Days 87-88: Supe Visit #2 (Part 1)

Well, it could’ve been alot better. I might’ve had too high expectations for this retreat based on the one from last week (Day 80 for reference), but it definitely was one of the tougher retreats in a long time, a couple weeks id say. The youth were disruptive and not as excited as the group last week, but at the same time not a horrible time, just not as good as it has been the past few retreats. It was nice having Christina and Jaime around this time around, no question about it. When we returned to the rectory, the team conducted another team prayer, which because of two more voices along with a small, echoey room, it was one of the loudest team prayers we’ve had yet, which got me pumped after a long day like today was. And just like last week, it was a super chill night: Chick-Fil-A for dinner, and free time to do whatever we wanted. For me, i made a call, listened to my music for the first time in what feels like forever, and do a rosary walk on a crisp evening in Virginia. And just like last week, super necessary, super therapeutic, and i enjoyed every second of it. . . And just like last week, we head back to Maryland, only this time we wake up at 5:00am to leave by 6:00 for St. Jude in Rockville, MD for a day confirmation retreat. It was early, but praise God for van naps. With the supervisors here, turns out we can actually use them in retreats, which is exactly what we did. They got to perform skits and conduct the activities with us! Unfortunately, the energy was dead in this group, so our attempts felt pretty useless. Still had fun at least! Of course the past two retreats with the supes here were the least energetic retreats the past two weeks. We did hit a pretty big milestone though: Jakob ate his 100th slice of pizza on the road! It’s something he’s kept track of since we left, and it’s only been 7-8 weeks. Goes to show how much pizza is given on retreats huh. Anyways, when we arrived to host homes, Nels, Jaime, Jakob and I, stayed with the Pham’s, a really gentle elderly couple that served us some amazing Shepard’s pie and Chicken. Then, in a weird turn of events, they sent us to bed at 8:00pm, leaving all four of us in the basement with whatever we wanted to do. It’s felt as if everything has truly slowed down since the start of ministry, but I definitely won’t complain.