Click here to view photos from day 3
DAYS EVENTS:
- Breakfast
- Aerobics Ob Style
- Talk: "Through The Eyes Of Christ We See The World"
- Discussion Groups
- Sliced Snags-in-a-blanket 4 Lunch
- Workshops & Free Time
- Group Skits
- Dinner
- Reconciliation
- Supper
SUMMARY
8:30am saw the dawning of Day Three with a combination of tired bodies and excited faces. Kyle’s graceful return from the hospital was much to everybody’s delight, along with his stories of the doctors sense of humour (or shall we say lack of!).
The morning began with “Aerobics OBLATE Style” with “Big G”(Fr Gerry) and “Smitty-Smithers” (Fr Paul Smithers) leading the weary bunch with “aerobic” combinations consisting of “Genuflect”, “Sign of the Cross” and “Prostrate” (yes the Oblates are a weird bunch but we let our faith guide us through this activity).
“Through the eyes of Christ we see the world,” was the theme for morning prayer, a time for us to reflect on the way in which, we as Christians, should aim to become a more Christ-like community. Brendan, Hélène and Loretta all gave us a personal story in which they, as Christians, have made an attempt to see the world through the eyes of Christ.
Brendan’s story described his experience in which he was involved in helping physically disabled young people complete activities such as a commando course involving high ropes and physical challenges, as part of his Occupational Therapy course. This was a powerful experience for Brendan, leaving him with a better appreciation of God’s gift of life.
Hélène’s story called for ideas from the floor about ways in which we can invite or inspire new members to our church. Evangelisation was the focus of the talk, and the different ways in which we can achieve this, but the best way is by the way we live our lives: eg. being caring and patient with each other and being understanding of the difficult people in our lives.
Loretta graced us with a certain flair and a contrasting presentation opening our eyes to the media and the negative effects of recent headline news. She used this as a tool to accentuate the way in which news headlines make it difficult to see the world through the eyes of Christ.
Finally the main focus (entertainment!) for the day arrived...
Each group had a different theme and Christ message to evaluate.
THE TASK FOR EACH GROUP was as follows:
“Jesus has hired you to sell this message to today’s world? Do this by creating a billboard, TV commercial, radio advert or jingle, or a combination. Jesus will hire the most creative group personally.”
The message for GERARD group was: The Call to Love One Another and Ourselves.
Each group was allocated a different aim in which to target there advertisement. As the jingles rolled in, the innuendoes and satirical send-ups of Para Pini (Fr Fini) came thick and fast — leaving the whole audience in hysterics. Highlight’s of the GERARD group were Big Kev’s pregnant labour pains, Jared Webb as a panicking husband, and Nick’s imitation of Fr Fini in the confessional! FORTUNÉ group was noted for it’s Prayer in a Can advert, and musical jingle!
The results are still yet to be determined as we await Jesus’ verdict. All in all the quality of the skits were superb making this a tough one even for Jesus himself (represented by the Provincial, Fr Vincent Ryan OMI, who arrived at 3:00pm).
Just after dinner the group celebrated the end of the dream of a national youth work by the Oblates, as we celebrated with a beautiful cake, the 5th anniversary of the reality ofOblate Youth (everyone got a piece, or three if you’re Fini). Congratulated especially were the five people who have been on all of the first five encounters: Daniel Kelly, Hélène and Bernard Costin, Fr Fini and Marc Johnson.
As Tuesday came to a close we ended with a powerful reconciliation experience, a time in which we could all reflect on our lives and the ways in which we may have strayed from
looking through the eyes of Christ. The whole experience was very inspirational and un-burdening as we explored the reality that
“Those who are forgiven little, show little love.” Fr Paul Smithers OMI gave a brilliant reflection on a segment from the major 1988 film, “The Mission,” which dealt with a man’s failure to believe that God could forgive him for his evil deeds… of God did forgive him, but it was only through his penance that the man came to accept that forgiveness and the freedom to experience God’s love.