The Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael

We celebrated the Feast with our monastic voices by singing solemnly during our Morning Prayer. Singing the Psalms while meditating upon the words makes it more meaningful and inspiring. We continued to sing until just before breakfast ending with our traditional song, "Happy Name Day to You." Today was Sr. Gabriela's Name Day, our superior. Uplifted by the feast days of these mighty angels, we celebrated mass with continuous singing for the Name Day celebrant. Dinner was a "get-ready" prep for the upcoming event that afternoon.

After a few wrong turns, we finally arrived at our desired place in Downtown Grand Rapids. Our first stop was at the Cathedral Square where an Art Prize entry was placed. Art Prize is an open art competition, giving away the world's largest art prize of $250,000. Part arts festival, part social experiment - this international art contest is decided solely on a public vote. Artwork in these areas displayed much vitality and reflections of the artist’s personality in heart and mind.

Our long walk started at Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum where career memorabilia and outstanding artwork are displayed. Then we went down to the Public Museum to see more art with humor, curiosity and emotions. The city was packed with people from different walks in life who surely were inspired by the God given talents of these various artists that shared their talents with our community. The event reminded me of Jesus’ parable of the talents. In the parable, the wise servants used their talents responsibly, taking the challenge by trusting God to share the gift given to them for others. How God really loves us through their talents.

Our day ended very inspirational, as we received a blessing from our good old friend, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York. We watched EWTN's coverage of His special mass in honor of the relics of St. John Bosco's death. He was the holy man who inspired youth by sharing his God given gift in the service to them.