A week (or so) in Advent

It's been a busy 9 days.

Saturday, December 7, I went to Lepaera, Lempira, for the celebration of the ordination of young man in the diocese. Nery Gómez was at my diaconal ordination and so it was a blessing to be able to serve as one of the deacons at his priestly ordination. It was a good day and several hundred people showed up.

Padre Nery Gómez

The next day, Miguel, another transitional deacon was ordained but I couldn’t get to his ordination – since I had other commitments. Now I am the only deacon in the diocese. I expect that several seminarians who have finished theology and are in a pastoral experience year will be ordained deacons at the end of next year. The bishop is talking about opening a process for more permanent deacons – but it will probably be several years until any are ordained.

Padre Nery Gómez, Monseñor Darwin Andino and Deacon Miguel (ordained priest a day later)

Padre German, the pastor of our parish, Dulce Nombre de María, went to Miguel’s ordination and left me to preside at the Sunday afternoon Celebration of the Word with Communion in San Agustín on Sunday afternoon. We also celebrated the entry of six more young into the catechumenate. It’s always a joy to see new people wanting to enter the Catholic community. This year I want to be a little more involved with the catechumens and I hope to interview each of them in the next three months.

Monday, I went to Santa Rosa de Copán (about 50 minutes away). I had to change the oil in the car and I also decided to use a laundromat there to wash eleven days of dirty clothes. I usually wash my clothes by hand at home – but when it’s rainy or when my time is too occupied, I’ll go to a laundromat.

Tuesday, I did some work at home and then went to Granadillal for a Celebration of the Word with Communion to mark the end of the novena for Francisco Pérez. The custom here is to have nine days (a novena) of prayers after the death and burial of a loved ones in the homes. At the end, they often request a Mass, but since Padre German had a funeral at the exact same time, they asked me to come. I’m glad I could, since I had brought Communion to Don Francisco several times.

Wednesday morning, I skyped with someone from Italy who is doing some research on deacons in Latin America for a masters’ degree. After that, I went to Dulce Nombre to help with the clean-up of the church. There have been some renovations to the inside of the church, including some work on the walls and some electric work. But it needed a thorough cleaning with all the accumulated dust. When I arrived a crew was at work but soon the firemen (bomberos) from Santa Rosa arrived to do a high-pressure water cleaning of the walls and ceiling. They even washed down the two towers outside.

Thursday was the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, one of my favorite feasts.

Several years ago I had the chance to visit Mexico City and visit the shrine to see the image on St, Juan Diego’s cloak (tilma).

In the afternoon, I went to Descombros, one of the villages whose patron is the Virgin of Guadalupe. Mass started late and so I drove home in the dark – as the moon was rising. It was a gorgeous large moon that I noted on my left as I drove from San Agustín. But then the moon was in front of me and later at my right. The road is full of curves and thus, though the moon didn’t move, I felt a bit disoriented seeing it first on the left and then in front of me or on the right. When I got home to Plan Grande, the sky had clouded over and so I recovered my orientation – though I never really lost it. I’ve travelled the road from San Agustín to Plan Grande about two or three times a month for the last four years.

  

Friday morning, I went to a meeting that the coffee association from El Zapote was having with some workers from Caritas Santa Rosa who are overseeing a project from a Spanish Catholic foundation. The foundation will be doing some work on food security including providing seed money for projects for women as well as for gardens. They will also be helping the coffee growers improve the quality of their coffee as well as use methods to use the pulp and the waters used to wash coffee for fertilizer and more. This will prevent the pollution that often results from the disposal of the coffee pulp and the waters (called honey waters) in streams.  It was good to see them and hear of these ways to advance their production and improve the lives of their families.

I didn’t stay for the whole meeting since I wanted to get to the Saint Lucy Day Mass in Camalote. As I arrived they were finishing the procession. As I passed them, I noted a young woman on crutches. When they got to the church, I noticed that the young woman was being carried on the back of her mother. This couldn’t have been easy since she seemed to be about 14 years old. What care and concern – and what effort – her mother showed.

After Mass, I headed off to Gracias, Lempira, to the house of the Dubuque Franciscan Sisters. They were going to receive a woman into the novitiate with a Mass and a special ceremony. The president of the congregation had come to be part of the ceremony.

Padre Loncho came for Mass as well as other associates of the Franciscan sisters from Gracias. I was blessed to serve as deacon at the Mass.

It was very moving to see another young Central American woman continuing her formation with the sisters. Katy has been with them several months already and she and another aspirant had spent a week with me studying Catholic Social Teaching.

The reception into the novitiate took place after the Gospel. The Mass ended with each person present being invited to personally bless Sister Katy.

I stayed overnight – and enjoyed a time with the sisters. They are family for me here. I have spent Christmas with the sisters since I’ve been here, But, since they are going to Iowa for the chapter’s chapter of elections, I have to find another option for Christmas day.

I left early Saturday morning since I had some responsibilities at the parish – interviews with two couples who are going to get married. The pastor does the initial interviews and then they receive their faith formation in their communities. Then, before they are married, they come to the church with two witnesses to be interviewed, to make sure there are no problems and that they are ready. It’s a joy to see young people wanting to be married sacramentally, seeking God’s grace for their life together. While I was waiting for the couples (who arrived late), two other couples came to be interviewed by the pastor. One is a young man who was involved in the church and in youth ministry but then accompanied a young woman. They have an eighteen-month old daughter. I told them how glad I was to see them beginning this step.

I often encourage young people to get married – in a gentle welcoming way. There are a good number of other couples who also are thinking of sacramental marriage. That is a good sign in this culture. For any number of reasons – financial, rigid interpretations of church marriage regulations, and more – there are many couples living without being married civilly, at even less by the church. That’s another blog post.

Sunday, I presided at the Celebration of the Word with Communion here in Plan Grande. The local Delegate of the Word had asked me to preside since she was going to be gone.

In the afternoon, I went to San Agustín for Mass.

There is a custom here to celebrate birthdays at Masses. Today we celebrated the birthday of a 96-year old man. I had greeted him before Mass, without knowing it was his birthday. He is almost always at the San Agustín Masses and Celebrations of the Word and, though he is hard of hearing, he always has a word and a hug. What a joy to be able to celebrate with him.

There is also a custom to present babies at Mass when they are a few weeks old – using around forty days after birth. After we sang the Mañanitas for Don Manuel, we celebrated the life of a small baby girl. The old and the young, the full range of life.

I got home early and had dinner. Tomorrow volunteers will be working on the parish coffee fields, picking coffee. I will help with transporting them from their villages in the morning but can’t help in the fields or in taking them back to their homes. I have a dental appointment – to have a tooth pulled. Then I’ll take two days of rest.

One random note. Most deacons don’t preach regularly. Since last Sunday, I’ve preached six times – at  three Masses and three Celebrations of the Word.

As I look back, I note that death and life have been part of this week, Also, I have witnessed people beginning to live out their vocations – a priest, a woman religious, and two couples. Though there is much in Honduras that does not bode well for the poor, there are small lights in the lives of the people here. God is making a way out of the darkness.

Finally, to prove I’m not at all that virtuous, here’s my dessert tonight – a large bowl of pistachio ice cream – and I had two bowls last night and am tempted to have another tonight.