I’ve been remiss in mentioning W’s and J’s religious emblem work.
For Ad Altare Dei, W and the other Boy Scouts have to do a number of service projects. The big one is for Anointing of the Sick, which is supposed to take 10-12 hours over a month, for the sick, the elderly, or the disabled. However, the Vince F. and the Order of Malta provided two service opportunities on February 7 and February 13.
The 2/7 opportunity was to spend a few hours at the St. John of God Retirement and Care center, serving popcorn, sodas, and ice cream to the elderly before and during a showing of the movie Rudy. I noticed that the elderly really lit up when the boys served them and spoke with them.
The 2/13 opportunity was a special Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels. The Mass was in celebration of World Day of the Sick, and the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick was performed by the Bishop and attending priests and deacons after the homily, for those attending. In addition to the Boy Scouts in the Ad Altare Dei class, there were about a dozen or more girls from a couple of local Catholic girls schools doing service hours at the Mass as well. Three of the Boy Scouts attended the entrances and handed out programs and intentions cards before the Mass, and afterward, they handed out bottles of water from the grotto in Lourdes along with prayer cards. W. and T., being the two oldest of the five Scouts, helped people in wheelchairs before and after Mass.
The Ad Altare Dei Board of Review is March 13. Time is running out for the Scouts to finish up their work.
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On January 20, J. completed his Parvuli Dei Webelos Religious Emblem work by presenting his workbook to Father Dan at our parish, and Father Dan reviewed his work with him for almost an hour. He then signed off on J.’s completion of the work. J. was presented with the Parvuli Dei medal on Scout Sunday at our parish on February 7, before W.’s service project.