Community Service - Day 3

Saturday morning we met for mass at St. Bernadette's Parish. The Reno diocese pilgrims taugh us a song for the procession entrance. After mass we were dropped off to different senior communities for community service. Sergio, Mary, Michelle, Teresita and Carrie visited with one senior rest home and met a Mercy Sister, Sr. Veronica, who will be 100 years old in 10 months. We sang many songs for them, with them and they sang for us as well, the New Zealand national anthem.

In the afternoon, we had free time with our host families. In the evening was the National Team "The All Blacks" playing South Africa in rugby. New Zealand lost. We watched it at a local restaurant and bar.

Feast Day of St. Benedict - Day 2

On July 11, our host families drove us to visit Gethsemane Gardens in Sumner on the East coast of New Zealand, south of Christchurch. Gethsemane Gardens were beautiful and set up top a hill overlooking Christchurch and the ocean. We sat in a huge "ark" for a reflection on gardening and how this relates to our spiritual journey. We need all the seasons in our life to be fully formed - winter, spring, summer and fall. Sometimes we want to hold onto the "summer" parts of our lives but we need to move on to fall and winter which allow the fields to rest in order to have rebirth in spring.

After Gethsemane, we went to Sumner beach for a picnic lunch with our host families and then to Te Rangimarae cultural center to learn about Maori culture. Two of the dancers above with Sergio Canjura. Then, we walked to the Cathedral Centre and had fish and chips. Mass with the Bishop of Christchurch in their Cathedral at 7:30pm.