Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Closing Retreat Day 3

Wednesday Morning came a bit sooner than normal due to the fact we were up late. Really late. A few of us stayed up to greet one of our FVMs who had to go home for some personal reasons. We thank you for your prayers regarding this matter!

When the whole crew finally woke up, we had a Mass led by Julianne, Chris, Rory, and Anna. We gathered in the Chapel of the retreat house and then made a pilgrimage outside to a crucifix and statue of Mary. While outside, we went around the circle and had a very personal prayers of the faithful. We then headed inside to conclude the Mass. Chris and Julianne shared their amazing musical talents by singing and performing a song during communion. It was truly beautiful.

After Mass, we got together for a presentation by FVM alum Kelly Quist (Philadelphia 2003-2004) about life AFTER FVM. Kelly shared some stories from her personal life about how hard it was to readjust to life outside of the FVM world. This really helped many of our FVMs who are in a position of transition. Kelly was able to bring such a personal experience to a group setting easily, and said many times how lucky our FVMs were to be in the program.

We would like to thank Kelly greatly for being present and for such personal sharing!



During lunch, the annual mystery ride was announced. We had 15 minutes to get ready and pile into every car we had. Twenty minutes later we found ourselves at a ferry to head to MARTHA'S VINYARD! This marked the third "off continent" mystery ride. The weather was a bit shaky in the morning, but once we boarded, the sun came out in full force. Once we hit port on the other side of the water, groups broke off to explore. Some went to go eat, some went to the beach, and some went bike riding around the island. We were able to spend about four hours mixing it up with the tourists and millionaire mansion owners and we all enjoyed it thoroughly.




After we grabbed some dinner, Wilmington led our final prayer for the 2009-2010 year. For the prayer, we lit candles and said a prayer of thanksgiving for something in our FVM lives, and then one for the incoming FVMs. Although we were all pretty tired, it was the perfect way to end a perfect day.

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