Spirit Day!

With Mr. Dotto telling us for the last two weeks about an amazing experience Spirit Day would be, our expectations were very high! Some of the things we were looking forward to were meeting students from other schools, hearing songs & stories from Spiritual leaders, and bonding together as a class! We knew the day was a big deal once we heard Archbishop Michael Miller was going to bless the students who will be receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. The day began with around 35 students (the whole grade 7 class, plus 4 PREP students) meeting up at St. Edmund’s at around 11 am. There was an energy we all felt in the library as we gathered together, heading for a full day being together with God! Although it was a 40 minute trip to the venue, the time seemed to fly by as we talked and joked on the bus. When we arrived, we had a ‘Spirit Team’ guide us to the Middle School Gym, where we were given our name tags, schedules, and t-shirts! We walked together to the auditorium, where we got to sit close to the front! The MC’s introduced the program for Spirit Day, and what our theme was this year! The theme was “In Him” – have hope In Him, have strength In Him,  and be alive In Him. 

The day began with around 35 students (the whole grade 7 class, plus 4 PREP students) meeting up at St. Edmund’s at around 11 am. There was an energy we all felt in the library as we gathered together, heading for a full day being together with God! Although it was a 40 minute trip to the venue, the time seemed to fly by as we talked and joked on the bus. When we arrived, we had a ‘Spirit Team’ guide us to the Middle School Gym, where we were given our name tags, schedules, and t-shirts! We walked together to the auditorium, where we got to sit close to the front!

The MC’s introduced the program for Spirit Day, and what our theme was this year! The theme was “In Him” – have hope In Him, have strength In Him, and be alive In Him! When the band began playing the first song, the atmosphere in the auditorium built up to a level of fun an excitement that remained for the rest of the day! We knew that the day would be different when we started to join with the band by singing, clapping, etc. We also started linking arms as a class during times we felt especially energized by our faith!

One highlight was when Brad and Gene of APEX Ministries picked Sofia come on stage. She had volunteered help demonstrate ninja skills to the audience. One of the skills that Sofia performed was the ‘plate bomb’, where she had to use a bamboo stick to balance a spinning plate (if she dropped it, the plate would explode!). Sofia had to look away while Brad transferred the plate onto her stick. Sofia was successful on the first round, but then Brad and Gene added an additional challenge – doing it with one finger without looking. Brad got the plate ready for Sofia to balance, but then placed his nose right above her finger (intending to use her finger to pick his own nose). Luckily, Sofia sensed something was wrong, and caught Brad at the last minute!

Another Brad and Gene skit was ‘The Enchanted Forest’. They used several students in the auditorium to play a part: four students were the forest, two students were the gate, three students were the chickens, and one girl was the wolf. Gene was the narrator and Brad played the little boy! They also added some humor to make the story a bit more engaging and exciting! While the skits were fun, Brad and Gene told us some serious stories as well. Brad told us the story of his sister, and how he felt God was with her. They also told us the story of ‘God’s Juggler’.

After mass with Archbishop Michael Miller, we were instructed to go to the cafeteria and line up. Our dinner was pasta with a juice box and a granola bar! Everyone loved the pasta, so lots of people went back for seconds! Unfortunately, we had to wait for 10-15 minutes in the rain for another scoop of pasta. We still had fun, laughing as some of our classmates ran around in the rain screaming! On the way back home, we felt that the experience of Spirit Day changed the way we feel about our faith. We were all thinking what it means to have hope In Him, strength In Him, and be alive In Him. God is always around us, and even though we are not perfect, God will be with everyone in their faith. God is a healer, not a judger! He will always love everyone! Spirit Day was a day of celebration of faith, awoke in us the Holy Spirit, and helped us realize the importance of the Sacrament of Confirmation.