Sunday, March 13, 2016

March for Life

Hello friends!

It's been a good while since I have written a blog post:

It's been a busy last couple of months with major annual events going on.

I was in Washington DC for the March for Life back in January as one of six chaperones for 10 of the young people down here. (For those who don't know what the March for Life is visit marchforlife.org for more details)

We left on the 21st of January and our plane landed there later that evening. That evening it was bitter cold in DC. We went out to eat and returned back to the hotel and prayed a rosary together and went to bed.

The next day, January 22nd, is the day that abortion was made legal in the United States. So this was the day of the March. First we started off with Mass in one of the local churches. But what was extremely cool about this is that all of the groups who traveled from Florida were present at this Mass. Floridian Mass in DC! And after Mass there were plenty of delicious donuts and hot chocolate to go around! Next we went over to where the rallying was taking place. And it was super cold out there again that day too. After the rallying we marched out to the Supreme Court.
It was forecasted that DC was supposed to get slammed with a blizzard the day of the March, but to our surprise there were still thousands of people present at the March. It started to snow just as we began marching and in the end (spoiler alert) it wasn't a blizzard; just a big snowstorm. I think the forecasted blizzard kept pro-abortion protesters at home that day; because I didn't see any. Perhaps the snow was a gift from God this year.
By the end of the March we were all freezing and there was a lot of snow everywhere so we returned to the hotel. The youth minister had planned on us visiting things like the Washington Monument, the Arlington Cemetery, the Holocaust Museum and other such places that day and the next couple days that we spent in DC. But because of the snow, the metro was shut down, the side streets were closed and businesses were shutting down early. Therefore, our plans were thrown out the window. In addition, our flights were canceled and rescheduled a day later.

But you know what? All of this was okay. We may have been stuck in our hotel for the next couple of days but we made due with what was given to us. Most of the youth from St Petersburg Diocese (Tampa is included in there) were staying at this hotel. Therefore, many of the kids at this hotel have hardly been around snow. So of course they were outside playing in it! And what came across as humorous to me was how these high schoolers didn't have any concept of what snow is like. Here they are in their sneakers trudging through the snow banks instead of the shoveled sidewalks saying "Oh this is fun!" not realizing that in a couple of minutes their shoes and socks are going to be extremely cold and wet. Or when they would shove snow in each other's faces for fun not realizing how cold their face is going to be for the rest of the day. Or how much it hurts or how cold it is to throw snow or snowballs at one another! Oh the joy all of this was!
So did we get to do what we wanted to do? No. But instead we played in the snow for a couple of days and spent some quality time with one another which fostered new or stronger relationships. We also celebrated Mass in the hotel, prayed the rosary and shared spiritual insights with one another.

By the way, my hotel roommate is a young guy who I believe shall be joining the Salesians of Don Bosco in the fall. Praise God that I had the chance to get to know him a lot more on this trip. In short, he is a man striving for holiness. Please pray for this guy, my friend, in his discernment towards the Salesians.

In summary, this trip was another concrete example of the Salesian idea of faith and fun going together.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comment? Question? Prayer Request?