Updates: birthday, Corpus Christi, prison

As some of you may have noticed, I’m writing less on my blogs this year. Part may be due to the noonday devil (sloth), part may be due to busyness, and in part I may not want to burden readers with lots of little details.

By the way, sloth and busyness are not incompatible. But that’s an extended theological discussion.

Last Friday was my birthday. I got lots of greetings through Facebook, Messenger, e-mail, phone calls, and hugs. Two celebrations were especially moving.

I’ve been trying to find a time to invite the Dubuque Franciscan here to my house for a meal and time to share. Finally, we arranged a meal on May 31, the day before my birthday and a few days before the birthday of Erika, the Honduran member of their congregation.

It was a delightful visit – conversation and food galore. I made lentil soup (one of my specialties), baked whole wheat bread and cornbread, and made a bean salad. Nancy brought one of her incredible chocolate desserts. It was a great time.

After the meal, I left to get to Delicias, Concepción, to expose the Eucharist to initiate their Forty Hours of adoration.

My birthday was filled. In the morning I went to Dulce Nombre to speak with Padre German. Since it was the First Friday, a devotion to the Sacred heart which is very strong in the parish, there was Mass, where I served as a deacon and preached. During the prayer of the faithful, Padre German made a moving prayer for my parents, on my birthday. Then, at the end of Mass, there was the traditional birthday blessing and drenching with water.

In the afternoon I went to Oromilaca for the exposition of the Eucharist for their Forty Hours which began at 5 pm. I hurried back to Plan Grande where we initiated Forty Hours at 7 pm.

Saturday, I got up early to get to Delicias for a 6:30 am ending of the Forty Hours there with a Celebration of the Word with Communion. Before I left I stopped in at the church in Plan Grande to see four young people there for adoration.

I got to Delicias late, because I was confused (too little sleep?) and started out to Oromilaca. I got there at 6:45 am.

I had to hurry back to Dulce Nombre for a 9:00 am interview with a young couple getting married in a few months.

In the afternoon I ended up going to El Zapote to see the coffee association. I brought the device to measure humidity in coffee that I had gotten for them and we also talked about the upcoming shipment to Ames. I also stopped by the church where they too were celebrating the Forty Hours devotion.

Sunday, I went to Oromilaca for a 9:00 am Procession and Celebration of the Word with Communion. The church was filled and I carried the Eucharist in procession to two nearby altars.

At the second altar, as we started our prayer, kneeling in the road, I heard some people singing a hymn that I’ve often heard at Eucharistic adoration, “Dios está aquí” – “God is here.” I asked where the singing was coming from. From a group of evangelicals, I was told. I then invited the community gathered in front of the Eucharist to sing the same hymn. This suggestion probably confounded not only the evangelicals (when they heard the Catholics singing the same hymn) but also the Catholics, who are not accustomed to much openness to evangelicals.

After the Celebration, in which many received Communion, I left Oromilaca for Plan Grande, where we ended Forty Hours at 11 am.

Padre German came for Mass and procession in Plan Grande late in the afternoon. We started the procession but had to end it quickly because of a downpour. Mass proceeded, with the noise of the torrential rains on the tin roof of the church. There were sixteen first communicants – 14 children and three young people. A meal followed for those involved.

Monday, I stopped at the church and then went to Santa Rosa for a  few errands.

Tuesday, the parish visited the Santa Rosa prison. Thirty of us went to the prison. A group of women had started at 1:00 am to cook a meal – rice, beans, chicken and veggies – for the prisoners. And so we had to fit thirty people, 16 large water jugs of juice, and four large pans of food in three pickups! We got to the prison and after a number of delays – bureaucracy at its finest – we got in and served lunch. We ended up feeding about 840 male prisoners and the 39 women there.

The kitchen and the food distribution were well-staffed and so I went around and talked with people. Surprisingly, when I entered the prison I was immediately met by someone from one of the villages in the parish who is imprisoned there. Like many others, he has not yet been brought to trial and he’s been there probably close to a year!

I ended up talking with a number of people, including a few young men – one of them named Jesús. Now I can say that I met Jesus in prison. They talked about the conditions; because of overcrowding some men sleep on the floor, without mattresses.

After lunch, we had Mass which was well attended. My guess is over fifty of those incarcerated participated with another twenty or thirty looking on from a distance. After Communion was distributed to the men, I went and took Communion to the women prisoners who wanted to receive Communion.

We left shortly after in the midst of a major rainstorm and got back to Dulce Nombre about 3:30 pm.

Today, I had planned to go visit the sick in San Agustín, but speaking with the Communion minister there, she suggested that tomorrow would be better. So tomorrow I’m off to visit the sick in the morning and then go with Padre German to Granadillal for their feast day Mass in the afternoon. (It’s the feast of the Sacred Heart.)

                                                              

Saturday I have another pre-marriage interview as well as meeting with the Extraordinary ministers of Communion. Next Monday, there’s a meeting with the youth leaders in the parish.

On June 13, next Wednesday, we celebrate Saint Anthony of Padua, who is the patron of more than four communities in the parish. Padre German will have a load of Masses and I’ll accompany him for at least one of them, because I want to celebrate. June 13 this year is the anniversary of my arrival here in the diocese in 2007 – eleven years.

God is good.