Summer Camp and Care for Creation News!

It's been a little while since the last post and this is largely due to my having been in "travel mode" as of two weeks ago. For the last two weeks I've been visiting our retreat center in Orlando (San Pedro Center) helping out with Scripture Camp. This camp was established in 1980 and has been going strong for the last 29 years! (with the exception of a brief, two year lay off a couple years ago due to damage from a hurricane). The camp is basically an opportunity for young people to explore their faith at a deeper level with peers in a fun, relaxing, and casual environment. The staff this year has done a marvelous job creating a theme (Jesus, Our Hero) based on the recent plethora of movies focusing on famous super heros (Superman, Batman, X-Men, etc....). The daily teachings examine the correlation between the underlying values espoused by these movies (faith, respect, forgiveness, service, and love) and how we understand these values as expressed through the ultimate "hero" Jesus Christ. It was quite a clever and relevant theme and one that the staff and campers have had a lot of fun with (and also learned a lot from!)

Though I've been here in Florida, I've also been quite active in communications regarding the goings on with our Care for Creation (C4C) initiative at our Monastery in Hollidaysburg, PA. I'm happy to report that we have had two very successful events and are preparing for a third. This past Monday, Fr. Bernie Tickerhoof, T.O.R., presented on his passion of birding. The talk was entitled, "A Spiritual Approach to Birding, On a Wing and a Prayer." 29 people attended this talk at the Care for Creation Center next to the community gardens. This talk was the fifth installment of a series of eight presentations on a spiritual and practical approach to caring for creation that we have had at the Monastery this summer. Yesterday we had our first major "harvest" and nearly all of the produce and flowers that we have grown were given to volunteers, a local food kitchen serving the poor, and a local nursing home. I'm also happy to report that we will be replanting the area where our tomatoes were growing with a cole crop (we lost them due to a late season blight). Finally, preparations have been ongoing and are being "ramped up" for the first festival of the season. Our Summer Bounty Festival will be on Saturday, August 1st from 12-4 pm and will include live music, food, activities for adults and kids, and a tour of the garden to promote what we are doing and what we hope to do in the future concerning community gardening and caring for creation. One thing I'm looking forward to is the "fire pit" roasted corn that we will be having....yum!!! (thanks for the great suggestion, Fr. Christopher!!) We hope that you'll be able to join us, but, if not, please pray for good weather! Peace, Fr. Pat, TOR