Escape Room: Sharing Wisdom
VMY Spain dedicates a space of the summer as a time of formation, a time of school of catechists.
This summer, we changed our usual place (Benagalbón) for Marín (Galicia), but the invitation was the same; an invitation to form our minds and hearts, from sharing in community, relying on the strength of prayer to respond to the call as Vincentians: TO SERVE.
The structure of the school days allowed us to have several classes in the mornings and to dedicate the afternoons to less formal formative dynamics.
One of the afternoons the proposal was to encourage the young people to share what they had learned in the different classes, to reflect on the importance of formation to become better Christians and Vincentians in order to serve better. To make them aware of their personal reality when it comes to teamwork and how it improves by sharing the individual gifts received.
The dynamic was carried out through a kind of escape room. The young people were divided into groups, so that there were people from the different courses offered by the school in each group.
Each group was given a series of cards with the itinerary and tests to be carried out. The tests were distributed in the courtyard space.
It was about inviting them to the “Adventure of Wisdom” with the purpose of keeping their minds and hearts open because only in open minds and hearts can the action of the SPIRIT take place.
In addition, each group carried a small wooden box locked with padlocks. So, each test performed and passed gave the privilege of getting a code (provided by the school teachers themselves) that opened each padlock. Thus, at the end of the tests, each team would manage to open each padlock and with it the box, to discover the teaching that it kept inside.
The tests were intended to share aspects of the different subjects (not all students took the same subjects) and to create debate and reflection around them. Also, to discern with concrete activities and examples if the mind and the heart are totally separate or, on the contrary, if the intellectual and the emotional influence each other: discovering that the one who reaches a mature and adult faith is the one who has experienced the encounter with Jesus of Nazareth, to experience is to open your heart.
The tests also made us see that the ability to think is a gift from God that we are called to share from the teamwork within the VMY Center, at national and international level, and also with the rest of the Church.
So, what they found inside the little box was a neuron, since our mind and our heart, our personal and social being, our young-actual-Christian being, need to be connected, to be ONE, just as the objective of our nervous system is to make interconnection between the different neurons.
They also were encouraged to approach the feet of Mary where each young person collected a biblical quote and a QR code containing two videos of neurons and a reflection on the simile between the way neurons act and our actions in teamwork and the importance we give to formation.
As members of VMY, we are called to connect with each other, to learn together and to share our experiences and knowledge. Teamwork allows us to unite our strengths and overcome our weaknesses.
A neuron without a good structure will not be able to establish connections with others; so also we, at VMY, have the duty to form ourselves. Our brain is constantly changing and adapting, a process known as neuroplasticity. In the same way, our capacity to serve and grow in our faith expands when we dedicate ourselves to continuous formation.
In this journey of faith and service, let us remember that we are not alone. Like neurons, we are part of an interconnected network where each of us plays a crucial role. That network is the CHURCH. Working together and committed to our ongoing formation, we can illuminate our path and that of those around us, making VMY a true testimony of love and unity in Christ.
VMY SPAIN
