| | I went to bed early Friday night, slept all day yesterday, and went to bed early last night. 24 hours of sleep. Praise God. I was the sickest I´ve been since the first few days I was here back in June. Besides the symptoms I have to deal with related to my near-syncope condition (exhaustion, dizziness, and a weak stomach due to all the coffee I have to drink to get through a day), I´ve been doing relatively well down here. Thanks be to God. So much good stuff has been happening the past several weeks:
1. EJE (Equipo Juvenil de Evangelización--Youth Evangelization Team) and their monthly class with Fr. Harold, which draws about 20-25 college-age kids each month, for three hours of intensive Bible study, then an hour of apologetics study or personal Bible study (Lectio Divina), then dinner, followed by a couple hours of prayer and worship. It´s a beautiful time, all held in the Friars´ convento (in Spanish, at least here, friars live in convents, and nuns live in monasteries) . These young people are going to do so much for the Body of Christ in the coming decades. 2. Retiro de Liderazco (Leadership Retreat)--about 75 people, mostly college-age, came to Casa Guadalupe (the humongous U.S.-style ministry center of the Friars) for a weekend to learn about leading various types of ministries in their parishes. A lot of the folks from EJE helped us out for this. This was in mid-November, before the Chapel area of Casa G. was ready. 3. Thanksgiving dinner (Fiesta del Día de Acción de Gracias)--A couple dozen families from the barrio (neighborhood) came to Casa Guadalupe for a big Thanksgiving feast. I imagine very few of them had never seen cranberry sauce before. It´s something I feel a bit strange about, making such huge volumes of food, as it´s more food than a lot of these people have ever seen in their lives, and richer. But Carol (who heads up the Missioners of Christ community down here) feels we should give our best to the poor, physically as well as spiritually. 4. Retreat in El Florida (a mountain area on the border of El Salvador, about 3 hours by car)--300 young people came, and a great many of them walked an hour or two each morning to get there, and each night to go home. Padre Maximiliano (Fr. Max) has not been ordained for a year, and has already 56 villages for his parish. I don´t think he sleeps very much. He was overjoyed during the retreat, and afterwards, at teh fruits borne out in the lives of the young people.
I wasn´t able to attend (somebody had to stay home, and it certainly would have exhausted me thoroughly because of all the walking required), but I was told that the Holy Spirit worked powerfully there. Lives changed, the faith of many strengthened, and young people raised up as spiritual leaders in their communities--and this is happening where leaders are needed, thanks be to God. Fr. Max can only get around to each village about 5 times a year, sometimes only twice a year--and that´s a better job than many Honduran priests in similar situations. The retreat was led by the Missioners, EJE folks, and a few contacts on Fr. Max´s side. Prayer, teaching, praise and worship, Mass, adoration, and a Eucharistic procession 5. Friars´ monthly food handout--There are over 100 families in the neighborhood that receive help from the Friars each month. A sack filled with rice, beans, sugar, salt, and oil. They´ve also all recently received a Bible. Br. Damiano, a very cool fellow, who has become a very Franciscan friar, is in charge of this ministry of the Friars. He was in his late-20´s, living the American dream (money, women, a beautiful Harley that he worshipped), when he visited Assisi and was profoundly converted. Then he found the Friars in New York, and he´s been down here the past three years, being an apostle to the poor. He is out most days visiting different families, talking and praying with them, and encouraging them in the Faith. And needy people come to the Friars´ convent every day, usually asking for Br. Damiano.
As it happened, I was terribly dizzy the morning of December´s food handout, so I couldn´t help out. But what happens is that everybody gathers in the Friars´ chapel (it´s very crowded--I´m glad they don´t have to worry about fire code restrictions down here yet), there is praise music for a bit, the Rosary, and a talk by one of the Friars. The children leave during the talk to go do some craft or coloring project in a classroom-ish area in the convent. Then families come in one by one to receive their sacks of food. A couple Missioners, a Friar, and a few kids from the catechism classes fill up the sacks, and the mothers go their happy way back home with a huge sack on the their heads (only a couple fathers come, disabled men--on an indirectly related note, it´s surprising to find a man with his wife and his own children here--the situation is incomparably worse even than in the States). 6. Mountain mission to El Florida--The retreat I mentioned above was the culmination of 3 1/2 weeks of missioning throughout a number of villages in the El Florida area. The team consisted of Andrew (the only gringo who went), Meynor, Daniel (a 17-year-old guy, very mature, probably going to be a priest), Ana and Juan Carlos (two more EJE folks). I can´t remember if anyone else was there the whole time, but a few other people were there for the retreat and for several more days of missioning afterwards--Alyson, Isis, Lorena, and Lenin (the oldest guy on the team--he turned 25 the day he got back from the mission--he intends to be a missionary).
Everybody who went on the mission was greatly strengthened in the Faith, to see the faith of the people, many of whom did not know how to read, and therefore did not have the blessing of being able to read the Bible, but who received the Word of God enthusiastically when they gathered together on Sundays for the Proclamation of the Word, and for the preaching and sharing by the local delegate of Fr. Max. The people are often overjoyed when Fr. Max comes to celebrate the Eucharist with them, to teach the Word of God and encourage them in the Faith. But so much work must be done for these people to be able to live the Faith more fully. More teaching and discipleship is needed, and more priests.
Everywhere the team went, they set up youth groups, at the request of Fr. Max. Fr. Max has a burning desire to see his generation changed (he is 28), and is working zealously to that end. If we don´t, Evangelical groups, as well as the Mormons and Jehovah´s Witnesses, are going to bring these people to conversion, but not with the fulness of the Gospel message.
The team got back safe and healthy and in joyous spirits, having been sick very little, praise be to God, despite the cold and exhaustion and all manner of unsafe-looking food and drink. And they had very much to share about the work they had seen God do. 7. I really will finish this at some point. No, really. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.
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