chosen as the mother of Jesus. We made our initial visit brief as we had to get downstairs in time for Mass.

Our Mass was a special one and had active engagement and participation from all present. Father Tomas’ homily was on the subject of faith. Faith is not just simply our prayer life and attending Mass, but really living daily life as a good Christian. We need to love and serve our Lord, to do his will, and by truly doing his will we become happier, more content and more at peace.

After Mass, we returned to the little house and fell on our knees as we contemplated the events that took place so long ago. The place saw the very beginning of our Faith. We then toured the rest of the church, learned more about the meanings of the various artworks and entered a Chapel for Eucharistic Adoration. In this chapel many of our boys gathered around the base of the altar on their knees in true joy, trust and happiness. Our Lord must have been really working as at one Explorer and one Leader had tears streaming down their face.

From there we exited the church and spent an additional 10 Euros to use the washroom..sigh (money literally down the drain). Afterward we took walk in a local area garden and walkway. At the bottom of the walkway the group sang ‘O Canada’ before walking back up. As a spiritual exercise Father Thomas challenged our boy to count all the steps and pray at each station of the Rosary on the way back up. Two of our team got the exact number of 333 steps.

The group had a hearty lunch in a local restaurant. Our boys are starting to realise that pasta with or without meat and served with bread is only the appetiser. The main course usually follows with meat, salad on of course more bread. The full lunch consisted of bread, pasta (with meat), sliced beef and turkey, salad and water. We had yet another great meal at a fair price and with great service. In Loreto, local businesses suffered from lack of customers and Pilgrims. This restaurant was very happy for our business. We then set off to the beach on a sunny but cool day.

The water was cool, yet 12 brave boys went in for a quick swim in the beautiful blue, clean salt water. Our boys skipped many stones with Father Tomas however they were no match for the “best of the best”. We finished our day with some more gelato ice cream. They are truly delicious. We recommend them highly.

The drive back was scenic especially some beautiful snow capped mountains we saw in the distance. During the day Brother Nicolas challenged our boys to solve a couple of riddles. Can you solve them? Here they are:

  1. Throw away the outside, cook the inside, eat the outside, and throw away the inside
  2. If you name me I am no longer present

Feel free to comment with your thoughts on these riddles.

After our 3-hour drive we got back to the seminary to a dinner of eggs, bread, bean burrito, salad and chicken seasoned rice. We got our boys to bed early as we needed to be up early in order to gain a good spot for the general audience with the Pope.

Facebook stored photos: 


Map of trip back to the Seminary:
Map of travels on Tuesday

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for posting so frequently. We really enjoy following this prilgrimmage!

    ReplyDelete