An Alberta summer camp offers boys and girls an ongoing storyline of true good versus true evil, with truth, goodness, and beauty fighting the vulgarity of evil, and winning. (Submitted photos)
“You really need to grow up,” I said to the teenagers across the restaurant.
They had been eating their hamburgers with an employee, on her break, and enjoying a little cuss-fess. The employee took out her vaporizer and quickly passed it to the boy beside her. He took a puff, and complained it wasn’t turned on. Then they saw me watching them.
Before I continue, I have to say how ridiculous vaping is. The people who pay to do it got played. They look like they snuck an asthma inhaler out of my house and dollar store incense exploded in their face. Alas.
The employee ducked her head and scurried back behind the counter. Another mom told me that she planned on talking to a manager about the girl’s language.
“Your friend is about to lose her job. And you,” I looked at the other girl at the table as she sneered at me, “You are a beautiful young girl. What is up with your language? You’re a beautiful young girl. And when you talk like that, it takes away from your beauty.”
She had started to tell me where to go, but when she heard me say that she was beautiful she stopped, her face froze. It was like she had never heard the words before. No one had ever told her that she was beautiful, so why would she behave as though she was?
I spent last week with Madalen at a girls’ camp in Alberta, called Captivenia. (The boys’ camp is Arcatheos. Imagine a Catholic, Lord of the Rings/medieval boot camp. It was started by a Catholic family who wanted to instill authentic masculinity and faith in young men. Elijah went last year, and is there right now with his older brothers. The girls’ camp was added a few years later.)
The camp has an ongoing storyline of true good versus true evil. I will tell you that the enactment of this storyline is intense. What I cannot properly tell you is how much passion and detail is put into making this camp extraordinary. The founders and costumed leaders put their all into creating a different realm where truth, goodness, and beauty fight the vulgarity of evil – and win. There is daily Mass, a Eucharistic procession, confessions, and a lot of fun. I strongly recommend checking out their Facebook pages.
On the first day, Lord Valerian comes across a dangerous enemy. The girls watch as a battle begins, knowing that it will bring destruction upon them all. Out of the darkness and fog (yes, they have smoke machines and all kinds of crazy cool props) a lantern appears. The light comes closer, and a beautiful young woman, Illyria, arrives. The light and her very presence sends the enemy reeling backwards. He cannot stand to stay in her presence. After he runs away, she reveals that she is also wearing a mantle that the Queen (Our Lady) made for her.
The storyline is elaborate, and honestly, I don’t know it all. But as the week went on I did learn the message that was being gifted to these girls. The mission of Captivenia is “to create experiences that will inspire girls to receive God’s love, unlock the mystery of the ‘feminine genius,’ and walk confidently with dignity and grace as apostles of love.” This light that Illyria brings with her, that casts out the darkness, is the light of God’s grace. The beauty of it is too much for evil to bear. Over and over the girls were told that the beauty of God’s grace was within them, and that it made them strong and beautiful.
At the closing Mass Father Alex told the girls of this strength and beauty. He reminded them of how precious they are to God. The light within the lantern was a sharing of God’s light, a sign of what should be growing within us. They were reminded of the lanterns they held as they walked the Eucharistic procession, how God’s light comes down to them, to change them, so that they might go out and change the world. As they walk with Christ, the light that they are given makes them authentically beautiful, and it also casts out darkness.
Father Alex asked the parents there to remember that the girls in our care are the “most precious of God’s flowers.” I know I looked at my daughter with a deeper appreciation, seeing the light within her. I also remembered the charge Scott and I have been given, to protect her beauty, and to always take care that she never doubts it.
Just imagine a world where every young girl knew that she was beautiful.
“God is within her, she will not fail.” Psalm 46:5