A Heavenly Foretaste

The students on the California High School Summer Program have settled into the rhythm of life at Thomas Aquinas College, and they are living that life to the fullest!

After yesterday’s peaceful evening of games, smoothies, and snacks, some of the more adventurous high schoolers rose early this morning to take a hike to the Punch Bowls, a series of natural ponds in the neighboring Los Padres National Forest.

The group of 55 students took to the trail while it was still dark in order to make it back to campus in time for the morning’s class. They found the trailhead right off campus, but hikers come from all over California to enjoy the trail and the refreshing swim at the end. The six-mile round trip brought students along the riverbed, then up into the hills to the Punch Bowls, the pools that form from snowmelt from the surrounding mountains. Once they reached the pools, the high schoolers climbed up the rocks and jumped into the water, taking a cold plunge after a challenging hike.

“It was hard, but super fun!” said Jane D. on her return. “Everything has been so fun, and it just keeps getting better.” Students who stayed on campus slept in or attended early-morning Mass before breakfast and class.

In the day’s first class, students discussed Soren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling. In the work, Kierkegaard presents four vignettes from the story of Abraham, imagining how Abraham and Isaac might have felt, thought, and acted during the pivotal moments of the sacrifice of Isaac. The scenes attribute incredible faith to Abraham, but also raise questions about whether that faith was unreasonable and even absurd.

Students compared Kierkegaard’s scenarios with the story of Abraham found in the Book of Genesis, which they discussed yesterday, and debated whether Fear and Trembling fails to depict accurately the patriarch’s deep faith. “The faith that Abraham had was so unbelievably strong,” reflected Anna Z. “In my class, we said that some of the stories didn’t fully represent Abraham’s faith since they depicted him as angry at God or took away his joy. It’s a misrepresentation of his faith to say he lost his joy. Even if he had killed Isaac, there would have been sorrow in that, but he still would have had joy through his life because of his faith.”

At the midday Mass following class, a group of the programmers with a love for liturgical music sang in the choir loft, directed by brother and sister prefects Anna (’22) and Anthony Santine (’25). The high schoolers, using their God-given gift for singing to give glory back to the Creator, filled the Chapel with praises as they sang “King of Love” and “Panis Angelicus” at the Offertory and Communion. After Mass, Program Chaplain Rev. Sebastian Walshe, O.Praem. (’94), thanked the students for “making this Mass more like a foretaste of the heavenly singing we learn about in Isaiah.” 

This Thursday is a half-day for the students, with only one class! After lunch, which consisted of turkey sandwiches, tomato basil soup, and pesto pasta, the students took the time usually dedicated to their afternoon class for an extended recreation period, to be followed by Eucharistic Adoration and milkshakes in the Coffee Shop.

Stop by the Summer Program Blog tomorrow morning for a recap of the day and, of course, plenty of pictures!