2019 Salesian Lay Missioners

2019 Salesian Lay Missioners

Part I

This summer there are 10 men and women preparing to give a year of service as Salesian Lay Missioners .  They're now in their 3d week of orientation, which consists of a retreat alongside the Salesians at Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw, N.Y.

The 10 include 8 women and 2 men; 7 young adults, 1 a bit older, and 2 we may call seniors.  They come from as nearby as Mahopac, N.Y., just across the Hudson River, and as far away as California.

As usual, they spent the 1st week of orientation in New Rochelle, getting introduced to Don Bosco, the Salesians, and Salesian missionary endeavors.  They met a good number of SDBs at the provincial house and also visited some local Salesian works.  In their 2d week they moved 12 miles up I-95 to Port Chester to do some service work and some youth work in our parish's summer camp.

It's customary for the group to have a day of hiking in Harriman State Park or at Bear Mt., and your humble blogger is ordinarily their guide.  When we've done Bear Mt., in addition to Mass and a picnic lunch near the famous Bear Mountain Inn and Hessian Lake and a strenuous hike up the mountain, we've also visited Fort Montgomery's ruins and the Revolutionary museum there, and I've given an orientation about the Revolution in the Hudson Valley.

All but 1 of this year's SLMs with their orienteers, Adam Rudin (program director, standing at right), 

Fr. Tom Brennan (chaplain, kneeling at left), and Clare Pressimone (returned SLM, in bus doorway), 

at Rte 6 parking lot ready to hike

The 1st year that we hiked, we went to Big Hill Shelter; some got tired and stopped at the fire tower.  This year, like last year, we hiked 2 miles down the Long Path from U.S. Rte 6 to the Stockbridge Shelter for our Eucharist and lunch stop, 

SLMs and Fr. Tom Brennan, ready for Mass in Stockbridge Shelter

Photo by Clare Pressimone

then 1½ miles down the Menomine Trail to Silvermine Lake parking lot.  Unlike last year, when it started to rain while we were at the shelter

2018 SLMs lunching in the shelter while rain pours down

 and we got soaked on the way down to Silvermine, this year the weather was sunny and mild.  

3 SLMs enjoying the sun in front of the shelter

Also unlike last year, with time available, we diverted from the shelter down an unmarked trail to Baileytown Road and paid our respects to the dead in the old, unmaintained Bailey family cemetery (one of many scattered around the park as family burial grounds).

Baileytown cemetery, October 3, 2017