Abbey News
Sunday, January 10, 2010
FOCUS 2009-2010
Fr. Gerard and I finally made it home after participating in the FOCUS Convention held in Orlando, Florida. The travel to and fro began with a 5 hour delay at the Rochester airport and ended with a 24 hour flight cancellation in Orlando, both due to stormy weather. The final act of our travel adventure was an hour's wait for the crew to show up for the last flight.
The convention itself was an inspiring and invigorating experience for us. MADE FOR MORE was the theme, subtitled Where is God Calling You. Daily Mass, quite different in tone from monastic liturgies, was an experience that will long be remembered. A typical Mass, pictured below, consisted of around 5,000 fervent students, some 80 concelebrants and 3 or 4 bishops, equally fervent.
Other events included a variety of daily concurrent speakers, 24 hour adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, a Big Band Dance (which Fr. Gerard and I chose to skip!) and confessions. It was not uncommon to see students lined up for confessions throughout the day. On the night confessions were scheduled about 50 priests heard them for around 3 hours straight.
Exhibits, over 70 of them, were only one aspect of the convention. Spread out along a lengthy corridor used by the students in going to the various events during the day and evening they were highly visible and visited by many. Although the students are well grounded in the knowledge and practice of their Catholic faith they were surprisingly unaware of the existence of so many and such a variety of religious communities. 
Our exhibit consisted of an 8' X 8' panel (unfortunately washed out in the photo by the spotlights) designed by our local artist, Minh Huynh, a DVD slide show to the left of the display and a table with literature and hand outs. Here we see Fr. Gerard awaiting visitors.
Besides the interaction with the students at the exhibit and during meals we were invited to a panel discussion with three other religious communities and nearly 100 students. Each panel member gave a brief description of his/her way of life which was followed by a lively question and answer period.
It is hard to measure the success of such a gathering from a vocation awareness point of view. Hopefully seeds of a religious vocation were planted that will bear much good fruit in years to come. It is estimated that over 50 religious and priestly vocations have come from FOCUS students during the ten years of its existence. As one of the panelists at our discussion mentioned: by our presence here we supply the kindling; the Holy Spirit will provide the fire. We found ourselves greatly energized and encouraged by the faith and dedication of the students, especially the FOCUS missionaries.
More Moving About
No sooner had Fr. Gerard and I returned when, early Tuesday morning, Fr. John left for our daughter house, Novo Mundo in Brazil, for the canonical visitation. He couldn't have planned his visit for a better time: mid-summer there, zero temperatures here! He's due back on the 22nd if all goes well. Which it probably won't, today's air travel being what it is.
Then on Thursday Br. Isaac returned to Washington, DC to continue studies at Catholic University. He wisely hired a car and drove.
Season's End
Today, with the celebration of the Lord's baptism the Christmas Season comes to an end. Tomorrow the decorations will be tucked away for another year as we begin the Ordinary Time of the liturgical year with Lent looming on the horizon.
|
