A Great Day in Santa Fe

Getting Ready for the Encuentro

 After overcoming the obstacles on the road we had a great day in Santa Fe

Missionaries at the clinic in Santa Fe

Taking Blood Pressure

A Selfie at the new pier in Santa FE

Obstacles on the Road to Santa Fe

Our Evangelization Team rode out to Santa Fe with that clinic's team and encounted various obstacles along the way

A bit of a traffic jam

Road is washed out--detour

Rebuilding the washed out road.

First of 3 Postings for today

This first entry of the day actually goes to yesterday when we did the Encuentro at Guadaloupe/Carney after visiting the hospital in Trujillo

Joe Franzetti and his 3 sons worked on the pharmacy team. Friends made this banner

Mass at the end of the Encuento in Guadalupe/Carney

Work at the eye clinic

Patients gather at the hospital clinic in Trujillo

Ending A Busy Day

Some of our Honduran missionaries

 Here at the Honduras mission Sunday is in many ways our busiest day.  Setting up gets finished and patients begin to be seen.  the day ends with Mass as the Cathedral with the Garifuna people. I did an article on them last year.  A trip to Google ad Wikipedian will give you all the info you need. Once again, let the pictures tell the story.

The children are always with us

Things get stuck in ears here

Joe Franzetti and his sons work together on the pharmacy team

Patients waiting at Hospital clinic

Testing blood sugar. Diabetes is rampant here

Entrance of the Garifuna Mass

Fr John preaching

Deacon Martin Seibold and Fr. John

Getting to Work in Honduras

At Mass in Maranones Seminarian Martin Seibold is serenaded for his 26th birthday

In the days ahead I will not be writing much.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.Everyone arrived last night and we celebrated Mass and had a nice dinner followed by much needed rest to get ready for Sunday. On Sunday work began in full at the various clinic and hospital sites.

Leadership Team Meeting

Exploring the beach by our hotel

Missionary choir

Celebrating Eucharist at Hotel

Deacon don Greenway, Fr. John Anglin, Martin (seminarian)

Arriving at Los Maranones to Celebrate Mass

Sylvia, leadeer at Los Leones Clinic.

Signing in at Dental Clinic in Los Leones

Dentists getting instruments ready

A brave boy getting teeth removed

Gathering for Corpus Christi Mass Los Maranones

Back in Honduras

Looking out to Trujillo Bay from Hotel (2013)

 For the fourth year in a row I am participating in the mission trip sponsored by Christ the King Parish in Little Rock, Arkansas.  The journey here began yesterday morning in Tampa with flights to Houston and then to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, followed by a six hour bus ride to Trujillo.

 As I traveled I was aware that I was coming to familiar territory.  I know many of the missionaries and I know many of the Honduran people.It is much different than the first time I came here.  This experience is now something that I am committed to for as long as I am able to do so.
 The missionaries are a wonderful group--doctors,nurses, dentists, eye-doctors, construction team and teenage volunteers, as well me and the other members of the evangelization team. We have no illusions about changing everything in this very poor country, but we do know that we are making  a difference.
 
   One half of the team arrived last night and the rest will come tonight and be welcomed with a Mass and a fine dinner here at the Christopher Columbus Hotel.

   Today's a day for setting up and getting ready to go full steam ahead tomorrow.  Below are some pictures from this first day:

The Long Bus Ride

A hungry crowd after a long journey

This donkey left us a "gift."

 

Los Leones team preparing to set up clinic

    

Some Thoughts on 44 Years of Priestly Ministry, Weakness Has Made Me Stronger and a Better Priest.

Ordination Day with Bishop Nicholas D'Antonio, OFM

Mass for my 40th Anniversary At St. Peter's, Eagle river, WI

   I was ordained a priest 44 years ago today.  It is a bit after noontime and I have already celebrated Mass, blessed a home, heard a private confession and anointed a dying woman who was surrounded by her husband and two sons. What beautiful things to happen on this anniversary.

  At Mass today the Gospel was John 21:15-19, the famous dialogue where Jesus 3 times asks Peter, "Do you love me?" 

   The context of this dialogue is that the last time Jesus heard Peter speak Peter was denying him 3 times.  Now, after appearing to the apostles as a group Jesus approaches Peter one and one and asks this question.

We can imagine Peter's inner reaction--shame, fear, guilt. How surprised he must have been to be asked, "Do you love me?"  Jesus response to Peter's declaration of love is to invite him to feed His lambs and His sheep.

   For me there is a real lesson in this dialogue as to what the priesthood, or for that matter, any Christian ministry is about.  We live in a world where leaders are chosen because of their strength.  Any skeletons in the closet and they are disqualified.  In this dialogue Jesus is essentially absolving Peter and then recommissioning him to feed the sheep.

   During the past 44 years I have discovered that when I face my weakness and bring them before the Lord my capacity to minister and serve is not lessened, but is rather made stronger.  There have  been a couple of times over the years when have felt that I failed or that I just wasn't up to the task, but that is when I learned that it was not all up to me, that I needed to rely more on the Lord, that effective ministry, while utilizing my strengths, also meant that my strengths alone were not enough.

  Like Peter and like any other Christian I have had to wrestle with my own sinfulness and weakness. This has made me a better confessor because I know that I cannot stand above a penitent, that though I have the privilege of offering absolution, I too am a fellow sinner.

 Though my health has been basically good I have had my setbacks.  in 1989 I slipped on the ice outside of a friary in New Jersey and tore my quadriceps.   I had surgery, had to use a walker, then a cane for a while.  I recovered, of course, and walk fine, but when I encounter someone permanently limited in their ability to walk I can be there with them.  I am nine years out from recovering from prostate cancer, something that led my to face my own mortality in a deeper way. I am also a type II diabetic.

  I have known grief through the loss of my parents, my sister Anne and several close friends.  This has taught me that presence, even more than words, are a great comfort to the grieving.  I was so aware of this this morning when I anointed that dying wife and mother.

   I do have many strengths.  I am well educated, have a pleasant personality, a good singing voice, good writing kills and have become a good preacher, something I was not in earlier years.  I state these things not to boast, but to thank the Lord for giving these gifts to me, but my ministry as a priest has become more than I could ever imagine because of what I gained, what the Lord gave me, when I was down, when my strengths were not enough.

Leading Prayer in Honduras