Three Kings and Boy Scouts

This weekend was a busy and special one. Here in Uruguay, the feast of the Epiphany is one of only three holy days of obligation that they have. For many people, it has an importance that almost rivals Christmas. The reason for this is that here they have the tradition that the Three Wise Men bring gifts on this day much as Santa would for us or St. Nick for the Europeans. As a result it is a day of great importance and ceremony with many events organized for kids.

I was invited to one such event. The local troop of Boy Scouts was on its annual end-of-year camping trip and invited me to join them for Mass. I have to say I was not prepared for what awaited me. They met me at my parish and we then drove for about 15 minutes until we had reached as backwoods a place as I had seen yet (remembering, of course, that my parish already is a backwoods place). Really it was just an active sand pit in the midst of open fields and the occasional copse of trees. That is not what surprised me. Surprising was that a significant number of them wanted to go to confession before Mass was celebrated and two of the adults asked if they could receive first communion (I will write about that another time).

In this country, confession has all but died out. Most people have been one time in their lives – right before their first communion! Therefore, it was a very pleasant surprise that so many of these kids wanted to go to confession. I fortunately did not have another Mass until the evening, because that one started an hour and a half late! Two sisters were with me, Sr. Maria de los Angeles and Sr. Maria Lucia, and they kept the rest of the group occupied with song and prayer while I heard confession and spoke with some of the staff. After that we celebrated Mass together there in the fields.

All in all it was a wonderful experience and a gift for me to be able to participate. If you would like to see the photos that Sr. Maria Lucia took, I uploaded them here: http://frfrancesco.shutterfly.com/action/pictures?a=67b0de21b33190cd8417