Taking the Time to Make a Difference

It was a wild ride. Waves crashed over the front of the ferry. Water sloshed on top of our car and sprayed into any window that wasn’t shut tight. It was part of a memorable famiy vacation for our small family -- small enough that all four of us could fit, along with our camping gear, into a Chevy Vega station wagon. We had a wonderful time camping at a park on Madeline Island in Lake Superior. One of the most memorable events though was the day it stormed. We pegged down and tightened up everything we could on our tent, climbed into the car, and got on the ferry to Bayfield, Wisc. Some people on motorcycles were with us on the ferry. They were shouting and laughing and bouncing up and down – like a mechanical bull ride with wind and waves added. It’s a vacation story, an old one, one that everyone in the family remembers in some way. It was possible because I could take vacation days from work, and camping was affordable. Not everyone is so fortunate.

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Pope Benedict XVI started his summer vacation with a prayer, according to a Catholic News Service story. After reciting the Angelus July 27, the pope told vacationers that he hoped they would enjoy "peaceful days of beneficial physical and spiritual relaxation." Then he said, "Let us not forget, however, those who are not able to benefit from a period of rest and vacation; I am thinking of the sick in hospitals and convalescent homes, prisoners, the aged, those who are alone and others who pass the summer in the heat of the city."

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Brian and Mary Ann Thelen are active members of the Christian Family Movement in Ann Arbor, Mich., and currently serve on CFM’s national board of directors. For many years, starting in the mid-1990s, their CFM brought suburban families and inner city families from New York City and Detroit together for a week of camping. I guess you could say they were doing what the pope was praying for – helping people who ordinarily would pass the summer in the heat of the city to have a vacation, a time of personal development and faith enrichment. In an article published on the CFM website. Mary Ann said the camp had built bonds between families who lived in very different worlds. She said the experience “helped our CFM families see these families as very much like ourselves. They often have a situation that they have been born into that it is very difficult to get out of. This camp has shown us how to serve, but it has also been a like a retreat for us." Volunteer families were paired with inner city families for a discussion and activity session and the evening meal each day during the week-long camp. Father Tom Helfrich, who prompted the CFM families to coordinate and support the camp, led some of the sessions. Daily Mass was on the schedule. Mary Ann said the coordinators and the visitors both enjoyed the benefits of their week together. The inner-city families gained not only from the talk and activity time, but also from the opportunity to interact in a recreational setting. Fishing, swimming and boating were all popular pastimes. The recreation was important, Mary Ann said, “families just enjoying each others' company.” Reflecting on what this group had done, I couldn’t help but imagine the memories these families must have.

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When I was growing up, we did not take family vacations -- but we did observe Sunday as a day of worship and rest. Our Sundays were peaceful days of beneficial physical and spiritual relaxation, just the thing the pope described..

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Helping inner city families have a vacation is a major undertaking. Other ways to make a difference could include helping someone caught up in work or worry to have a simple day of rest. Who do you know who can’t take a vacation? What are you going to be doing about it?

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