Hi again, 3rd post here. So, I have now been in Honduras for about a month and a half and the days are starting to fly by. I finally finished full time Spanish classes (still 1 class a week at this point) and I had more or less a regular schedule this past week where I am slowly getting involved in the ministries here. I had the opportunity to tutor some kids in our scholarship program as well as visit some property that we have in the mountains that will soon be used for retreats and camps. I also am finally getting involved in the full activities of the house including cleaning, meetings & times of formation. Its nice to finally be able to contribute to the ministry more fully and see the fruit of my labor after working hard on my Spanish.
Our property in the mountains
About a week in a half ago those living in the house (9 at the moment) had a 3 day silent retreat. This was my first experience on a silent retreat and it was new and pretty difficult to do. I am a fairly introverted person so I thought it would easy but in reality it was fairly challenging. We started our retreat in silence Tuesday around 10:30am and it took time to for my mind to be silent and to focus in on prayer without so many distractions. We had a priest leading the retreat with 4 talks throughout the 3 days. The rest of the time was meals, sleep and prayer whether it was mass, liturgy of the hours, adoration or praying out in nature. In the silence you couldn´t really run away from God so He challenged me in a few areas throughout the retreat and reminded me to continue to push myself to serve more and more perfectly. Now that I have transtioned to life in Honduras I find myself looking for the comforts rather the sacrifices too often. By Wednesday around 5 on the retreat I started to actually enjoy the silence and was able to focus in and listen to God. In my prayer every word felt purposeful and impactful and not just a filler. It is easy to go through the motions in my regular prayer time and not realize what I am saying or the significance of who I am striving to have a relationship with.
The retreat center where we stayed was about 2 hours from where I am now living in Comayagua. On the way back we stopped in the capital Tegucigalpa and saw the cathedral in the city and the Basilica of Our Lady of Suyapa which was absolutely stunning inside and out with beautiful marble, some huge stained glass windows and incredibly ornate architecture. One thing that continues to strike me as I am here is how much of a focus the people have on making their church or home beautiful to show honor to God even though they do not have much. That is a priority for them. For example for the recent solemnities of St. Joseph and the Annunciation of the Lord a few people here made sure to decorate the photo of St. Joseph and of Our Lady of Guadalupe that we have in the chapel at our house. It is these little things that they do here that is really striking.
Our Lady of Suyapa Basilica
Fellow Missionaries w/ Padre Byron on the right at the Basilica after our silent retreat
View of the Tegucigalpa from the Basilica
Basilica of Our Lady of Suyapa
Saying Good-Bye to Padre Byron in our chapel
Last week we also celebrated Saint Joseph's Day which is significant in Honduras because it is Father's Day here (and how fitting!). It also especially significant this year because in the Universal Church we are celebrating the Year of St. Joseph. We had a big celebration with the entire community and honored the fathers. Good fathers here are rare in Honduras with many people coming from broken homes so when you have a good father and can see his witness you appreciate him much more. An area where I think the Lord is calling me to is working on the culture of men here and together with the men in community learning what it means to be a true man here. As in the US holy men of God are too few. In order to draw more men to our community and to the the Lord we need strong brotherhood and a firm image of who a man ought to be.
Father´s Day Celebration
Recently we also had a couple retreats for the local boys orphanage where there is a lot of healing that needs to be done. The boys are always a good time and the part of retreat I attended we played with some water balloons and had a huge water balloon at the end. They managed to get me soaked. We of course played soccer as well and it was a blast. Please pray for them as we work on bringing them to Jesus.
I am very grateful for the community here in Honduras and how comitted they are to each other. Whenever there is a celebration or something significant is happening for someone in the community, everybody pitches and helps out or encourages someone. 2 examples off the top of my head, one of the guys I live in the house with just graduated from highschool here and he needed help for decorations for the graduation so we all pitched in and helped and then had a celebration after for him. Another example, there was a baptism in the community and a couple people here went all out on making decorations and cooking and baking and we had the celebration at our house here for the family and their extended family. again, the significance of the people's actions here are in the little things, for example having everything just right and putting effort into the details which says that this is important to us to celebrate your accomplishment.
So I am loving community life here, it is fun filled and difficult and God is teaching me little by little what it means to totally give of myself and not hold anything back from Him. Poca a poca we are getting there.
Next post I´ll chat a little bit about Semana Santa (Holy Week) here. It is a big deal and many people are off of work the whole week.
Nos vemos! If you have any questions feel free to email me!
Out at a Cafe with some friends
Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Comayagua
Attempting to dance for a concert at the girl´s orphanage
