Is There Always A Rash With Acute Hiv

pastoral retreat with young people - Baida (PA)

"I have good news ... I have met!"
"And we proclaim also to you!"

From 5 to 11 August 2010, was held at Baida (PA), a retreat organized by the Daughters of St. Anne, open to children aged 14 and over. Slogan of this meeting was "I have good news! I've met ... ".

The retreat has had as its central theme the "Code for Happy - The Beatitudes ", a topic that has been deepened and matured day by day, through meditation taught by Father Valdo, who invited each participant to reflect on each of the Beatitudes, with the subsequent personal meditation, when each boy / girl was called to express how their lives had been lived up to that point in the specification bliss.

After the wake-up alarm, we all found ourselves in a place other than the convent, to recite the prayer of praise, and to pay out the first words of the day to God our Father. As usual morning was the meeting and the pilgrimage led by Fr Ernesto towards the small grotto of the Blessed Virgin Mary, set up by nuns in one of the many beautiful green spaces of the convent.

Every afternoon was provided a fixed space called "Practically ", in which the Br Josimar through games, group work, images, performances, music, dance etc . we made it easier to penetrate with ease, fun and helping each other, in the "how" to make feasible the concept of the Beatitudes in the context of everyday life.

The afternoon also saw as usual (and unfortunately pretty rare to be achieved in normal daily life of our young people) participation in Holy Mass, celebrated by Father Waldo and enlivened by all of us, it allows the group to fill the Liturgy of the Word and to partake of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

In the evening after dinner, each group (in which we had been split) explained the work done in the afternoon, after this step followed several moments of brotherhood, cheerfulness (the jokes told by Elisa) various games (like "Guess Who"), group dances and finally at the end the prayer of thanksgiving.

moment among the most moving and profound was the "day of desert ", organized in order to live for six hours non-stop and continuous exposure of the Blessed Sacrament, this time that allowed everyone to live an intensely intimate and personal encounter with Jesus our Lord, without any outside distractions, but heart to heart with the Risen One, in the middle of listening to everything he wanted in his great goodness and mercy, stimulate and inspire each of us.

Among other things, we should also remember the afternoon spent at Montreal, on a visit to the Cathedral and the convent of the Benedictine pilgrimage that has allowed the group to appreciate and enjoy all that exceptional and unique can be produced by the human intellect.

Each of us has been equipped with various materials, including the most important of the " logbook " where we went first to answer to the questions posed by the guides throughout the day and where at the end of the retreat was going to note the wealth of experience made in six days and what he had meant "Baida" for each participant.

very important and precious was the closeness, help, ability to listen and counsel and carismaticità of our "spiritual guides" that is to say, Father Valdo, Br and Br Josimar Ernesto, Sister Anna Mary, the Mother Superior Sister Anna Cristina and all the other sisters Daughters of St. Anne that love and patience, led by the hand each of us, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in every moment of your withdrawal.

In conclusion, we can say with certainty that the withdrawal Baida was a moment of grace, and above all an important opportunity to rediscover themselves, the relationship with God and knowledge among children aged different, young and old among you shall be introduced: complicity, friendship, mutual respect and so much more, showing that it is possible to combine prayer and meditation, with moments of joy, happiness and all that so many young people today, so desperately seek to give meaning to their daily lives.

Cravotta Joseph Anthony Vaccaro

(Youth Caltanissetta)