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Friends and Family,
I hope this post finds you well and enjoying the fall season! I miss you all.
Honduras is beautiful...I'm more and more like a little girl, pondering everything I encounter like Mary did in the depth of her heart (Lk 2:19).
This past week a CFR priest has joined us, Fr. Agustino. He has a great love for youth, and for the Theology of the Body, a beautiful work of John Paul II's on man and woman and how God created us to be in communion with one another. He'll join us next week in Nicaragua, where we go on Mission again...we are also visiting Ave Maria University there, and the Franciscans of the Primitive Observance. Please pray for everyone we visited this week, the Mission that some of my fellow Missioners are currently on (a couple's retreat in an aldea) and our time in Nicaragua. We are definitely keeping busy with the Lord's work...and the harvest is ready!
Thank you for being who you are and a part of my life! Thank you for the love that you have and that you have shared with me.
I leave you with a song..."tenemos tanto tanto pero tanto tanto tanto tanto...para estar agradecido!" "we have so, so, but so so so so much for which to be grateful!"
LOVE,
MJ
Friday, October 10, 2008
MOC blog
Check out our updated Missioners of Christ blog: missionersofchrist.blogspot.com. This is my post from a few weeks ago:
Throughout college, praising God through music was a powerful form of prayer for me. Here in Honduras, I am able to “sing a new song to the Lord,” in a new language! Before leaving, I thought it would be difficult to give up my favorite praise and worship songs in English, but as usual, I was focusing more on what I would lose than on what I would gain. The words to one of these new songs have been especially significant for me, as a new missionary in our community: “Todo lo que soy, todo lo que tengo, todo lo que quiero, todo lo que sueño, a ti Señor Jesús, te entrego.” (Everything I am, everything I have, everything I want, everything I dream, to you Lord Jesus, I surrender).
Some days during the past 3 weeks I have prayed these words joyfully, thanking God for the opportunity to really wake up each day and spend myself completely for Him. Some days I pray them with exasperation, feeling poor and useless. But the words of this song keep causing me to realize that our God longs to be our Provider; in fact, His heart burns for it! But He allows us the freedom to allow Him in, and we can only do that when we don’t leave our options open: Christ is our only option! And He is everything.
This was made clear to me during last week’s mission to the mountain town of Guajiquiro and its surrounding villages. The night before we left, we were blessed with an extended night of prayer and praise before the Blessed Sacrament, asking God to pour forth His Holy Spirit upon us again as He did at Pentecost. And send us forth He did, to the unknown, like the branches from His vine. All we had to bring to the villagers was Christ, literally—in His sacraments (Fr. Juan Diego, cfr was with my team).
Each night in the village we had a holy hour with the villagers. On the last night I was sitting in the back row of the chapel, sharing my candle and song sheet with Luis Alfredo, a 7-year-old who had been joining us all week. As we sat and shared Christ’s light, my fellow missioner Juan Carlos began the song… “Todo lo que soy, todo lo que tengo…” I looked up at Christ, humbly gazing at us from the altar, thanking Him for what He had done that week with our willingness to serve Him through our simplicity, poverty, and faith that He was at work. Lord, let us be living monstrances, displaying your love to everyone we encounter. When all we have is You, we have more than enough.
Throughout college, praising God through music was a powerful form of prayer for me. Here in Honduras, I am able to “sing a new song to the Lord,” in a new language! Before leaving, I thought it would be difficult to give up my favorite praise and worship songs in English, but as usual, I was focusing more on what I would lose than on what I would gain. The words to one of these new songs have been especially significant for me, as a new missionary in our community: “Todo lo que soy, todo lo que tengo, todo lo que quiero, todo lo que sueño, a ti Señor Jesús, te entrego.” (Everything I am, everything I have, everything I want, everything I dream, to you Lord Jesus, I surrender).
Some days during the past 3 weeks I have prayed these words joyfully, thanking God for the opportunity to really wake up each day and spend myself completely for Him. Some days I pray them with exasperation, feeling poor and useless. But the words of this song keep causing me to realize that our God longs to be our Provider; in fact, His heart burns for it! But He allows us the freedom to allow Him in, and we can only do that when we don’t leave our options open: Christ is our only option! And He is everything.
This was made clear to me during last week’s mission to the mountain town of Guajiquiro and its surrounding villages. The night before we left, we were blessed with an extended night of prayer and praise before the Blessed Sacrament, asking God to pour forth His Holy Spirit upon us again as He did at Pentecost. And send us forth He did, to the unknown, like the branches from His vine. All we had to bring to the villagers was Christ, literally—in His sacraments (Fr. Juan Diego, cfr was with my team).
Each night in the village we had a holy hour with the villagers. On the last night I was sitting in the back row of the chapel, sharing my candle and song sheet with Luis Alfredo, a 7-year-old who had been joining us all week. As we sat and shared Christ’s light, my fellow missioner Juan Carlos began the song… “Todo lo que soy, todo lo que tengo…” I looked up at Christ, humbly gazing at us from the altar, thanking Him for what He had done that week with our willingness to serve Him through our simplicity, poverty, and faith that He was at work. Lord, let us be living monstrances, displaying your love to everyone we encounter. When all we have is You, we have more than enough.
Mission in Agua Blanca, late September
Giving my testimony! In Spanish...yikes! Thank you Holy Spirit!
Clockwise: 1. Lupita and me...they taught me how to play tag in Spanish, and I taught them how to play duck duck goose! 2. James and I probe the Scriptures as we wait for lunch. 3. Parrot chooses to nest somewhere other than upon my head...
Small groups with youth of Agua BlancaFirst Mission Pictures
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Aldea (Mountain Village) Pasguares, mid-October
Our equipo (team): Etel, me, Mark, Therese, Juan Carlos, Mili, Fr. Juan Diego, cfr
Therese slipped. It was a tad muddy. We laughed though, thank God!
Our team with the family who opened up there home to us for every meal...we brought the food and they cooked it for us...three times a day. Incredible.
Mark and I with the kids of the family we ate with...
Aldea (Mountain Village) Pasguares, mid-October
Our equipo (team): Etel, me, Mark, Therese, Juan Carlos, Mili, Fr. Juan Diego, cfr
Therese slipped. It was a tad muddy. We laughed though, thank God!
Our team with the family who opened up there home to us for every meal...we brought the food and they cooked it for us...three times a day. Incredible.
Mark and I with the kids of the family we ate with...
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