Minneapolis, MN - Fifteen of us (4 adults and 11 youth) set out toward St. Isaac of Syria Skete in Boscobel, WI on February 13th. We piled into two vans from the cathedral, and it took us about 4hrs and 30min to get to the hotel where we stayed. The youth suited up and went swimming for a few hours and we ordered pizza from a nearby delivery place. We concluded the evening with a talk about what we might experience and how we should behave at the monastery. We had adults and youth from Holy Cross Mission, Holy Trinity in St. Paul, St. Mary's Cathedral, and Holy Myrrh-bearers in St. Cloud. We were off to a great start.

We woke up early the next day and headed over to the monastery (about a ten minute ride). The scenery was very beautiful and rural with hills and mountains on all sides, dirt roads, and plenty of horses in pastures. We stopped to take pictures.

When we arrived at the monastery, all the monks were there to greet us (5 monks and 1 nun). We had the chance to experience prayerful worship with them in the chapel. We sang and read the service of the 1st hour. It was a wonderful Orthodox experience. The elder of the monastery, Fr. Simeon, told us that a monastery is like a hospital for sinners and that the monks are there primarily for spiritual healing.

There were many relics from saints in the small chapel. They had bones from all the apostles and many known saints. We took a group picture in the chapel and had the chance to venerate all the holy relics.

Throughout the course of the day, we watched a video on the monastery, ate lunch with the monks, had a chance to ask all the monks questions about their lives, toured the facility, made icon banners, and concluded the day by shopping in the icon/gift shop and getting our final blessing from Fr. Simeon before we went home.

We had a very Orthodox experience together, and I hope that we all get a chance to do this again soon.

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