“I don’t understand!”
A whiney voice from the back of the 12 passenger van. I turned around. I wasn’t sure what my 9 year old brother was talking about.
“What is it, Isaiah?”
11 people. 12 passenger van. 7 hour car ride. 1 family trip to visit grandparents for Thanksgiving 2015. Family visits, and even less family trips, with so many people, are never dull.
He was leaning over, against the window, with his hands pressed over his heart, trying to hold his breath. Continue reading
Christ is coming. We are already a good ways into advent. Time is flying. The readings today remind us of the urgency to prepare for our Lord. The days we have left, we need to find what is stopping God from having a place in our heart. The path has to be made smooth so that He can come. John reminds us how we can prepare for His coming, repenting. In the mystery of Christmas, we are confronted with the Mercy of God that comes to meet us and to raise us up to Him. But for us to meet God’s mercy we need to recognize our need. On Tuesday the Holy Father will inaugurate a jubilee year for the Church, celebrating God’s mercy. This Christmas Christ wants to give us His mercy, but we need to open our hearts to receive it.
blessing baby Jesus figurines after mass yesterday
Yesterday was our Bless-the-Baby-Jesus mass for the preschool. At the end of mass, all the children came up to the front of the Church and got ready to bless their baby Jesus figurines individually. It was then that we heard a CRASH! – one little boy had dropped his porcelain baby Jesus on the floor! He immediately burst into tears and ran to his mom. Continue reading
Dear Queso de Cabra,
It has been just over two months now that I have been here in Spain. There have been a whirlwind of emotions, adjustments and experiences. Even though it hasn’t been easy, is has been very beautiful. God has been so good to me and so present. Getting acclimated to Europe is an adventure; new people, food, schedules, values, and infrastructures- most everything is different, helping me realize just how American I am. Each day is another opportunity to choose to bring in something new and outside my comfort zone or choose not to and miss out on the richness this time has to offer. But now the initial excitement is beginning to wear off and I am being left to face the cold hard truth. There are some things that I don’t like and some things that I miss. I miss eating peanut butter with my apples or bananas, being able to harmonize to the songs during Mass, saying prayers that I understand and being able to read emails I receive. I don’t mind not having these things, its helping me to appreciate them more. I am learning to be flexible because change is inevitable and flexibility allows for the experience of life without getting stuck in the details. Continue reading
“Is it shocking to be baptized?”
Well, I hadn’t thought about it in that way before.
The 6th grader in front of me, already feeling a little spiritually overwhelmed, was trying to wrap her brain around sacrament of Baptism. She’d only been in Catholic school for a few months, so many concepts – like purgatory, fasting, and the sacraments – were totally and almost mind-boggling. (Pray for her; she and her family are coming into the Church this Easter Vigil.) Continue reading
“A good leader is one who is capable of bringing up other leaders. If a leader wants to lead alone, he is a tyrant. True leadership is fruitful. Each one of you has the seed of leadership.” – Pope Francis
Photo: Br. Junior (right) takes the time to help Br. Tomás with his physics problems. It’s great to see how the brothers do their best to ensure that everyone succeeds. This requires patience and selflessness, but the reward is a stronger community and, ultimately, priests who are better formed to form others.
Who could you help today to improve themselves?
When I was a child, my mom always used to read me that story by Robert Munsch: “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, As long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.” (Robert Munsch, I’ll Love You Forever) I always thought that book was a pretty unfair weapon in the hands of a mother. My mom always intensified the effect by singing the refrain. For a son, there’s no resisting those tactics.
One of the greatest consolations in life is to know that someone will always be there for you: a father, a mother, a faithful wife willing to give up all her securities and move to a new home just to be with her beloved, or a true friend. Christ in the Eucharist is that friend par excellence. Continue reading
My sister Monica
A couple days ago I visited my great Aunt, my grandmother’s sister. My grandmother passed away years ago, and I loved her dearly, so it was quite a treat for me to be able to see her little sister.
For a long time I’ve been wondering where my calling came from. I mean, certainly God can call anyone He wants, whenever He wants. But I believe the great graces God gives us in life come often as a result of the goodness of others, especially our own families. The good in us isn’t due to our good decisions alone, it’s also due to theirs. Continue reading
We are reminded, as we begin Advent, that we live in a world of change. Everything is changing around us and things just seem to happen too fast. It our search for securities we only find that all seems to move. But in the midst of this change, we have one security that won’t ever leave us, God’s love. Even when we fail Him, He remains there steady as the rock on which we can always lean on. The only thing we have control of in the midst of so much is to turn to Him so that we don’t lose what is most important. The liturgy today reminds us to live these weeks before Christmas in this attitude. In this world of change, we have to hold more firmly onto Him. This Advent is a reminder for us.
Milestone in a Second Language #1: Speaking in Spanish in a dream.
They say you´re fluent when you dream in another language. Well, I´m definitely not fluent, so I´m definitely not consistently or completely dreaming in Spanish yet. But I clearly remember speaking in Spanish in a dream–and thinking, as I do in real life, “Wow, they´re actually understanding me!”
Milestone in a Second Language #2: Making mistakes in English when I’m honestly not trying to. Continue reading