On Tuesday, January 30th, the members of Gwynedd’s class of 2025 attended their Junior Retreat held at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown. Gathering in their groups, the students started the day off with a prayer and reflection on having compassion for themselves. They closed their eyes to a peaceful guided meditation and then proceeded to create “Happiness One Pagers,” drawing and writing of people and places that bring them joy, goals they desire to accomplish this year, and little things in life that they are grateful for. After this, they played the fun games of “Name that Tune” and “Song Association,” and the girls reflected that during these little moments of singing with their groups, they felt closer to each other, despite maybe not usually talking to some of the other students in the groups. The teamwork truly displayed the Mercy Spirit, which led to the next portion of the day: a focus on giving compassion to our brothers and sisters in the world. The grade heard from three Blue Star Moms, who spoke about their empowering stories of their children joining the military. They reflected on the hardships faced by them as parents and the many problems their children encountered while being deployed, such as not receiving adequate food. The class of 2025 then completed a service activity of packing care packages that will be sent to the troops, filling them with snacks, candy, letters, and lots of love and appreciation. Afterwards, the day concluded with a segment on receiving compassion, as every student wrote a “Bad Day Letter” dedicated to one specifically assigned classmate in the grade. They wrote comforting messages that would be delivered to the recipients when the teachers noticed them stumbling upon a bad day. With this strong Mercy bond, the students also created GMA gold bracelets to wear, giving them all a token to remember this beautiful Junior Retreat.