This is a simple example how Fr. Henry integrated our faith into games that allowed the boys to see that if the Eucharist is not the center of their life or if they slack off in their relationship with Our Blessed Mother, then their ship is going to sink.

I coincided on a couple occasions with Fr. Henry in the Boys Summer Camp in the United States. The goal of the camp was that the Boys have a true encounter with Our Lord and Our Lady in a joyful, fun environment. When Fr. Henry helped in the camps, it was as if he was one of the campers. Not in a negative sense, wanting to be a “buddy” to the boys; rather, as a loving father who wants to transmit God’s close, intimate love for them, and when it was necessary he corrected them. As a fruit of his complete giving of himself, the consequence was his living testimony of joy for the boys and the brothers. He always would bring joy to all the sports, activities in the camp and would always try to add the spiritual application to each activity. In July of 2015, we were just a week before camp preparing for a work shop in how they were going to build their cardboard boats.

One of the most anticipated and enjoyed games in the Summer Camp was “Iron Man.” It was a mix of physical, mental and spiritual challenges in separate stages throughout the course of the game. Fr. Henry applied a St. John Bosco dream to one of the stages to the Iron Man challenge. In the dream St. John Bosco saw a ship, symbolizing the church, storming the sea led by the Holy Father (captain) and in the midst of the sea there were two columns, at a short distance apart. At the top of one column, there was a statue of the Blessed Virgin Marry that had an inscription below that read: Auxilium Christianorum (Help of Christians), while the other pillar had a large Sacred Host resembling the Eucharist, whose inscription said: Salus Credentium (Salvation of Believers). There were many enemy ships attacking the ship, symbolizing the persecution through “books and pamphlets” against the church, trying to sink it. The only way to steer the ship safely was to rear it towards the two pillars, entering between the two, and in the end anchor it to the pillars. The ship received enemy fire causing damage to the boat, however, a mysterious breeze from the two columns healing the gashes.

It occurred to Fr. Henry that in the last stage of the Iron-Man challenge they had to float their boats across from the dock to the shore —a good 20-meter stretch— anchoring their boats to the two pillars, the Eucharist and Our Lady. Once the boats were in movement, Fr. Henry and the counselors enjoyed trying to shoot down their boats with their hand-made crossbow skewers. Fr. Henry was having a blast. Some of the boats were not able to make it to shore, ending up with soggy pieces of cardboard. However, few were able to anchor their soggy boats to the two pillars.