The morning dawned bright and sunny as we rose for the most hold day of the year – Good Friday. We dressed into our uniforms and consumed a simple breakfast given the nature of the day. After breakfast we visited the Holy Shroud burial cloth exhibit located on the Seminar’s campus. Here we learned much about our Lord Jesus Christ and the suffered he endured. The exhibit included a life-sized model of Jesus. It was awesome to see and it gave us a better appreciation for Jesus the man. Many of our boys spent time looking at the replica of the body of Jesus. The spent time stroking his head and resting their heads on the chest of Jesus as St. John did at the last supper.
We then moved over to the seminary’s auditorium to watch the movie, ‘The Passion of Christ’. During the movie many adults and a few of our boys shed tears as they watched the suffering that Jesus endured for our sins. This movie gave us a better appreciation for the love Jesus had for all of us. After a simple lunch of pasta, bread, salad and water we go it the coach line to take us the church the Holy Cross of Jerusalem for Good Friday Service. It was a beautiful service with great music and Father Thomas’ translated the prayers and the homily to heighten the experience for us. We received Holy Communion and after Mass we met another one of our Italian Explorer brother.
After Good Friday service and with the image of our Lord’s suffering fresh in our minds we entered the sacred chambers of the church were we pieces of our Lord’s cross; two nails driven through his hand; pieces of his crown of thorns; and the sign that was on top of the cross naming Jesus the King of the Jews. Some of our boys quickly fell to their knees and into deep prayer out of respect and gratitude. A few of our boys remained motionless for an extended period of time as we reflected further on our Lord’s suffering.
Since our stomachs growled for food, we left the church and enter a park nearby to consume a meal of tuna, cheese, bread, and ice tea. Our boys then played in the park for a little while. We took this opportunity to have one on chats with a few of our boys to provide them with some guidance which would assist them to make wiser choices in the near future. At dusk, with went to the Coliseum for the Way of the Cross with our Holy Father. At the Coliseum there were crowd of people everywhere. We needed to squeeze through a narrow security checkpoint in order to gain access to the ground of the Coliseum. We had the ‘cling’ to each in order to keep the group together. Grey Wolf/Akela lost two dinner knives that he had with him..sigh.
We found a spot where we could settle in as a group and awaited the arrival of our Holy Father. He arrived by helicopter and circled the grounds twice before landing. The Way of the Cross was beautiful. We benefited from hearing it in Italian and translated in English by Father Thomas. The event ended at 11:10 pm and our boys were very patient and attentive throughout the entire experience.
As we left the grounds, we met with a few of our brothers and sisters from Italy, Germany and France. We exchanged greeting with them before leaving to meet with our bus. During the walk to our bus, our boys assisted each other by carrying backpacks and offering piggyback rides for those who were very tired. Upon arrival at the Seminary we had a very brief night prayer around one of the statues of Mother Mary and were asleep within 15 minutes.
Map of trip to the Way of the Cross:
Facebook stored photos:
Link to Day9 photos
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