Middle School Day of Recollection

Every year, Delbarton seventh and eighth grade students participate in a unique spiritual experience, the Middle School Day of Recollection. Not only does the one-day retreat provide Delbarton’s youngest students to explore and develop their relationship with God, but it also encourages and fosters the formation of the brotherly bonds which will last them for the rest of their lives. For each student, the Middle School Day of Recollection means something a little bit different. Below are the experiences of four students who just recently participated in this very special Delbarton tradition.

Sam Marsheh

2020 was a crazy year for everyone, and many things were taken away from the typical Middle School Day of Recollection. The students had to sit in the FAC and watch a movie on a nun that helped many people and passed away trying to save young children in an earthquake. Although this was a great film, it wasn’t quite the experience the students would have hoped for. But, 2021 didn’t disappoint. Instead of just watching a movie while social distancing, the middle schoolers were able to interact with each other and participate in fun activities. First, they met in the FAC and got their groups. The leaders, all of whom were teachers, were Mr. Cimino, Mr. Kelly, Mr.  Stoll, and Mr. Oussenko, along with Mr. White who directed the whole retreat. The students were able to draw and discuss topics, the main one being their image of God. Some people drew a large eye to symbolize God seeing everything, big muscles to show God’s strength, and a large brain to show God’s all-knowing presence. After this, Brother Finnbar gave a presentation of how to love even your enemies and used the example of even loving Seton Hall Prep students. After this, the students went to the church to write down what they loved, what they were grateful for, and how they could be and would be better than they are currently.

Nolan Bruno

On October 13th the whole middle school had our very first Day of Recollection filled with many spiritual lessons and creative activities. We all arrived at the FAC and were quickly split into groups to create a poster about what our own visions of God are. For me, I envisioned a tall being with strong arms for strength, a sword in one hand to fight our sins, and the Holy Bible in his left hand.  This was definitely my favorite activity because it was pretty cool to see everybody’s image of God, some even drew the Lord as a superhero! After each group shared their ideas, Mr. White showed the middle school a slideshow on how it is possible to love everyone, even some of our enemies, we, as a community, have to learn to love our enemies. There were many “Boos” in the crowd when the slideshow of Don Bosco and Seton Hall came on, telling us to love even our rival schools. We went back into our groups and we discussed certain movies that we see the main characters displaying good spiritual character. I heard many movies from Rocky III to Finding Nemo. Lastly, we all grabbed a pen and paper, headed up to the Abbey Church, and spent a couple of moments with God, writing down our thoughts on our papers. Being in there was truly something special, a perfect way to end the school year’s first middle school Day of Recollection. 

Alexander Volpe

I loved the Middle School Day of Recollection. I am truly going to miss the great discussions and opportunities to even further create a relationship with my fellow classmates. Even though there will be retreats continuing on into high school, they will never be like the Middle School Day of Recollection. All the activities were amazing, we were able to communicate as a whole middle school, and it created great memories. Since the Middle School Day of Recollection was at the beginning of the year, it helped me create friendships with the new 7th graders. The 7th graders did not know each other that well, but I could tell over the day that they started to grow as a family. I could also tell that not just the 7th graders were growing as a family, the whole middle school was growing as a family. Even though I have so much of the year left as a middle schooler, I still don’t think that I have come to realize that I have had my final Middle School Day of Recollection. It is sad to think about, but from watching influential pieces of movies to doing group circle discussions. Nothing could beat that. I hope that the 7th graders next year will not take their final Middle School Day of Recollection for granted because you will miss it. I want to thank all of the teachers who have helped us learn so much during the Middle School Day of Recollection. I hope that the freshman retreat could be as great an experience next year.

William Meehan

The MS day of reflection is a very important and special day for us middle schoolers. This day involves great discussions and gives great information about the church and how we as children can be with God the Lord himself.  We learned about things we can watch and read to also learn about God. My group was with Mr. Cimino and we had great ideas about movies and tv shows. People talked about Veggie Tales, Monsters Inc, and Avengers. We picked some of these because of the aspect that they all have heroism and people putting others before themselves. Another activity that we did in our groups was in smaller groups of four split a piece of paper into four sections and each person had to draw their perspective of God. This activity was very important because you were able to show how you truly felt about God. For me, I decided to draw Him with very big eyes because he sees everything, has huge muscles, and has a big heart because he cares for everybody and loves everyone in the world. This day was a great opportunity for all of us to reflect on our faith and come together and have a great experience. The MS day of reflection was great and I would not have wanted it to happen any other way.