top of page
Search

Semana Santa and Our Ministry

Happy Easter y'all back for another update. I started this blog post back soon after Holy Week and was not able to finish it until now so this is my recap of that week and a few things that I have been doing since then.


I hope that your Holy Week and Easter celebration was prayerful and glorious. We had a fairly busy Semana Santa (Holy Week) preparing for Easter. Our main focus was on the 3 orphanages that we serve at. 2 of them are girls' orphanages (1 with girls with special needs) and the other is the boys' orphanage (that includes boys with special needs). On Palm Sunday (Domingo de Ramos) we had mass all together at the main girls' orphanage. One of the friar priests said mass for us and we had a procession into mass where he rode a donkey just like Jesus in Jerusalem back in the day. It was short but a good way to kick off Holy Week.





Photos from Palm Sunday


Wednesday I went to the boys' orphanage to help prep them for the Triduum. Needless to say, it is difficult to communicate the Paschal Mystery in a single afternoon but it was encouraging to hear some of them shout about the "ultima cena" (Last Supper) and that they knew that Jesus was going to die on the cross and rise from the dead.


Wednesday night we got the opportunity to watch "The Passion of the Christ". I make an effort to watch it every year during Holy Week and it is always quite shocking. It really wakes us up to the truth of the cruel, agonizing, and dehumanizing death that Jesus Christ suffered. The scene of Jesus before the Sanhedrin always brings me close to tears as he is accused of blasphemy, is slandered, spit on, beaten as his mother looks on and I can't help but picture myself doing that to Jesus every time I sin. I have been realizing more and more how our sin is spitting in the face of Christ, it isn't something that has no consequences, but rather an action that is felt up close and personal by the All-Powerful God. When we truly comprehend our lives will be transformed and we will not settle for mediocrity. And it starts with following the model of Christ and loving the person in your life who spits in your face day in and day out.


¨¨For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors* do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? - Matthew 5:46-47


On Holy Thursday after time for reflection and adoration in the morning which was super bueno we went to the boys' orphanage in the afternoon and had a Celebration of the Word (Similar to a Mass but without a priest to consecrate the host, there were readings, prayer intentions and the distribution of Communion) which included a washing of the feet ceremony for Holy Thursday. The 12 boys selected for getting their feet washed were very excited and we dressed them up in robes for the ceremony. In the evening we had Holy Thursday mass with the Friars and believe it or not the mass was in English! My first English mass since I arrived from the US. This surprise was courtesy of having one of the Friars as the chaplain at the joint US-Honduras army base in Comayagua. He invited the Catholics there to mass and they accepted the invitation. Thankful to God for that gift, it helped me better comprehend the significance of the Last Supper as the Institution of the Eucharist, the priesthood, and the beginning of the Paschal Mystery. This

book by Brant Pitre helped me understand the Last Supper and what it means for us today. He also has a talk on this topic too if you want to check that out.








Photos from The Washing of the Feet


Good Friday we had Stations of the Cross in the morning with the boys' orphanage (This is just a few of us, most of the women were going to the girls' orphanages during this week). I got drafted in the Roman army for the day and played a Roman soldier for our Stations of the Cross. I was beating Jesus with my sword and he ended falling three times and later I ended up nailing him to the cross. The boys made signs and read a short meditation at each station and the whole experience ended up being quite powerful thanks be to God. Later that day we had Good Friday service at the Friars´ convent. The Adoration of the Cross was beautiful and then we treasured receiving Jesus in the Eucharist for the last time until the Easter Vigil.



The 4th Station: Jesus Meets His Mother

The Crucifixion


Easter is my favorite celebration of the year and the liturgy for the Easter Vigil is my favorite. We had Easter Vigil with the Friars this year and it was mostly in English because the soldiers from the base attended as well. That was again, another huge blessing and I was able to enter more prayerfully into the mass. As I have grown in love for Sacred Scripture the many readings at the Easter Vigil no longer bother me but rather help me to see the richness of our faith and how the Old and the New Testaments are so interconnected and how Christ was prefigured in many of the Old Testament figures. Also, the unique prayers and rituals during the liturgy give you the feeling of how ancient the Church is and how this faith has been handed down since the time of Christ.


Of course, we had plenty of food after the vigil and feasted. We had extra cupcakes for days after that.



The Easter Vigil


Easter Sunday we went to the boys' orphanage in the morning for Mass and afterward, we played games and ate some pork chops for lunch It was great to celebrate with the boys there and to teach them the meaning of the celebration. When we were at lunch, there was a painting of the Last Supper on the wall so I was asking some of the boys if they knew what was happening in the photo and they got all excited and talked about the ¨ultima cena¨ and tried to figure out who was who in the painting. Pray that Lord continues to convert them and bring them into a relationship with Him.


Sunday afternoon we returned back home quickly and then went straight to the casa de Familia Hinckley and played games and ate Easter Dinner. They have this tradition of confetti eggs or cascarones as they are called where you fill eggs with confetti through a little hole and then you cover up the hole and smash it on people´s heads. It was quite a scene and I think the confetti is still all over. It reminded me of a recent family Easter tradition at my Aunt & Uncle´s yearly Easter brunch where we played Egg Russian Roulette. There you had 2 people answer questions and the first to answer incorrectly had to pick an egg from the carton not knowing whether it was hard-boiled or raw and then proceed to smash it on your forehead. Definitely, was missing family Easter Sunday but I got to call home and I am very grateful for the family that I have accumulated here.





Photos from Easter Sunday


In the weeks since Easter, things have picked up for me as I have been studying Spanish less and less (although still learning much through speaking every day) and I have been working on ministries here more and more. I have been spending time working with our Becas (Scholarship) program where we help children in the neighborhood who want to invest in their studies more. I tutor kids in math which works out because I studied mechanical engineering and learning math is a big struggle In Honduras I thank God all the time for the gifts he has given me and I am very grateful that I am to utilize some of my math skills here.


We also have a ministry group called Hombres de Cristo (Men of Christ) that meets on Wednesday nights and we give different formation talks on what it means to be a man of God and what it means to strive for God. Many of the guys are from the neighborhood as well. I am looking forward to building relationships with the guys here and helping them to discover true manhood.


Many people ask me and even I get confused sometimes as to what the Missioners of Christ do exactly because in truth we do many different things but in its essence, we are simply trying to follow the commandment ´´Love your neighbor as yourself¨´ and transform the neighborhood where we live and eventually the country.


The goal is to be able to meet all of the needs of the people in our neighborhood. If they are struggling to feed their families we try to provide them with food, if they knock on our door hungry, we give them a meal. If they have a sickness or injury there is a local clinic we can bring them to for surgery or care. If they need physical therapy we have 2 physical therapists and we are building a clinic to provide our neighbors with more professional care. If they have psychological issues to work through we have a psychologist in the community working with some of the children as we try to care for them. if the children need help in school we are able to help them in our Becas program with tutoring, for support for the mothers in the neighborhood we have a group of moms that meet every week, for boys in need of good male models we have a formation group for the young men who want to go against their culture. For local orphans from abusive families, we give them the too infrequent love that they deserve. We look to live out Matthew 25 and try to take the words of Jesus seriously ¨Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.¨


In all that we do try Christ is present. We pray with the people, we encourage them in struggles, lead them to the cross and a relationship with Christ. All that we do we do imperfectly as there are days I walk past someone sitting in the street without giving him a second glance, they are days where I roll my eyes at the same person who is begging at the door, days where I want to check the box on my tutoring shift or where I don´t pay attention to the person talking to me because the event ran late and now I won´t get to bed on time. But each day is a conversion and each day let us love Christ a little more perfectly


“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous* will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew 25:31-46



Feel free to email me at rpm36@njit.edu if you have thoughts, comments, prayer intentions, or just want to say hi.

117 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
bottom of page