“Our second meeting went as great as the first, maybe even better. On Friday evening we were all greeted with this warm and caring feeling by Father Petr Tsvrkal and the animators! The whole atmosphere there and the people make you feel very cozy and as if you are not in an unfamiliar place.
After our check-in we were also greeted by dinner in the dining room where we all gathered and prayed before sitting at the table. After dinner, we gathered in a hall already familiar to most of us, where we hold our talks, games and entertainment. Once we were informed of the rules and schedule for the weekend we were going to spend together, we played lots of fun games that definitely had us all laughing out loud, thanks to Ellie. Later, we also entered the church, where we had an evening prayer and a word for good night, which was in the form of an instructive story presented by one of our animators and leaders Joro. After that we said good night and before long the new day dawned and with renewed energy we rushed into our program prepared by Gopeto, Kateto, Eli, Joro and the report.
We had morning prayer in the church where we also sang and headed for breakfast. Later, after the short break, our talks began – for example, topics such as “Pedagogy”, etc., which I personally think were very useful, interesting and educational, the learned will definitely be able to be used in our practice. In between the talks we played games that lifted the spirits and got them moving. After the talks were over, we were introduced to the beauty of the Holy Liturgy of the Western Rite by the report. We had a wonderful soup for lunch, which was cooked by Fanda, then we had a longer break, during which everyone had the opportunity to spend time getting to know and talk with the other young people, but also to confess to Father Petr or even just to talk with him on topics that interest us.
In the afternoon we had a game, it was held around the city of Kazanlak and everyone participated, being coordinated by our managers in a timely manner. The game was to test how well we could be oriented in the city, to test our speed as well as agility, to cope with the task of winning from one of the two assigned teams.
After the game was over, we all went back to the monastery and gathered in the hall for a game review and talk.
Dinner came not long after, of course we prayed before we all sat down at the table, of course Fanda had tried his best as always.
Joro and Kateto tried to make our practice not boring at all and I congratulate them for their hard work as well as the rest of the animators!
before going to bed we had an evening prayer in the church and a word for good night from Kateto in the form of an interesting and instructive story, after which everyone went to their bedrooms, which created a pleasant and warm atmosphere.
So Sunday morning came we started with preparing and packing our bags for our departure after lunch.
In the church, after our morning prayer and singing led by Gopeto, we had breakfast, after which we all took part in a rosary and Father Petr led us to the liturgy according to the Eastern rite, which I had not attended before, but I was definitely not disappointed! After Holy Sunday Mass, the group debriefed our meeting, commented on the experience, and assigned our homework assignments to be done by each of us.
At 12:00 o’clock we had our lunch, which consisted of soup and sauerkraut with pork, the feasts prepared with great care.
We headed off to pack our bags and sadly it was time to say goodbye, but of course not for long J
As a final, I can summarize that these meetings connect you with God and make you see the beauty of our faith! You have fun, meet new people, make new friendships and contacts and learn new things, and at the end of the meeting, nobody even wants to go home. Thank you on behalf of the youth for the wonderful weekend that was given to us by all those people who worked hard to make it happen! See you soon!”
Teya – future animator
