The confirmation rush begins - and more news

Wednesday, January 26, I met with the catechists of confirmation to prepare for confirmations next month, from February 10 to 12. There were about thirty catechists from about 36 towns and villages in the parish who have been preparing about 425 for confirmation. We were preparing the Masses in five different places as well as confessions in six places. I’ll be accompanying them in the next two weeks.

Last Saturday, we had the first round of confessions in the main church in Dulce Nombre. There were about 56 confirmation candidates and some adult sponsors who came; even though there was only one priest, the confessions were finished in about three hours. Among those to be confirmed there were 28 who had not made their first communion. They received the Eucharist for the first time at the Mass at the end of confessions.

The pastor also asked me to baptize a couple and their child. I had recently done the final pre-marriage interview with them and I felt privileged to baptize them last Saturday, while the pastor was finishing up confessions. The couple also received their first communion at the Mass.

What a day for sacraments – baptisms, confessions, and first communions.

January has been a bit different this year. Father Kyle Digmann, the pastor of our sister parish, St. Thomas Aquinas in Ames, Iowa, came for a short visit. He had Mass in two communities, including one of the poorest and most distant, Debajiados. He concelebrated at two of the Sunday Masses and presided at the Mass to dedicate a new meeting space in the parish center, named after St. Thomas Aquinas (since much of the funding came from a donation from St. Thomas). We made a quick trip to the Mayan ruins in Copán Ruinas, about 80 minutes from my house. He had a chance to meet some members of the association that exports El Zapote Coffee to Ames. He even helped a short time with the harvest in the parish coffee field. It was all too short. I hope he and others from St. Thomas will visit in the near future.

Since November people have been harvesting coffee throughout the parish. This will continue until February in most places, though a few who have fields at higher elevations will be harvesting until March.

This year the coffee prices are better than I remember. That means that some harvesters are getting significantly more than last year. Last year they got 30 lempiras (about $1.22 for a five gallon bucket of coffee cherries)’ now some are getting between 40 and 50 lempiras.

But the costs have gone up. Some have told me that in some cases a bag of fertilizer costs about twice as much as a few months ago. We’ll see how this leaves the small coffee producers.

My pastoral work has been a little limited these past months. I try not to schedule many formation meetings in January, since the coffee harvest is one of the few ways people in the countryside can earn cash.

There was a parish assembly to do some planning for the year and there will be two small groups working on parish organization and evangelization in the next few days. 

For a number of reasons, exacerbated by the pandemic, the local community church councils have fallen apart in a good number of places; we hope to help revive them, but with an organization more participative than in the past. We also hope to revive the base communities and pastoral work in the towns and villages.

I have continued my custom to go on most Sunday mornings to various villages for Celebrations of the Word with Communion. Yesterday I went to Granadillal and next Sunday I hope to get to visit San Antonio El Alto; I plan to visit the sick after the celebration since they don’t have a communion minister to bring the eucharist to the sick.

One of the customs here is to have prayers in people’s homes on the night after a death, for nine days after the burial, and often for nine days a year after the burial. I was invited to two end of the nine days (novenario) here in Plan Grande. I also celebrated a funeral of an older woman here. 

Sunday a week ago, the pastor came for the funeral of a 97 year old man who is sort of the patriarch of the village, with many children (as well as grandchildren and great grandchildren) including two former mayors. I was also asked to be at the vigil on the night before the funeral. I had visited Don Máximo many times, once just before his death. But a local communion minister regularly brought him Communion, which sustained him. He will be missed.

I had two interviews of two couples who will be getting married. I have another one scheduled for February. I find it very hopeful that there are young people who are getting married in the church. Many have already been living together and have kids. They finally decide for one reason or another to get married. One of the more interesting cases is a couple who weren’t even baptized.

I hope there will be even more. The stability that may come from sacramental marriage can be a real blessing for families. this is important for these families, for our parish, and for Honduras.

Other more mundane concerns have taken up time.

I took the new parish truck for its 20,000 kilometer checkup. In less than 14 months I’ve driven more than 20,000 kilometers, mostly in the parish (though there were a few trips to San Pedro Sula). I also had to take another car to the mechanic in Santa Rosa and ended up buying a new battery.

I have reviewed scholarship applications for 159 young people for an alternative program for the equivalent of junior and high school. The students listen to radio programs, have home work in books, and get together with teachers about once a week. Help from St. Thomas Aquinas helps pay for half of the costs of books.

We had a clergy meeting which I attended. We have a deanery meeting in early February.

Such is life in the parish. I’ll try to offer a more reflective blog post after the confirmations are over.

I have not included any reflection at this time on the political situation in Honduras. The country's first woman president was sworn in at the National Stadium in Tegucigalpa in front of an enthusiastic crowd. Her inaugural speech was filled with hopeful signs of a new Honduras. Yet the National Congress is in disarray. Pray that this may be resolved in a way that furthers the good of the people and helps put an end to corruption and impunity.

I'll try to write more about this later.

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Thanks to Elias for the photos of the baptism and first communion. They were published on the facebook page of the parish.

Deacon reflection 7

I never thought I’d be doing this

I have been a deacon for a little more than four years. There have been a few highlights during those times, but I’d like to write about what have been two areas of my diaconal ministry that have moved me. They are also areas where I am surprised by my way of connecting with people.

Funerals

With only one priest in the parish, who tries to visit all the more than forty-five villages in the parish every two months, there are times when he cannot be present for funeral Mass. In many villages, a Delegate of the Word presides at a Celebration of the Word, There are not many who seek a Mass or a Celebration with Communion, outside of the main towns in the parish.

I have made myself available for funerals and, at times, the pastor or a delegate of the Word calls me to come. There is not much time for preparation, since people are usually buried within twenty-hours of their death. Often I don’t know the person who died, though there have been times when I had visited the deceased, bringing them communion.

Being present in times of loss is important. I try to say a few words of comfort and of hope. But there is a line in the prayer in the funeral rite that touches me almost every time I preside.

As the family gathers around the casket to pray the final commendation, the church prays:

“May the Lord be merciful with our brother/sister, so that, free from death, absolved by his/her sins, reconciled with the Father and carried on the shoulders of the Good Shepherd, he/she may merit to enjoy the eternal joy of the saints in the entourage of the eternal King.” (My translation).

Often I ask the family to visualize their loved one on the shoulders of Christ the Good Shepherd or held like a child in Christ’s loving arms.

Many times I have been asked to pray in the homes where they have been waking the body of the person who died. I usually do a short Celebration of the Word  with one reading and the rites of commendation of the body. 

Often there are many people - in the room where the coffin is and outside - to accompany the family. These times of prayer can be extremely moving and it is important to be there. Earlier this year I prayed beside the small coffin of a still born infant. 

Marriage preparation

Though I have been helping in the Dulce Nombre parish for years, I didn’t notice many sacramental marriages until last year.

I’m not sure why there are so few couples married in the church. Some possible reasons might include one or more of these:  fear of the commitment of a sacramental marriage; the cost of a civil marriage (since a sacramental marriage cannot take place without the civil marriage usually witnessed by a mayor); the expectations of a costly celebration; the lack of invitation by local church leaders – some of who only castigate people for “living in fornication”; not a strong sense of dating; the lack of a culture of marriage; many years without the presence of priests in rural villages except for a few times a year; and more.

Yet I often encourage couples to get married in the church. I have often seen young men around the church door while their wives are inside with one or two kids. I jokingly ask them if they are married and when they say know I gently urge them to consider this.

The process might be a bit daunting. The couple meets with the pastor, then they have about three months of weekly meetings with a couple in their village. Then there is the interview of the couple as well as two witnesses, who know the couple. They also have to be married civilly before their church marriage.

Since my ordination, I have been doing the final interview. This interview, with two witnesses, is to see if they are ready for the sacrament and also to see if there are any obstacles to marriage. At times this has been perfunctory. But recently, I have been finding it inspiring.

In one distant village – one hour by car from my house – six couples began meeting at least a year ago, reflecting on their faith and talking about getting married in the church. At first, they got some flak from the church leaders in their village who didn’t like the idea of people in fornication meeting together without a designated church leader. I, on the other hand, was delighted that some people were taking the initiative. Finally, the local leaders did not resist the formation of these couples in preparation for the sacrament of matrimony. But then the pandemic and the lock downs came.

As I got permission to go out on ministry Mondays through Fridays, I told the communities that I would come out and do the interviews in their villages. So far I have done eight interviews. In a few cases, one of the spouses is not baptized. I’ve met with the unbaptized to follow up on preparation in their villages. I’ve baptized one young man a few weeks ago a few days before his wedding. I’ll be baptizing two women in the next few weeks, the day before five couples are married in their village.

It has been so good to talk with these and try to help them see the presence of God in their relationships and, in many cases, their children.

Though I don’t preside at the celebrations of many marriages, these encounters are a real part of my diaconal ministry.

OTHER MINISTRIES

These two areas of diaconal ministry are really important. People need to feel the presence of the church in their lives – accompanying them in times of loss and in times of joy.

They are not alone. The Church is with them – and values them. The Church wants to share their sorrows and their joys.