Reaching The Cliff
6^th RAY Summit: An Experience of God’s Constant Guiding Hands

Tourists, hikers, shoppers, kickers, party people—whatever names you tag on these brave young men and women, these delegates of the 6^th Recollect Augustinian Youth (RAY) Summit, with the theme “We have set our hope on the living God,” had themselves packed up with their well-defined yokes of clothing, toothpastes, etc.—all came by to shiver in the cool yet bright-lighted city of pines to give a new hand for the Lord.

Dated November 17, 2009 as the first day of the 5-day vista, some delegates had just nevertheless made themselves pop-up even the night before. Excitement? Or just an empty fear of arriving at the improper hour? We just might not know but only of a thing: Someone from up above had just tied a string on their shoulders to climb Baguio at a pace to meet His chosen ones!

One and two and so on.. we had at least 150 of them from Augustinian Recollect schools and communities from all over the homeland. Though the greater count was from the sectors of Luzon, not a delegation could stomp the delegates from Saint Augustine Academy of Bayawan, Negros Oriental, who outnumbered just as the previous summit. Contrast to the preceding summits also, we have a new affiliate: San Francis Javier College of Palawan. Now, do you see the treats-and-tricks of the Divine Caller?

Such an enchanting even won’t be satiated with much pride if without these goals which were delicately unwrapped at the span:

To celebrate the Year for the Priests.
- Unbelievably, more delegates applied for admission to the seminary. This could also be their year of being electrified by the Good Shepherd.

To awaken the youth as the shining light amidst the coldness and darkness of today’s world.
- Digitally-cultured sons and daughters from Above had but refigured themselves to be Light-cultured, that is, ready to remit the Light once diffused upon them.

To empower the youth as shining beacon of hope for the world.
- Oh, we might just get a bit stunned for these teens were wild and frenzy even before they arrived here: implicitly saying that they were motored to the maximum height during the summit!

To renew their commitment of faith, hope, and love with our Lord Jesus and the Blessed Mother Mary as the constant guide.
- We were just that assured of the fact that those tears which the delegates did drench were but an overflow of their experience with the Divine Healer and with Mary the Greatest Intercessor.

To develop and nurture intimate relationship with God through the different religious activities.
- Those who used to wear pendants of skulls and bullets wore those Cristo-centric ones during the Praise and Worship: these kids had just thronged the event with so much robustness!

Get a Stabilo marker; we’ll now plunge ourselves to the highlights of the grand union.

Green, green, green.
this may sound like kissing the mother earth as it was. But yes, this may also indicate the intense calling for the RAY to reclaim what was mislaid by industrialization and overdevelopment, which in turn furnishes hope for the people not to be intoxicated by the rumor about the 2012 crack.

Sparkles of Luminis from the Lux
Cartwheels of candles had just been availed to make the solemnity of the activities like Lucernariu, Holy Hour, confessions, and of course, the Holy Celebration of the Mass to be more commemorating. Well, even the pops-and-hops of the delegates under the majestic fireworks display were pregnant with meaning: a sign that such as these events won’t be that illuminated without the Lux, the Source of all light. Trivia: look for the words ‘shining’ in the said objectives of the Summit.

Vis-à-vis
A grocery of stories blended with laughter and affection had been shared throughout the Summit, particularly in talks, group-sharing and cultural show where we came to meet each other in each native cloaks. Socialization must be of great magnitude in this 5-day encounter, just as the term Casiciaco reminds us of how our Father Augustine gathered his first tribe; a part of his story foretold in the first day.

Rock n’ Roll
Spine-breaking jams in praise of the Lord! With earth-moving bass and roof-disrupting electric guitars especially during the Youth Festival, everyone had just kicked off dusts from the ground high!

Reaching Mother’s embrace
A pilgrimage to the Our Lady of Lourdes grotto made newcomers overwhelmed with an experience of the Mother’s love. Also, who might have thought that they could see Jesus once again during the Live Rosary? Don’t worry; the Jesus of today still did not shave His beard for Him to be recognized!

Quantum of Soar-race
Amazing race held at the seminary grounds, volleyball, badminton, lunch sprees, midnight laughter—all packed in an instant wrapping! Has anyone seen this guy’s face white as the cumulus clouds?

So far so spiced and sizzling—these are the words so fitting to the said event.  Though delegates from downtown bid their ‘see-you’s’ an hour before they left one by one on the last day, still they were indeed grateful for the uplifting experience.

People just come and go; others stay while others leave. But what we must remember is that without God’s guiding hands so loving and gentle, we could never reach the summit of our very existence, that which He called us to be as His own in our very little ways we know as VOCATION.

Anticipating the 7^th RAY Summit: who’s next in line to take the challenge of climbing the cliff where God has prepared a rich banquet of jellies and ice creams?