As promised we have ramped up our activities this summer. Aside from the summer camp, we are hosting an epic road trip. We have very limited space so the invitation is also limited. We will be contacting the family directly to invite them. This blog is mainly for information. If this program proves successful, then we will likely repeat it next summer or even over the winter.
The invitation is limited also because of the intensity of the program, the activities and the required level of maturity to participate in this "road trip."
This road trip is an adventure, a debate course, an epic mountain climb, visiting amazing miraculous sites, remembering the Alamo and joining TFP Student Action caravan in Texas. The proposed schedule is below.
Here are the details. We will leave very early in the morning of July 21 to Denver. The hike starts on Sunday. I believe the priest will celebrate latin mass all three days of the hike.We will set up base camp. July 22 we ascend to the peak of Mt. Humboldt. It is one of the almost 200 peaks in Colorado that are over 14,000 feet. It's not Mt. Everest but the view from any peak that high is sublime. This is not a "technical" climb in the sense that it is not a dangerous climb but not exactly a walk in the part. We will hike a total of 10 miles and a height of 4,000 ft.
On the peak, as per tradition, we will build an altar, following the example of St. Elias, upon which the holy sacrifice of the mass in the extraordinary form will be celebrated. It is worth while going for this reason alone.
We will camp out for two nights on the mountain. It is one thing to see the stars when there are city lights to dim the night sky. Seeing the stars on top of the mountain is a whole different thing. You can see the Milky Way itself!
The following morning, Fr. J. will again celebrate mass and everyone heads down the mountain on their own speed. From there we will head to visit the Miraculous Crucifix of Chimayo. During the colonial period a Chimayo monk saw a bright light. He dug the ground where the light shone and found a crucifix. They took it to a chapel a distance from the place of discovery only to disappear three times and found right back in the ground where it was originally found. They took the hint and established a chapel there. It is a crude looking crucifix but then again they did find it buried in the ground without any idea who made it an how it got there. It looks vaguely Native American style so one theory is that it was made by an native years before Christianity step foot on America and the said native preserved it from destruction and buried it before he died only to be found by a monk.
Here's some more information about it. https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2168
Here is a picture of it.
We will then drive to Santa Fe, NM where the miraculous staircase made by St. Joseph is.
As the nuns told it, the choir loft (where nuns normally sing their Little Office chants) was built without a staircase. The nuns had to bravely climb up a rope ladder. When some of the nuns started to have trouble climbing up they consulted many engineers asking if there was a way to build a staircase going from the chapel to the choir loft and keep it within their budget and not take a good part of the already small chapel. Not getting any suggestions from the engineers, they started a novena to St. Joseph asking for his intercession. On the 9th day of the novena, a man appears and offers to make the staircase. He would not give a quote of the price. He simply told them to decide what it was worth once he was finished. He worked for nine days behind locked doors. The only thing he requested was hot water in the morning to bend the wood. On the 9th day, the man disappears. Not hearing any sound from the chapel, the nuns braved to enter it. They were amazed to find a magnificent double spiraling staircase. It has no central pillar or any supporting pillar or contraption. Even from the natural point of view, it is puzzling.
Here is the picture of it.
We will spend the 24th close to here.
On the 25th, we will drive to meet up with the TFP Student Action Summer caravan. During our long drives, we will have a program of sorts. Two years ago, we made an epic road trip to California. To entertain ourselves, we played some car trip games. We played music and listened to audiobooks. We even watched a few documentaries. But what got all the boys excited is our debate sessions.
This trip will be partially a debate course. The participants will first listen to the liberal argument regarding abortion, start of human life, whether the Catholic church is the one, true church or just one of many, the crusades and inquisition was evil, gun control and other topics. The course will teach them how we, in the TFP, learn how to dissect, dismantle and argue against a liberal position.
This is an excellent way for a young catholic to prepare for the reality of life. We don't live in a christian society, much less a Catholic society. We live in a society where liberal ideas, values and notions are taken as dogmatic. A young catholic has to learn to face this so that he has a better chance to preserve his faith, and, more importantly, to grow in it.
On the 26th, we join the TFP caravan. The campaign will most likely be about abortion. Our campaigns are mainly holding signs asking people to honk for life. We pray the rosary, pass out fliers and at times engage with the public. This is the perfect environment for a young man to stand up for his faith in public in a controlled environment and with a large support group of experienced debaters. There are times you find yourself engaged in a debate where many people are watching. You get the impression it's just you against the world. Those are the times when the Holy Ghost, by the grace of Our Lady, inspires you to say just the right thing. In those moments, you feel taller than Mt. Humbolt. You get the chance to stand up against the world and, like David against Goliath, win.
On the 27th, I believe, we will campaign in Alamo, TX, where the famous last stand happened. Remember?
We will depart on early on the 31st, stop by Kansas to drop of one of the participants and head back to Wisconsin. We should be back by the afternoon of August 1.
This is a trip boys are guaranteed to talk about for a long time. We tried to have a perfect mixture of heroism, religion, culture, social, intellectual all wrapped within an adventure.
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