Waiting for Patience

What should one do when the world annoys you?  Seriously, I'm asking... I have many blessings in my life, truly more than I can even count and keep track of most of the time.  I realize that I am quite blessed to have a job that I like at a place I enjoy working at.  I am blessed to have great friends who will do anything for me.  I am blessed to have a family where we all speak to each other and, although it's not often, can stand being around each other.  I am blessed to have my health.  I am blessed to be able to afford my life - although I do have student loan debt, I am financially secure enough to have purchased a house, own my car outright, and there is money (not much, but some) left over to buy things like a computer and a new phone amongst going out to eat and having more than rice, beans, or mac'n'cheese for dinner every night. I know all of these things.  I saw the conditions of life in the third world - maybe times over: Sao Paulo, Bra...

School starts this week for those ages 3 to 23 (and beyond).  When I was in the Village in the Congo, I went to many a school.  They welcomed me with a parade, told me how happy they were to have me, and then I visited their classrooms to answer any questions they wanted to ask. Each school was set up the same.  Elementary schools were grades 1 to 6, High Schools were grades 7 to 12, and they had a local college that operated a little differently (mostly since there were so few people enrolled).  The schools had two buildings with three rooms for the 6 classes.  All of the 1st graders were in one room, 2nd graders in another, 3rd, 4th, etc, etc...  Between the two buildings was a large area with the principal's building in the middle (much smaller than the other two). Depending on the size of the school, there were anywhere from 25 to 48 children in each classroom.  Pictures tend to be a better explanation, so see below: What the average school...

While I was in the Congo, I asked Father Emmanuel if the sisters and Bea could teach me how to cook.  The date was set for Tuesday of the second week where I was told I'd be cooking a chicken from alive to table ... thankfully when I was called to the plate to start cooking - the chicken was dead and even de-feathered.  I was only about 3% disappointed since, um, that would have be the craziest I have ever done - and um, I had just flown to a village in the middle of a war-torn country on my own to village where about 2 1/2 people spoke English ... all by myself.  Yeah, and killing a chicken would have been crazy!  Anyway - I learned to make chicken, cassava, mashed plantains, rice, and preparing cocoa pods for eating.  Here are some pics of the adventure! Boiling, Frying, and Steaming chicken on the 'stove' ... yup that's a camp fire! Mashing plantains in the biggest mortar and pestle I've ever seen ... this is much more difficult than I had imagined. ...

I have always had an opinion ... well, yup that sounds about right - but today I wanted to reflect on the language of the Mass.  I attend the Novus Ordo in English on a regular basis.  Until a few years ago I would have no idea what that even was and would have responded with - "Um, you mean - Mass, in English, what else could there be?"  Well, many people would still say that ... there are only certain circles of Catholicism that would even have any idea what I'm talking about when I use those Latin words. I always thought that going to the Latin Mass was terrible for one reason: "I cannot understand anything they are saying, and it's very difficult for me to participate when I don't know what's happening."  That is no longer why I don't attend (and in general I don't think it's 'terrible' ever - I mean, Jesus comes - body, blood, soul, and divinity so it can't be all bad!).  Why has my opinion about my reason changed? Th...

St. Clare of Assisi Parish, Mukumari, Diocese of Kole, Democratic Republic of the Congo When I was in the Congo, this was my parish - Saint Clare of Assisi in Mukumary!  They have recently painting the exterior.  My pictures below are from my trip back in March of 2014. These children spent a few days moving bricks and dirt to ready everything for the installation of the concrete floor. The brick laying / floor prepping master! St. Clare full of people for Mass on Sunday! The parish as you come down the hill (before the new paint job)! The altar The Divine Mercy Grotto (future) Beautiful Architecture! My first experience in the parish - where I stood on a table so they could give me a proper welcome! This parish is unconventional according to US standards.  The center of the parish is in Mukumary and goes in three directions for approximately 80km in each direction.  There are 32 mission stations for this parish that ...

I have had the privilege of knowing many, many priests in my short (so far) life.  As a child, my mother was very involved in our parish as the volunteer DRE (yes, a volunteer DRE! I cannot even comprehend finding a volunteer for the parish I work for to take on all of the responsibilities of our Religious Education program).  The consequence of this (besides many Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings spent at the Church) was that we really got to know the priests who were stationed at our parish.  In Elementary School I was also involved as an altar server.  Since I also attended the Catholic grade school across the street, I was scheduled to serve the morning Daily Mass as well for a week at a time.  This is great one-on-one time for a young person with the Priest, the Reader (who later became my Confirmation Sponsor and joined the ranks of the Saints this past Fall), and Sacristan. Then when deciding which college I would attend following graduation, I was...

As I was listening to the first Gospel at Mass this evening (yes, this the one time during the year we hear two Gospel readings), all I could think about what my experience as I entered Mukumary on Monday, March 10th. The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road,  while others cut branches from the trees  and strewed them on the road. The crowds preceding him and those following kept crying out and saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is the he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest.” Matthew 21:1-11 We had to drive there from Lodja (small city in the middle of the DRC we flew into) which is 145km south of Mukumary. Lodja is on the bottom right, Mukumary is the top of the map The car stopped in sort of the middle of nowhere (but seriously, it was the middle of nowhere)!  Father Emmanuel said, "It's time to get out, they want to welcome you." Some of the people gathered to walk me to the Church. They e...

This is a note I sent from my trip in the Congo after being there for 1 week. I have been in the DR Congo for a week now and am excited to share some of my experiences with you all.  Everything has been new since I got off the plane out on the  tarmac  at FIH airport in Kinshasa.  Fr.  Emmanuel  was there to greet me and we began our adventure.  Meeting family and friends of his in Kinshasa, taking the Historic City tour of Kinshasa, the Capital City, and experiencing the first evening without our 'modern conveniences' of electricity and running water.  In spite of, or maybe because of, these hardships I have been having the time of my life! On Saturday we flew via CAA airlines from FIH Airport to Lodja.  'Getting checked in and through security' (if you can call it all of that) took a few hours and then we were 'off'.'   After two stops in other villages (one on a dirt runway) we were finally in Lodja where Fr. ...

Dear Family and Friends, Happy 2014!  I am excited to share with you all an endeavor I'm undertaking in March (2 weeks from today).   It all began about 6 months ago when we had a visiting priest, Fr. Emmanuel, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.   He is in the Diocese of Kole at St. Clare of Assisi Parish in the middle of the jungle in the DRC with 22,000 parishioners in 32 villages.  He and his two assistants say Mass in each village about every 2 or 3 months, which means that his parishioners experience the Sacraments approximately 4 times per year!  They live without electricity or running water nor any of the  modern conveniences  we take for granted each day.  Yet, they are filled with joy.  I've been discerning a visit to the DRC ever since I met Father Emmanuel.  It was just something that I felt like the Lord was calling me to do.  Take a risk, leap into the Love and the joy of the African people in thi...

I've been home from Brazil for 10 days now, and I'm not certain what it is, but something has changed in me.  It's hard to explain or define, but after World Youth Day I'm not the same.  It's difficult to define or pin-point; I only have the evidence of what I can see and how I feel now.  This weekend we had a visiting priest, Fr. Emmanual, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  I was the one to pick him up at the bus station and I believe my life was changed by the conversation I had in the car ride to his host family's house. I don't mean dramatically changed to the point where I am going to sell my stuff, leave everything, and begin mission work; but as I type that, it doesn't seem like the most terrible idea.  I think I mean an even more radical change than that - what if I had my life in perspective all the time?  How could I do that?  What do I even mean by that? Well, I don't know how - but what I mean is the 22,000 parishioners he ha...