Long time coming......

Wow... it really has been a long time since I have been able to write on this blog....This evening I was rereading alot of my past entries because it has been the first chance to actually sit down that I have had in a long time. It just hit me how much writing down my experiences has helped me in my journey here in Latin America and in the mission.
Coincidentally, I am scheduled to head back to Nicaragua in the next week, to visit San Marcos, where I lived and learned Spanish, and in a profund way, much of the mission that I am currently serving in. This will be the first time that I have had an oppurtunity to visit away from the mission in the last year or so, because of missions and retreats, basically the busy schedule that we live here in Comayagua.
Life here is still the blessing that it has been since the beginning, in the last 2 years (its hard to believe it will be 2 years in june) there have been many changes in the community and the ministry we are participating in. We are still working largely with our young boys and teenage youth on a weekly basis, and after these past years of working with them, we are finally seeing fruits in their lives. In the past 6 months we have been on 3-4 missions in the mountain aldeas, and between 15-20 of our youth participated for the first time, and it was quite amazing to see how much God has worked in their lives and families. As of the past summer, my current ministry is focused primarily on the mountain missions, so I have not been present very often in the house here in Comayagua, having spent most of my time living and serving the parish priests. This has been amazing, God has taught me so much through the people who live, in many ways a life with technology and conveniences of the beginning of the last century. Whether it has been learning how to survive without electricity, running water, cars, or my normal American diet, I have grown quite fond of the moutnain life and its simplicity. (Many of the these villages only have visits from the priest once or twice a year!)
This past january, 2 young adults from these mountain villages have come and committed to serving in the community for at least a year (There is a huge thrist for Christ in these mountain villages) and we are now living about 18 in the house-a huge change from last years 6-8 people. We have some many different cultures under one roof this year, we have a few graduates from Steubenville, one from Notre Dame, a young lady from Illinois, a young man from El Salvador, a few Hondurans, a young lady from Scotland, a young lady from England, and then us from good ol´ Virginia.
Although much has changed in the house, our Mission remains the same, proclaim the Gospel at all costs, raise up this generation to be on fire for Christ, run to the beat of a different drum....and seeking Holiness on a day to day basis. It is even more a blessing to know that back home I have a support in you all and that through the sacraments and community there is a constant channeling of prayer interceding for one another at all moments through the richness of our Church. It is a beautiful thing being Catholic, its what drives me to continue the mission everyday...the desire and longing for the unification of alll Christians, in order to share the richness we truly do have in our Church.
As I go back to Nicaragua to visit a family I made while I embarked on my mission, I pray that I have grown in whatever small ways and that I am able to share with every individual God places in my path. I feel many times that God has placed many loved ones in my path and through the different paths he has led me, I have somehow lost touch or communication...at times this is a hard concept for me to accept and understand, but I pray that I can refelct love to all those He has placed in my life....and for those I have failed in the past and will fail in the future , I ask forgiveness and ask for your prayers. Please pray for my conversion and also for my discernment here in Honduras. I truly feel called here for an indefinite period of time, I love all of you at home...thank you all for your support and prayers...may God Bless you and may Mary protect you with her Holy mantle...she knows her Son better than anyone else and can intercede for us better than anyone else- its not a question of theology or ¨catholic beliefs¨ its the logical truth...Peace of Christ


Andrés

Excuse me for the grammatical errors...its late

Long time coming......

Photos

I just wanted to add some pics to show a little of what we do around here.... so here it goes

A picture of Youth 2000 (Pan de Vida en Español) retreat practically in our house

Here is a picture of our mission in the mountains in November

And this is my catechism class that I teach on tuesdays...

One of the most beautiful places on the earth in a town called El Rosario (the rosary)

Here, the convent of the Friars is where we have mass everyday...

.....and where we have masses on friday night(and where the bishop lives)

the cathedral of the immaculate conception...which boasts the first clock ever sent to latin america from spain...

21 years

21 years old last thursday...I am now officially, technically, and proudly an adult. Unfortunately here in Honduras nothing changes once you turn 21 so I didnt really do anything out of the ordinary in Honduran terms. In the evening I got to spend some time with the friars and our community and it was overall beautiful....especially since the focus wasnt on me(most people forgot after 5 minutes because we were in the middle of a medical brigade). A few days later when things calmed down and the doctors left, I got to invite 5 families over to eat dinner and share praise and worship time with them and their children which was amazing....and getting to be with the families Ive grown with the closest this year....including the neighbors and their 5 kids in my catechism class....and then a family that I visit with once a week who have 8 daughters and expect God to give them more- overall some pretty amazing examples faith and marriage here in Comayagua.

But probably the most powerful experience on my birthday was evangelizing in one of the neighboring mountain aldeas which we do every thursday.
We had left around mid day and just planned on visiting some of the church goers in the neighborhood- in preparation for a summer mission in July. As we usually do the first couple times in visiting an aldea, we try and visit the sickest of the sick as to inform one of the priests to bring them the Eucharist, and we met Don Jaun.

Now, Ive had some experience with Parkinson´s disease as one of my best friends dad has been struggling with this for a long time back home, but this man was incredible and God was blatently calling us to stay and pray with him for some other reason. This man has about 70 years now, and has just begun to struggle with parkinsons and it really disables him from doing alot of what a Honduran male needs to do in order to survive in this country where a super market, washing machine, and oven/microwave just arent available. As the clock showed 3, we decided to pray the divine mercy chaplet with the señor and I tell you, he prayed this pray as if he either - prayed it everday of his life or as if he had never every prayed anything at all before. This man had a passion that I havent seen in many places with a love for Christ that is hard to find in old men suffereing with diseases. He is the opposite of sour, bitter, grumpy, or tired. Although his veins are extremely enlarged, his shaking controls his body and speech.....he still shakes ones hands like the president or king would, and offers of his home and belongings as if he had millions to give. As we prayed the chaplet, he looked at me for a moment and then thinking of Mr Molochko and his son in mass, both clenching eachothers fists in order to calm the shaking during the most solemn of moments, I grabbed his in order to help him. God definitely humbled me on my birthday, in a way that I cant explain nor comprehend...but Im slowly getting it....what it means to be humble and yet a man of God.

And that is all he was as we left....he asked nothing of us materially....simply pleaded that we would send a priest so he could recieve the Eucharist....which he said was all that mattered at this point in his life.......offer his suffering for the sinners of the world...and to finish his life already sharing in the joy and glory that Heaven offers us....

21 years....I am a man...and an adult....(dont mean to scare you mom and dad) and - altough nothing compared to the linebacker in highschool- I am strong and capable of serving our Lord as a Man of God....please pray for me and for all Men who are commited to serving Jesus and living a life of the gospel.

Peace and I love you all

Life in Honduras

Peace in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

It has been a while since I´ve had time to really get on and update this blog. I hope that it finds you all in good health and spirit as it finds us here in Comayagua.

Things have been flowing very smoothly here lately in the hands of God. It was quite rough for a while having different people visiting all the time, and not for the people but for the lack of consistancy in the schedule....but now we are seeing alot more of our ministries solidify for this coming year or 2. Please continue to pray that not only God sends more long term missioners but that people will be open to following what He says....

I have definitely grown in a lot of ways, and am noticing many ways in which I still have much much room to grow in my faith, future, and leadership....but most importantly my humility. I am blessed to have a local priest Fr Reynaldo as my spiritual director...who also happens to be the vocational director of the entire country here. God has placed me in many ways in a position of the ministries at the parish of Maria Reina....more than anything, being more involved with the youth there and events of evangelization...and for me has really allowed me to feel once again part of a parish.

As for the house, things are going very well, even though we have very few long termers who will be here for more than the next 4 or 5 months....and I have been blessed and cursed to be more in the position of helping Carol with administration and the decision making process ( a curse because I finally understand why here role here is so difficult yet crucial)
I have made some amazing friends and brothers and sisters within the community and with the Friars as well as outside of the community in Comayagua...

Our neighborhood and the people we live and work with have consistantly challenged me to holiness and to the humanity that we so many time have a hard time connecting with, not just in the states but I believe in any area where poverty is much less seen. God has highlighted many ways in which I havent learned to be human in the middle of disease, being uncomfortable, dirty, tired and sad......The people here will always continue to call me to a type of holiness in whichever ministry we continue to pursue, be it the classes of the children we teach, the evangelizing in the neighborhoods, or whether it be mountain missions, in all parts of this country for me, the beauty of nature and humanity is amplified about 100x. In many ways at many times, although I miss my family and friends, I feel as if I was born to live and die here, and not out of emotion but something much more full of peace and understanding all guided by prayer.....

I have continued to discern my vocation and will constantly be struggling with it I believe, but now I understand much more where my heart is being tugged towards as well as where I feel called to in my life. Please continue to pray for me in this process as you have already been doing.

Thank you all for keeping in contant....(thanks Leslie Terry and Casey! ) and thank for you all your prayers and support.....I understand how hard it must be to feel obligated to support my decisions in this life here, and I appreciate more than you could know in how much you all trust me...Please continue to ask questions or call....this mission and my life here whatever it may be, is something I want all my family and friends to be in some way a part of. I miss you all, I love you all....God Bless You

Andres

Life in Honduras

Peace in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

It has been a while since I´ve had time to really get on and update this blog. I hope that it finds you all in good health and spirit as it finds us here in Comayagua.

Things have been flowing very smoothly here lately in the hands of God. It was quite rough for a while having different people visiting all the time, and not for the people but for the lack of consistancy in the schedule....but now we are seeing alot more of our ministries solidify for this coming year or 2. Please continue to pray that not only God sends more long term missioners but that people will be open to following what He says....

I have definitely grown in a lot of ways, and am noticing many ways in which I still have much much room to grow in my faith, future, and leadership....but most importantly my humility. I am blessed to have a local priest Fr Reynaldo as my spiritual director...who also happens to be the vocational director of the entire country here. God has placed me in many ways in a position of the ministries at the parish of Maria Reina....more than anything, being more involved with the youth there and events of evangelization...and for me has really allowed me to feel once again part of a parish.

As for the house, things are going very well, even though we have very few long termers who will be here for more than the next 4 or 5 months....and I have been blessed and cursed to be more in the position of helping Carol with administration and the decision making process ( a curse because I finally understand why here role here is so difficult yet crucial)
I have made some amazing friends and brothers and sisters within the community and with the Friars as well as outside of the community in Comayagua...

Our neighborhood and the people we live and work with have consistantly challenged me to holiness and to the humanity that we so many time have a hard time connecting with, not just in the states but I believe in any area where poverty is much less seen. God has highlighted many ways in which I havent learned to be human in the middle of disease, being uncomfortable, dirty, tired and sad......The people here will always continue to call me to a type of holiness in whichever ministry we continue to pursue, be it the classes of the children we teach, the evangelizing in the neighborhoods, or whether it be mountain missions, in all parts of this country for me, the beauty of nature and humanity is amplified about 100x. In many ways at many times, although I miss my family and friends, I feel as if I was born to live and die here, and not out of emotion but something much more full of peace and understanding all guided by prayer.....

I have continued to discern my vocation and will constantly be struggling with it I believe, but now I understand much more where my heart is being tugged towards as well as where I feel called to in my life. Please continue to pray for me in this process as you have already been doing.

Thank you all for keeping in contant....(thanks Leslie Terry and Casey! ) and thank for you all your prayers and support.....I understand how hard it must be to feel obligated to support my decisions in this life here, and I appreciate more than you could know in how much you all trust me...Please continue to ask questions or call....this mission and my life here whatever it may be, is something I want all my family and friends to be in some way a part of. I miss you all, I love you all....God Bless You

Andres

Christmas

Greetings in Christ and Merry Christmas....almost....
I have been gone for about a month and half in the mountains on a mission with 2 of the guys from our house here in Comayagua.
We left on about the 12th of november for a place in the mountains called ¨El Florida¨ and in fact there are millions of oranges....so many that they sell a sack of about 150 oranges for 5 to 10 lempiras which is roughly 25 cents or less....
Anyways....so Maynor, Wilmer and I arrive in the mountains at a parish of a 28 yr old priest Fr Maximiliano who has 56 churches to serve. The plan was to send us with 15 of his own missionaries to about 5 to 10 of his communities spending 3 days in each community and then leaving by foot to the next communities on the 4th day, arriving and then staying at the next for 3 days as well. So we left and encountered more than we could have ever imagine...and me being the only american in the whole team, I was probably experiencing the most drastic changes in not having spoken english in more than a month and completely having to submerge myself in the culture....but it was beautiful as God completely emtpied my being of all that I had known before....and by His Grace...allowing me to survive all things...from foods I never thought were edible before, 8 hour pilgrimages to other communities climbing, trekking through rivers...passing through waterfalls, all in one day...going a week without changing clothes or bathing due to lack of shower or running water (sorry if that grosses anyone out) and really experiencing the life of the people that have never known any other form of life in the mountians.
As we encountered some of these communities who dont recieve Father or Mass but twice a year or less....we found great spiritual need in some, and in others...we found a faith more simple and yet more profound than we ever imagined before.
Were talking people who have never learned to read or write....who have never watched a television or never afforded a radio...and only know what they learned from their families in the field working and in the Catholic church every sunday when they have their community prayer meetings. But overall....the generosity we found in these people, who would empty out the rain barrels of water saved for weeks just to give us a drink.....or killing the last chickens in their house to feed us for a night....putting their 8 children in one bed or on the floor so we would have room to sleep in their one room house.....amazing...and we truly believe their treasure and reward is in heaven where they fully acknowlege that they are placing it.
As poor as they are by our society´s standards they are by far the richest people I have ever had the honor and privelege to meet.
The whole mission was a success...Not because we were successful....we can never measure a mission or ministry as successfull....this is one thing I learned the most from the people of the mountains....the mission was a success because and ONLY because we maintained the faith....and more than taught the people the catechism...we left having learned more than we taught....this is the success..the mission of the church
Giving witness of Christ and His Love for us, and the witness that the Catholic Church lives and by means of the sacraments and especially the Eucharist...we are living in full communion PHYSICALLY with Christ as He nourishes us spiritually.

So after a retreat of more than 300 youth in the parish....we arrived back in Comayagua...and within a day or two we were leaving for another mission in El Rosario....where another young priest has more than 50 churches to serve....and as of a month or so Burglars had robbed the images of the Holy Family and Our Lady of the Rosary as well as The Eucharist from the tabernacle....so we left with haste to help recover and really examine the needs of this priest in his communities as he physically cannot be at all the places all the time....and although the sadness of the events have consumed some, the Faith is stronger than ever as the people realize they need to unite for the Church as children of Christ....

So on Friday....we arrived back around 630 inthe morning from El Rosario and began a Pan de Vida here in our neighborhood with the Friars...of about 250 youth....and although completely exhausted...not having rested for more than a month (literally) and still sick from the mission in november....God worked as always, through each and every leader during the talks, ministry and leading up to the Eucharistic Procession which is the culmination of all Pan de Vida retreats... a 2 hour procession where each youth comes literally face to face with Jesus for a period of time in His Body and Blood....and I was extremely blessed to serve Fr Felipe and was able to walk in front of him as he proceded with Jesus to each and every youth and was able to pray for each one individually....so Sunday night, we finished the Pan de Vida and really took the advantage to rest since then....preparing over 400 Christmas cookies for about 50 of the families in the neighborhood and Br Paul and I are practicing carols on guitar so we can visit each family and carol to each one tomorrow and Sunday before our all night Christmas vigil with the Friars.....
Im sorry its been so long...ive really missed you guys alot, but I felt your prayers more than ever in this time especially in all the ways the Lord has stretched me completely out of my comfort zones and taught me the true beauty of poverty...please continue to pray for us and the neighborhood here....and if you could intercede for Father Maximiliano and Father Victor for they each have more than 50 communities to celebrate mass with for Christmas this week.....thank you all and Praise our Lord God for all that He is doing in each and every one of our lives...

Peace and Merry Christmas!

Andrew

Christmas

Greetings in Christ and Merry Christmas....almost....
I have been gone for about a month and half in the mountains on a mission with 2 of the guys from our house here in Comayagua.
We left on about the 12th of november for a place in the mountains called ¨El Florida¨ and in fact there are millions of oranges....so many that they sell a sack of about 150 oranges for 5 to 10 lempiras which is roughly 25 cents or less....
Anyways....so Maynor, Wilmer and I arrive in the mountains at a parish of a 28 yr old priest Fr Maximiliano who has 56 churches to serve. The plan was to send us with 15 of his own missionaries to about 5 to 10 of his communities spending 3 days in each community and then leaving by foot to the next communities on the 4th day, arriving and then staying at the next for 3 days as well. So we left and encountered more than we could have ever imagine...and me being the only american in the whole team, I was probably experiencing the most drastic changes in not having spoken english in more than a month and completely having to submerge myself in the culture....but it was beautiful as God completely emtpied my being of all that I had known before....and by His Grace...allowing me to survive all things...from foods I never thought were edible before, 8 hour pilgrimages to other communities climbing, trekking through rivers...passing through waterfalls, all in one day...going a week without changing clothes or bathing due to lack of shower or running water (sorry if that grosses anyone out) and really experiencing the life of the people that have never known any other form of life in the mountians.
As we encountered some of these communities who dont recieve Father or Mass but twice a year or less....we found great spiritual need in some, and in others...we found a faith more simple and yet more profound than we ever imagined before.
Were talking people who have never learned to read or write....who have never watched a television or never afforded a radio...and only know what they learned from their families in the field working and in the Catholic church every sunday when they have their community prayer meetings. But overall....the generosity we found in these people, who would empty out the rain barrels of water saved for weeks just to give us a drink.....or killing the last chickens in their house to feed us for a night....putting their 8 children in one bed or on the floor so we would have room to sleep in their one room house.....amazing...and we truly believe their treasure and reward is in heaven where they fully acknowlege that they are placing it.
As poor as they are by our society´s standards they are by far the richest people I have ever had the honor and privelege to meet.
The whole mission was a success...Not because we were successful....we can never measure a mission or ministry as successfull....this is one thing I learned the most from the people of the mountains....the mission was a success because and ONLY because we maintained the faith....and more than taught the people the catechism...we left having learned more than we taught....this is the success..the mission of the church
Giving witness of Christ and His Love for us, and the witness that the Catholic Church lives and by means of the sacraments and especially the Eucharist...we are living in full communion PHYSICALLY with Christ as He nourishes us spiritually.

So after a retreat of more than 300 youth in the parish....we arrived back in Comayagua...and within a day or two we were leaving for another mission in El Rosario....where another young priest has more than 50 churches to serve....and as of a month or so Burglars had robbed the images of the Holy Family and Our Lady of the Rosary as well as The Eucharist from the tabernacle....so we left with haste to help recover and really examine the needs of this priest in his communities as he physically cannot be at all the places all the time....and although the sadness of the events have consumed some, the Faith is stronger than ever as the people realize they need to unite for the Church as children of Christ....

So on Friday....we arrived back around 630 inthe morning from El Rosario and began a Pan de Vida here in our neighborhood with the Friars...of about 250 youth....and although completely exhausted...not having rested for more than a month (literally) and still sick from the mission in november....God worked as always, through each and every leader during the talks, ministry and leading up to the Eucharistic Procession which is the culmination of all Pan de Vida retreats... a 2 hour procession where each youth comes literally face to face with Jesus for a period of time in His Body and Blood....and I was extremely blessed to serve Fr Felipe and was able to walk in front of him as he proceded with Jesus to each and every youth and was able to pray for each one individually....so Sunday night, we finished the Pan de Vida and really took the advantage to rest since then....preparing over 400 Christmas cookies for about 50 of the families in the neighborhood and Br Paul and I are practicing carols on guitar so we can visit each family and carol to each one tomorrow and Sunday before our all night Christmas vigil with the Friars.....
Im sorry its been so long...ive really missed you guys alot, but I felt your prayers more than ever in this time especially in all the ways the Lord has stretched me completely out of my comfort zones and taught me the true beauty of poverty...please continue to pray for us and the neighborhood here....and if you could intercede for Father Maximiliano and Father Victor for they each have more than 50 communities to celebrate mass with for Christmas this week.....thank you all and Praise our Lord God for all that He is doing in each and every one of our lives...

Peace and Merry Christmas!

Andrew

Settling down and then leaving again

Hey all! I hope that all is going well back home and that everyone had a beautiful All Saints and All Souls day. It has been a while since I have been able to update this, we have had a lot of things going on and just when I think I have time to sit down and write, something comes up....so Im praying that I can actually finish this today.

First of all, thank you all for your prayers in this time, we have definitely needed it, for many of the situations God has placed within our community have been literally impossible, but His Grace alone has provided in the times that have seemed most difficult. Please continue to pray for the family of Maria Luisa and Johanna, the family we got out of their house due to irresponsibility of their mother who left them at home for days with their little sister. We got them to what seemed to be the perfect place for them, but when we came back to visit them a few days later to bring them their things, found that it was a somewhat anti-catholic evangelical orphanage....and for these girls (due to the death of their newborn baby brother this year, murder of their father, and negligence of their 24 yr old mother) the Church, Eucharist, and the embrace of our Mother Mary, were the ONLY solid consistent things they had in their life.....so it was a wreck to have left them for a period of time in a place where all of these things were not only attacked, but considered to be from the devil....
So with much prayer and meeting with the Friars, we were able to move them to a Catholic orphanage where the priest in charge is going to continue their classes in the faith and prepare Maria Luisa for her First Communion which was the one thing she told me on the way to the first orphanage, that she wanted most at this moment in time.....Please pray for her, for her faith, and for clarity in what is going on....she has lost so many things and people in this one year....she needs a miracle....and we need to believe that God will perform a miracle in her life.

Much of the past 3 or 4 weeeks have been consumed in these events and planning trips in order to secure the safety of these girls as well as other crisis, but with these crisis comes so much Grace not only in our lives here at the house but in my faith...although at times I enter the chapel for Holy Hour thinking and asking God, why these things happen.....the amount of faith that flows through the brokenness of these people has helped me grow and discover my part more and more in the Body of Christ, in ways Ive never known before...

Yesterday I was blessed abundantly to visit with a family of one of the young girls in our group Dulce, and I had the oppurtunity to spend a good hour and a half with her great grandmother who is about 75-80 years old. She lives not only in the poorest part of our neighborhood, but I would venture to say one of the poorest parts of the city of Comayagua...she grew up in a mountain village where the priest visited for Mass about once a year and she survived off of the land alone. Some family members recognized the gifts she had so they sent her to live in the City of Comayagua with an order of Franciscans here and work with the Bishop. So she started to grow in her faith and then realized....life means nothing without Christ and even deeper, in recieving His body and blood in the Eucharist...participating in something that unites all Catholic believers in the world, in all the years past and all the years to come as ONE BODY IN CHRIST...and she thought to herself, "none of my family is baptized or has recieved their first communion"
So she invited a ton of people from the mountains back in the 1950s to visit the Bishop and he baptized over 50 people in one day...and assigned a priest to her village in order to teach and form the people of the faith...Obviously, she has much family, she is the great grandmother of Dulce who is about 14 years old, and she is consecrated 3rd ORDER FRANCISCAN! She has been very sick for years now, and the friars and family have thought she was dying about 4 or 5 times now, and she is anxiously awaiting her arrival in heaven, but God is keeping her here for a time....and Praise Him for that! She passes her days for hours in her bed, sitting up praying spontaneously, recited the rosary for hours, and singing canticles to our Lord and interceding for the Missioners here, the friars and all the Church around the world.....she is truly a saint, and I cant describe what an honor it is to know her and to be loved by such a follower of Christ as her....amongst all of the brokenness and perversion I run into daily here in our neighborhood, it is the women like her that teach me how much Love their is in this world.

Please keep Maynor, Wilmer and I in your prayers, for we leave this coming week for a month...we are going up into the mountains on the boarder of El Salvador and Honduras to live and work with the people of El Florida...some of whom have never heard and experienced the word and love of Christ...pray for our faith and that God might use us as vessels of His Love.....I will be arriving back here on about the 13 of December and will be anxiously awaiting the arrival in late december of the team coming from Virginia! Peace to all of you! I love you and Miss you...

Peace of Christ

Andrew

Settling down and then leaving again

Video

Hey All!! Im sorry, i dont have much time right now, but I wanted to post this video made by Brad who came this summer to Comayagua...its really a good 7 min recap of what we do here with the Friars and the people of this Country..

http://faithful-servant.blogspot.com

Thank you all for the prayers....I will update soon but we have a retreat this weekend and are preparing....Peace be with all of you


Andrew

Pan de Vida

Greetings in the Peace of Christ! I write this with much peace and joy in how the Lord has blessed us lately here in Honduras.
This past weekend in Honduras, we had a Pan de Vida retreat which for those who arent familiar, is a 40+ hour weekend of Adoration of Jesus in His flesh and blood in the Eucharist with about 100 youth. It is jampacked full of talks, praise and worship, mass, and all things Catholic.....in actuality all things Christian.....for whether or not they believe in It, everyones soul desires the Eucharist, however at times we dont realize it through our own faults, or by the faults of those who may have taught us falsely under distortions of the faith or through traditions of other faiths...and this is precisely our mission here in Honduras, and throughout the world as Baptized Catholics....to spread the Good News to everyone, because we believe it is the truth and it is what will not only save us for eternity but will allow us to enjoy and find peace in this world for the short time we live in it.
This retreat does just that in its teaching and goal...to make Catholics aware of our role as missionaries for LIFE....and to focus all of our life in the Eucharist...believe it or not, as it may be the biggest distinction in Protestants and Catholics as well as the biggest arguement....it is the one part of our faith that will shine the truth of The Church......for even Martin Luther believed with his whole heart and soul in the Eucharist even during his breaking from the Church.....

In his words regarding people who decided to translate the Bible according to their church...

"Who, but the devil, hath granted such a license of interpreting the words of the Holy Scripture?
Who ever read in the Scriptures, that ¨my body¨ is the same as ¨the sign of my body¨? What language in the world ever spoke so? It is only then the devil, that imposeth upon us by these fanatical men....Not one of the Fathers, ever said...¨It is only break and wine¨ or ¨the body and blood of Christ is not fully present¨. Certainly in so many Fathers, and in so many writings, that the negative (Christ not fully present) would be found in at least ONE of them, had any of them thought The Body and Blood were not fully present. But they are all Unanimous."´
-Martin Luther (LUTHERS COLLECTED WORKS, Wittenburg Edition no. 7, page 391)

And we learned quickly while working here in Honduras that if our focus moves away for even a day from The Eucharist....the fruits begin to slip away...for it is The Eucharist that we focus ALL of our work and service towards, we are nothing in this battle here....and finding coverts to protestantism BECAUSE there arent enough priests for sufficient masses....is a sign to many that our work must reflect preperation for The Eucharist. Praise God for His gift to us and the ability we have to recieve every day if we want in the States...for if the people here had the oppurtunity ever day, they would change EVERYTHING in their schedules to attend mass or even Adore Him for an hour. This is the secret of poverty, the gift among what we see as injustice...the gift to rely on Him for everything....

Not only the retreat has been powerful since last weekend, this past 2 days I spent time in another part of Honduras, Siguatepeque with Maynor and his family. It is a beautiful place but the goal of the trip was to visit the seminary....and I must admit I am still in awe from what I experienced there....a seminary on the top of a mountain with crops of all sorts, animals of all sorts all maintained by the 20-28 year old seminarians....all completed by a giant waterfall at the top of the mountain.....I can understand why so many people might be turned off from seminary in the states...from the ones ive seen and heard about....they pale in comparison to what they should be.....for men to study 6-8 years of their life and Vocation.....I must admit, I feel a tugging on my heart....I need alot of prayers and much more time...but for the first time Jesus is teaching me to be open to His will in ANYTHING.....and I pray that we all together can learn how to live this way.....reckless abandon to His will, no matter what that means...changing our plans for our futures to serve Him how He wants, leaving jobs, careers, big houses, nice neighborhoods, friends, family, to be with Him in the specific ways He has for us.......I do ponder the idea much down here on how protestants can survive following the will of God as well as many of them do, for withouth Mass and the Eucharist everyday....I do not know what I would do.....that may be the one thing I am the most sure of in this moment, my incapability without His flesh and blood

Peace

Andrés