Moving on From My First Mariapolis

"Many beautiful pictures of the retreat taken by Oscar Cena are found in this link"

From MariapolisLuminosaHydeParkNY

I was not expecting to make it to my first Mariapolis at Hyde Park, upstate New York, on the 4th Weekend of July, but a friend volunteered to pay for the fees, after I explained to him I was trying to save my cash these days---he simply would not accept "no" for an answer. Gratefully, I showed up despite some other concerns in my mind, but all of them were gone as soon as I got reminded of being "loved by God immensely" which is the main theme of this year's Mariapolis. The two emcees on the slide were giving words at the start of the program, which initially didn't really impact me strongly---it was sort of a big family reunion affair but still I felt much safe and at home. It felt good being around that place, with other members from the St. Paul the Apostle Prayer Meeting Community (Maffeth, Erly, Chito, Dina, Oscar, Obie, plus Lorna) present, too, that allowed everyone to bond together (here's hoping and praying that next year's Mariapolis will see the attendance of every one in our prayer community, with God's grace!).

I also met some other people I got to meet the first time in other events---they were actually inviting me to come here, so we surprised each other in this Mariapolis. I also had the good opportunity to meet up some fellows whose names I recall as "Joseph, Vince, Ed, Yvet, Lane, Len, Maria," among others when we were made to join groups that would come up with group activities having common interests. It was "video journalism" (or something similar), where I had fun working and contributing my inputs on what we can share to everybody else in the retreat. But I never got to see the finished product as our group had to leave early to back to New York City in preparation for work the next day. I do hope I'd get to meet again these fellows some other time, God willing.

From MariapolisLuminosaHydeParkNY

A photo of the floral arrangement in the reception room of one of the small buildings in Mariapolis Luminosa compound. The woman on the book's the Focolare founder, Chiara Lubich.

From MariapolisLuminosaHydeParkNY

This is the main mess hall, where a lot of wonderful, warm conversations took place in between participants. You'd all people with different backgrounds, ages, and experience. Food was typically American cuisine, and we were here during one of those record hot days of July---I could just imagine how the weather must had been in New York City itself.

From MariapolisLuminosaHydeParkNY

A view of the chapel in the compound.

From MariapolisLuminosaHydeParkNY

The altar inside the chapel, with the tapestry depicting the crucifix.

From MariapolisLuminosaHydeParkNY

The chapel's sunlit rooftop window (what do you call this technically?) that allows natural light to be enjoyed all throughout the day.

From MariapolisLuminosaHydeParkNY

View from our room at Quality Inn, where we stayed that night. We're supposed to stay the evening at Vassar College but the dorm didn't have air-conditioning. Fortunately, we managed to get a room here at the last minute. Air-conditioning conked out later that evening, though, but we remained grateful. The next day, we got to chat with some long time members of the Focolare Movement, and one explained that this is the first time that something like this happened to the annual Mariapolis. The participants were supposed to be staying at Marist College but the contract between the college and the Focolare was thrown away almost at the last minute. The organizers had no option but to just get whatever was available so they could have some place to provide to the participants. Needless to say, we learned a lot along the way. "It could have been worst," you know!

From MariapolisLuminosaHydeParkNY

A view of the mess hall from inside the Chapel, which looked like a typical, very homey ranch-style house you'd see anywhere in provincial places here in the US (I believe).

From MariapolisLuminosaHydeParkNY

A view of the foliage from one of the windows set close to the ceiling of the men's bathroom in the conference hall ---I enjoyed the total contrast from where I was standing that time.

Two short videos I took using my celfone are below (they're two group singing parts of the program at the conference hall where we'd gather on many periods of the retreat---I enjoyed having so much coffee, tea and biscuits at the same time!):