TIQTI SUD ALTAR
I think just like your lives in the U.S., life here is filled with ordinary moments. There are also moments of of inspiration, fear, joy, and difficulty. I am trying to find a balance in telling these different types of moments, and to not dwell in one group or another, remembering that when I tell about a joyful moment you may be mourning something. Or when I tell you of another difficult moment in the lives of the people here, you may be struggling to find light in a world that paints darkness with each news cast.
I always felt that news shows should produce more stories of the inspiring things people do each day. If we could see the wonderful things that people do around the country and around the world, we may be inspired to do more.
Fr Joe Nangle ofm was here for a week to accompany the missioners in their work and be with the group for part of our annual retreat. I asked him to say mass at my center in Tiqti Sud, because we usually don't have mass, we have a service, with prayers, the readings, and distribution of the Eucharist.
At the end of mass he shared one more story, I think to inspire folks to mission or good works wherever they are in life. First I will say that my neighborhood is a mix of poor and middle class. Though the middle class here might be considered poor in the U.S., they just have a whole lot more than the poor here.
Fr Joe's story was from when he was a missioner in Peru. A few of the other Friars had gone up into the mountainside to say masses at various locations for the weekend. They stopped at small local eatery on their way home for lunch. As they were finishing, an older obviously poor woman came in asking for their leftovers on their plates. The Friars called the owner over and asked him to prepare a plate for the woman and put it on their tab.
She received a nice plate of food, chicken, rice and potatoes, and she sat herself down in the doorway to eat. Shortly after, along came another poor woman. The first woman sat her down and split her meal with her. The Friars had thought she would say, "There are some rich gringos inside, who gave me this plate of food, you should go in and ask for some food too!"
For the Friars it was an amazing example of sharing, communion and love. Here they had been celebrating the Eucharist all weekend long and this was so concrete to them. Fr Joe shared how this event effected the Friars 40 years ago, you can still see how it effects Fr. Joe today! I think he told it to the people of my congregation to let them know no matter how poor we are there is always an opportunity to share what you have.
He didn't know this story of this past Christmas. I was heading into the city, late Christmas afternoon, to meet the two other missioners. As I headed down the hill, Evelyn, one of the girls in the after school program came running up to me with a handful of cookies. I thought she was offering me one, but she was offering the whole handful! Though honestly I did not want them, I accepted, because she was so excited to share with me one of her Christmas gifts! I put them in my pocket! I was glad to have them because when I neared the missioner's apartment, two families were sitting on the sidewalk begging. I was glad not only to give them alms, but to be able to pull out the cookies for the small children!! So Evelyn made more people happy then she realized!
Below Fr. Joe blessing a worker at a clinic in Sacaba, Bolivia.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Watermelon at Christmas Time and a Brief Reflection on Prayer
I had wanted to get a shot of the 3 of us, the Cochabamba FMS missioners eating watermelon at Thanksgiving. I then also missed the shot on Christmas day. I was able to get this one a few days after Christmas at our weekly reflection time. Note the Christmas Book on the table. Nora is blocking the Nativity Scene, but the star is right over her head!! *
We try to get together to reflect every week, share prayer, check in on what's happening in our ministries and lives, and almost always share a meal. This week was my turn, which means meeting at my house, cooking and preparing reflection. Theme of be joyful, pray constantly. (Paul/ Thessalonians I believe). There are many opportunities to pray constantly here, or at least frequently, while waiting for a bus while riding the bus, while waiting for a meeting to start (even during the meeting). One can pray while cooking for people who are coming to eat the meal, and when doing the dishes after all leave. *
I am impressed by two people I know that pray for everyone they know on their long morning walks. Though impressed for more than a decade, I have yet to incorporate anything similar into my prayer life. I tend to focus on a few people at a time. *
I also always like the idea at Jubilee, that would come around at devotions a few times a year, where someone would right down all the names of the people living there, staff and refugees, and sometimes refugees who had just moved to Atlanta, or ones we knew to be particularly struggling. We would divide the the slips of paper with names among all who were present at prayer time and we would prayer for those particular people. I usually kept those slips a long time to remind me to pray for the people longer. Sometimes slips from various prayer times would pile up on a little plate. I would go back from time to time and open each paper and pray again, sometimes for a volunteer who was long gone and back to school, or off on their next adventure. *
I hope everyone will keep me in prayer from time to time. God knows I need it! We will be having a three day retreat in January and will be joined by the other two missioners in Bolivia. They live a days journey by bus (actually 2 buses) so it will be good to reflect and pray with them. Our retreat will be led by our program director Rhegan and Fr Joe, ofm, who is the former co-director of FMS. He was codirector when I originally trained in 1999, and was my boss when I worked as office manager/bookkeeper for FMS. It will be great to have him here. *
I am excited also for Rhegan to come, she has mission experience in both Brazil and Bolivia. I met her many years ago while she was in training. I was able to spend sometime in the US with her, when I was there this year. I was very impressed with a couple training sessions I sat in on. The three missioners in training also kept telling me how much they were impressed with her and the training. *
Be Joyful always and pray constantly. The reflection included the idea that when one prays constantly, joy is the result. *
