Student "edition" found at {thoughts dot com slash typed no space out no space loud slash blog}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

There were several new things in the retreat this year from the last time. I couldn’t write them in the student accessible version to keep the element of surprise.

There were a lot of new songs, almost half of the old list were removed and replaced.

The life of the founder was also not as much touched upon as before, but maybe because that’s more the concentration of the first and second year recollections now.

The brother president also had more time spent with the students than before, staying from breakfast of the third day to the Eucharistic celebration.

The facilitator, also from one of the other campuses, lauded that he wished the presidents of the other school were as involved in the spiritual formation of their students.

Sure they may appear now and then, but I don’t think it’s at this level of interaction.

This time we spent more time with the candle sharing because this batch was made up of two relatively large but close knit groups, so they started out with one-on-one face ups, but as it took longer, they eventually just went for huddles.

It was also comforting to see one student apologizing for the fact that they had to be called from their room to the session after the breaks, which I don’t mind.

It’s better to call them once and have them go rather than to call them repeatedly and still be frustrated, as was the case with the previous batches who were assigned two to three in a room instead of the big dorm.

Well, that’s not going to be the case anymore, because the privacy makes the students more complacent and thinking they’re on vacation instead of reflection.

Besides, the barracks makes the bonding better for large cliques and forces them to consider those who might be left out, such as those from different courses.

And there’s no more hiding of cigarettes and liquor, of course; more possibility of snitching, so they don’t risk it. Chalk it up to some sacrifice done.

Session 2529 has four days of reflection in a row actually, tell more tomorrow. Class dismissed.