Be the Mission

2012-01-22T21:38:00.000-08:00

The best explanation I've heard for the Trinity: It is like a Father and a Son playing frisbee in the front yard. Where's the Holy Spirit you ask? It's the love that is shared between the Father and the Son as they commune with one another.

Are You Called to Mission?

2012-01-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

Bonhoeffer's Mission Year

2012-01-12T09:39:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a book comes to you at the exact right moment in your life, when you can immerse yourself in - and even by transformed by - its words. Such has been the case in my current reading of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas. When Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great Lutheran theologian and social activist, left his home in Germany to visit the United States in 1930, he almost certainly did not see it as a "mission" encounter. Too young to be ordained as a Lutheran minister, he traveled to New York to study theology and to site-see. True to his adventurous and inquisitive spirit, he traveled much of the Eastern and Southern US with friends he had made in New York, even taking a road trip to Mexico, camping out in farmland along the way.

We tend to think of "mission" as the opportunity to do, but Bonhoeffer's year in the United States stands as a powerful example of simply opening one's heart and eyes. While in the United States, Bonhoeffer witnessed firsthand the rampant segregation and dehumanization of Black Americans at the time. It shook him greatly, and though he made many friends in America, he spent much of his time with one, in particular: Frank Fisher, a Black seminarian involved in a Harlem church. Bonhoeffer taught Sunday school classes at the Harlem church, and found himself extremely inspired by the profound spirituality, zeal, and social involvement of Black churches throughout the country. (Not to mention the music: he listened to and shared recordings of Black spirituals throughout his life.) Though already a brilliant theologian, Bonhoeffer for the first time began to see the value of attending church services, prayer, and lived expression of the Gospel call to love and justice.

In fact, he wrote to one of his brothers that he feared that he was spending too much of his focus in the United States on what was then termed the "Negro problem," since he there was "no comparable situation in Germany." The irony, as the author points out, is that while Bonhoeffer was away from his homeland, the Nazi Party was rising to power. Students of history know also that the Jewish people in Europe had a long history of being discriminated against and oppressed, but Bonhoeffer had lived a relatively sheltered life in this regard.

Nonetheless, his experience in the US transformed him. Beyond his experience of segregation, he also formed a strong friendship with a French student also studying in the US. At the time, of course, Germany and France were still bitter enemies following the terrible First World War. Bonhoeffer's new friend argued constantly with Bonhoeffer about the centrality of the Beatitudes to Christian life. It was not until viewing the film of "All Quiet on the Western Front", which exposed the horrible nature of the war, that Bonhoeffer became converted to his friend's message. As the two sat in their seats and watched the battles take place, they were, according to Metaxas, brought to tears. At the same time, American children in the audience cheered each French death.

Bonhoeffer did not go to the United States to "do" mission work. Instead, he opened himself up to the world, became intimately involved in a local church community, and found his heart moved profoundly to justice, the dignity of each human being, and the central notion that Christ must be alive in our hearts, with all its implications. He returned to his home country and began to preach this message, and how it countered the rampant nationalism and antisemitism that had swept the Nazi's into power.

Bonhoeffer's journey to America was a journey of self-conversion. It was a journey in which he began as a student of Scripture, and became a follower of Christ. What he learned about himself on that journey prepared him to face the challenges of his own nation, his own church - challenges that would have been unimaginable when he left. For me, Bonhoeffer's experience represents not only a movement of the Holy Spirit, but the ultimate mission call to be alive in Christ. Bonhoeffer did not go to be transformed, but he allowed God to touch his heart.

Did Jesus Ask for a Resume?

2011-12-13T19:42:00.000-08:00

When I first began working for Maryknoll, it became clear that my job would be difficult to explain to other people. Unlike the priests, brothers, sisters, and lay missioners in the Maryknoll family, I cannot easily identify myself as a "missioner" to others. Unlike the Maryknoll employees that develop our magazines and videos, I do not have a readily-identifiable job title. (Mission Promotion Coordinator is not exactly illuminating to the outside world!)

I ran into this dilemma about a month after beginning my current position. I was returning home to Seattle from our regional office in California, about to board a flight. The man sitting next to me asked me why I had been traveling, and explained that it was for work. He then asked me what I did, and I explained that my job is to educate and inspire people in the United States to mission. I am sure that I explained, somewhere in there, what is meant by "mission." Even then I knew that it is a term that few understand in a modern context, and that many may even challenge. But the man look directly at me and asked, rather skeptically, "What qualifies you to inspire other people?"

I'll admit that I was a little taken aback. I quickly ran through my list of accomplishments and accolades in the work world, but the man was unimpressed. Sadly, the conversation did not go much further, beyond me asking a few questions about his work. Looking back on this now, though, it strikes me that both his question and my response present the limitations of our modern outlook. What qualifies you to inspire others? He required some sort of "stamp of approval," indicating why I deserved the position that I held. And I, foolishly, fell into the trap of believing that I do somehow deserve this position. I wish that I had answered, truthfully, "Nothing, but here I am."

Indeed, this could have been the response given by any of Jesus' disciples. The Gospels are ripe with evidence of their ineptitude, their doubt, and the undeniable conclusion that these were ordinary people responding to an ordinary call. The idea that we must be uniquely qualified may be one of the greatest obstacles that many of us face in answering that call. We leave great works to "great" women and men. We admire and we adulate, but we do not participate.

I was struck, though, this afternoon when Fr. Tom, the director of our Seattle Mission House, and myself were struggling to get a new table into the house. Working our way up the steps, a young man on his way to work came running up and offered to help. He helped us get the table into the basement, and I spoke for a few minutes with him. I learned that he worked for an after school program, and that he was on his way to meet a group of the kids at a different school and walk them to the program, which he did every day. His unprompted kindness certainly inspired me, but I did forget to ask for his credentials.

Advent Reflection: True Peace

2011-12-01T13:07:00.000-08:00

Seasons Greetings!

It would be nice if Superman was real. At least, that's what I caught myself thinking recently while driving home. I was listening to a story on the radio about drug cartels in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas Mexico. There, ordinary citizens have been taking to the Internet to report cartel activity in order to keep their streets safe (for instance, they might report that a shootout is occurring on a certain block). In response, the cartels have killed many of these people, displaying their bodies publicly as a means of intimidation.

Alone, this story would be distressing, but it just so happened that, on the same day of hearing this story, Fr. Tom Marti had shared with me the homily spoken at the funeral Mass of Father Fausto Tentorio, PIME, an Italian missionary priest and witness to Christ's justice who was assassinated recently in the Philippines. And so, I thought, Wouldn't it be great if Superman were here? Drug cartels and military squads certainly would not be able to stop him as easily as they can stop the rest of us.

With Christmas upon us, though, I began to reflect on the birth of Christ. Like me, many people of Christ's time were hoping for a "Superman" of sorts - a leader that would liberate them and establish God's Reign through a military victory. Instead, God sent the Son to us through Jesus. Through his birth, the witness of his life and, ultimately, his death and resurrection, we see not the power of God's fist, but the power of God's love. He liberates us not through war and violence, but through the joy of witnessing his message to one another, of sharing in that love. And it is only through this love, through our very selves as God's hands, that this world will see an end to violence.

Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of the difference between positive and negative peace. The latter, which is the absence of violence but also the absence of love, respect, human dignity, and justice, might well be achieved if Superman were around. Indeed, in many places we can already see this "peace": we commend a lack of public violence while ignoring all of the pain, anger, and injustice brewing just beneath the surface. But positive peace, the peace of love and justice which is, ultimately, the Reign of God on Earth, can only be achieved through the Way of Christ.

So, this Advent season, let us rejoice at the coming of the Lord! Let us not ignore the suffering taking place all around us, but take solace in the fact that God has made known the means of our salvation.

How Am I Called?

2011-11-15T12:45:00.000-08:00

I would venture to say that most of us try to be good people. By this I mean that we develop a notion of how a person ought to be - how he ought to relate to others; how she ought to contribute to society - and try to live that out as best we can. For any individual, this is an important and ongoing process. We develop a moral code based on faith, family tradition, cultural principles, life experience, etc. We then challenge ourselves to live up to that code, change the code based on new information, or acknowledge (or ignore) when we simply have failed to live up this code.

The problem is that when we set all of our own rules, we are accountable only to ourselves. We can overlook when we have failed our code, or when our code has failed our brothers and sisters. For instance, my moral code may simply dictate that I do right by my family, refrain from harming people, work hard, and treat my friends well. This code may not compel me, then, to help a stranger in need or intervene in a messy issue between friends. I set the rules, I decide whether I have followed them, and I can easily fool myself into thinking that I am living up to my own values.

There is a difference, then, between living out a moral code and answering a call. An article in the current Maryknoll Magazine discusses the life of Maryknoll Seminarian Dae Kim, originally from South Korea. In it, Kim discusses being a largely non-religious university student in New York. One day, while walking, he felt compelled to enter a chapel. In that moment, his faith life changed forever. Surely, it was a blessing to be called quite so clearly. However, in many instances, recognizing and answering the call is not sudden or easy. In fact, for Kim, his process included growing up in poverty in South Korea, seeking success in the United States, and realizing his calling to offer something more to the world.

He describes his vocation as such, "I know from experience that poverty is difficult but what ultimately poverty takes away is the human spirit, the spirit of hope and the will to do better. I felt my job wasn't to help with their material or monetary needs. There are other organizations that deal with that. As a Maryknoll missioner training to become a priest, my job was on the spiritual need - to aid them and guide them to never let their human spirit be squashed by their poverty and difficulties."

If we look at life by simply our own code, we can miss the call to our own particular ministry. Dae Kim is a man that could have found any of many ways to live his life, including simply to work hard and be successful, making the most of the opportunities given to him in the United States. As part of a moral or life code, that would make sense to many of us. But instead, he listened, felt a call, and is now engaged of the lifelong process of discerning and responding to that call.

Of course, it is not only priests, nuns, brothers, monks, rabbis, imams and other religious leaders that are called, but all of us! In that same issue of the Maryknoll Magazine, Maryknoll Lay Missioner Jason Obergfell describes his work helping people in rural Bolivia access clean water. Again, such a project could simply fall into line with a moral code. Many of us see giving back to those in need as just and necessary. But Jason is responding to something greater. "I don't only think of my project, but of the lives of these people and their problems," he says. "It is part of the difference between being a volunteer and being a missioner. Being a missioner is to bring the spirit of God, love and compassion. That is more important than any project, more important than any job. It is where we should begin and how we should finish." Jason is not called simply to help people, but to join with them - to care about them and their lives as he would any of his friends and family.

Stepping beyond our own codes - what we have decided that we are required to do - and responding to a call - what God wants us to do - is difficult, yet ultimately the most rewarding way to live our lives. God made us to love God and to love each other, and if we listen, we can hear the ways in which we are called to do so. This holiday season is a great time to ask yourself, how am I being called, today and everyday, to God's mission?

Where Change Begins

2011-10-18T12:14:00.000-07:00

With the Occupy Wall Street movement in the headlines, many people are debating the nature of oppressive systems, inequality, and whether positive change ever really materializes - or, at least, on a significant enough scale to counteract the obstacles to peace, prosperity, and justice. In fact, the nature of the protests themselves seems to provoke passionate responses about the manner in which things change - whether the protesters ought to elect leadership, or a set an agenda or objective; whether they ought to form a political lobby, etc. And many of the people posing and wrestling with these questions, as well as participating in the protests, are college students.

College may not always be the time when people settle on a lifelong career path, but it is a formative time of critical thought, discernment, and access to vast amounts of knowledge about the world and how it works. I recently visited an undergraduate theology class at Seattle University to talk about mission and the work of Maryknoll, and I could see this enthusiasm for knowledge and purpose. These students had been studying St. Francis of Assissi, Catholic Imagination, and the ways in which faith is lived practically in the world. My presentation focused on helping these students clarify the meaning of mission in the modern context, and to engage with the work of Maryknoll.

I was inspired by their enthusiasm for the call to witness Christ's love to people in need, with a focus on dialogue, solidarity, and mutual respect. It was clear to me that, in seeing the work of Maryknoll overseas, they were bridging the world of ideas and ideals with practical realities. Here were examples of what people were doing in answer to their faith, and what these students could do in the years to come. I could also tell through their comments - on the clarity of Imminence in the work of Maryknoll, on the connection to St. Francis, on the appreciation for the view of mission as being directed by God and not ourselves - that many of these young people already longed for this real-world connection to the baptismal call.

When I was in college, I too longed for this connection. This longing guided my decision to join the Alliance for Catholic Education and to volunteer teach in low-income schools. One such school was located in Brownsville, Texas, a border town of primarily Mexican immigrants and first generation US citizens, and few native English speakers. The one bookstore in town, a tiny shop in the mall that sold only popular works - closed a few years after I left. Recently, a family member sent me an article about the Brownsville School District's struggles in helping students to reach proficiency in reading, an understandable challenge when students rarely even spoke English outside of the classroom, let alone read it. A mother whose son struggled in reading embarked on a quest to find him help. Unable to find any, she co-founded the Brownsville Reads Task Force in 1996. Working with the school district, the Brownsville Reads was able to reverse the trend of illiteracy in the district within a generation, despite the barriers of poverty and language.

For me, this may be one of the strongest commentaries on instituting change, possibly due to my close connection to the subject. I recently heard a response to the common despondence about how long it can take to institute meaningful change, which basically said this: a plant takes as long to grow as it takes to grow. Even my speaking at Seattle University took time. I met the professor last year, and then seemingly out of the blue was invited to speak to her class. After the session, a few students stayed behind to ask more questions. One said that she was in the nursing program, and wondered if she could work in that field as a lay missioner once she graduated. One encounter may have changed not only the course of her life, but of the many that she may serve. Similarly, I recently found out that a woman that I volunteer-taught with in Birmingham, AL, now lives and teaches in Mombasa, Kenya. And my own encounter with people in need in the US South eventually led to my work with Maryknoll.

To some, good people doing good work may sound nice but lack the scale to effect real change. In a sense, this is true if not coupled with attention to policies and practices that hold people back and hinder the pursuit of justice. However, because of good people doing good work a single life may be changed, or a whole generation of English-language learners in South Texas may become literate. It takes time, it takes patience, but change does come.

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2011-10-11T15:58:00.000-07:00

St. Francis of Assisi

2011-10-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

St. Francis was born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone. I love the Italian language! John Francis of Bernard just doesn't sound as romantic or poetic in English as it does in Italian. Many of the images and portrayals of St. Francis are romantic as well and one might believe that walking the cold rainy winter streets of Umbria barefoot and hungry in order to be in solidarity with the poor could actually be fun! Most of us would have trouble finding joy in living that kind of life voluntarily or otherwise. Francis felt a certain closeness to the poor, a desire to live with and in the same manner as the poor To his peers he must have appeared like he'd lost his senses! But it wasn't always that way for Francis. As the saying goes, every saint has a past.

Francis is said to have been spoiled by his parents, a product of his wealthy upbringing. He enjoyed the good life when he was young: lavish food, finely woven clothes, lots of partying with his friends and even aspirations of glory in a military career. In other words, no different than anybody else his age and in his circumstances. Just when he had his whole future ahead of him, God started picking away at his heart. God does that. It's usually not something we want expect. Responding to that picking often means giving something up...basically our selves, our egos, what we thought would bring happiness in exchange for living to be the person God plans for us to be. Responding is often how we begin to discover true happiness and it often makes no sense to the rest of the world. Francis embracing a leper for instance made little sense from an intellectual point of view. He admitted his own disgust at just the sight of the leper, but he couldn't help himself. Because God was picking away at him, pushing him out of his comfort zone. God worked on Francis until he had a wholly different opinion of what it takes to live a happy life. So much so, that he gathered others to do the same, to open their hearts to God and do things that don't make sense to the rest of the world...and they did! I feel pretty sure Francis didn't choose his lifestyle because he wanted to be known for inventing the creche, or so he could end up on millions of prayer cards and wall hangings or have churches named after him.

But every sinner has a future (thanks be to God). All I have to do to realize God's future for me is to say "Yes" and give in to God, without looking back at what I'm afraid I'll miss, and with no concern for orchestrating my own future. It doesn't sound very romantic and I'll probably have to start over every morning...or every hour! St. Ignatius said that he thought of himself a complete obstacle to the work God was trying to do in him. As modern day Christians we all struggle, but if we'll look to the saints, we'll realize we're in good company!

Mission Symposium at Seattle University

2011-09-21T13:53:00.001-07:00

Fr. Roger Schroeder, SVD will be speaking at Seattle University on the topic, "Mission in the Global Context." To view the flyer, click here.

Please RSVP for this free event as soon as possible. Space is limited.

Preach Always When Necessary Use Words

2011-08-02T14:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a classic, a talk by Maryknoll Father Ray Finch when he was Superior General of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers on Mission today
: Link

http://sedosmission.org/old/eng/Raymond.htm

Update from SF Maryknoll Affiliates, now Lay Missioners, Pat and Ilona Helmholz

2011-07-29T09:25:00.000-07:00

Kenyan Human Rights
June - July, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,

Pat’s Notes: Last December, I was asked by the Catholic Diocese of Kitale to be the Development Coordinator for an existing Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (CJPC) funded by governmental, private, and faith based organizations.

The ministry focus is within the North Rift Valley, an area that has been known and characterized for its infamous banditry, cattle rustling, bloody feuds, political neglect and underdevelopment. Disputes and differences are further complicated by minimal routine interaction and communication between the warring communities and the absence of institutions for conflict prevention, mitigation, and response, particularly at cross-border levels.

The justice system in Kenya is expensive, bureaucratic and extremely unpalatable to the weak and ignorant in the society, and North Rift is one such area of concern. There exists case back logs in our courts due to limited personnel and corruption in the judicial system. For example, West Pokot with a total population of approximately 500,000 is served with 1 magistrate, 4 courts clerks and one court. Some of the court clerks are inefficient and/or incompetent. Poverty levels are high and the majority of the people lack access to services of the lawyers. More so, members of the public are ignorant about the law with 66% of them illiterate. In 2004, the Diocese of Kitale recognized a need to help and created CJPC.

The overall objective of CJCP is to promote and enhance a culture of human rights and social justice that empowers citizens to hold state institutions accountable and uphold the human dignity of all. Specific objectives to accomplish this include 1) strengthening the capacity of citizens to demand for accountable governance of state and non-state actors at all levels, 2) improving access to justice by demanding accountability of justice actors, 3) improving citizens participation to influence policy and legislative reform, formulation and implementation. In short, CJPC helps build capacity and advocates for justice in support of the most needy.

The Commission consists of twelve professionals, most of them paralegals, and all skilled in various forms of crisis counseling and related advocacy. Although the work is demanding, the staff’s underlying faith in the worth of their mission provides them with necessary strength to continue taking small steps forward in service to the poorest of the poor. Please pray for them.

Thank you for the support we continue to receive. May God’s blessings be with you.

Love, Pat and Ilona

June - July, 2011

Helmholz Update 16

To make a donation to support Pat and Ilona, log onto their website: www.mklm.org or call Donor Care on the toll free number below. Use the Special Intentions box to designate application of funds. Reference General Fund #5890 and/or Helmholz Mission Account #5891.
Legal name: Maryknoll Mission Association of the Faithful, Inc
PO Box 307 Maryknoll NY 10545-0307
Toll free # 1-800-867-2980
www: MKLM.org

Famine in East Africa Update from Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns

2011-07-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

Severe food crisis grips East Africa

July 25, 2011

See the Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) website for additional articles on this issue.

East Africa is facing the worst food crisis in 60 years. Across Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Kenya, between 10.7 and 12 million people are in dire need of food, clean water, and basic sanitation.

The United Nations warns that the humanitarian crisis has already degenerated into a famine in the Lower Shabelle and southern Bakool regions of Somalia and that it could get worse. Drought, a major cause of the crisis, is compounded by insecurity, lack of aid and food price inflation.

A famine is declared when at least 20 percent of households face extreme food shortages with limited ability to cope, the prevalence of global acute malnutrition exceeds 30 percent and crude death rates exceed two deaths per 10,000 people per day.

But, according to IRIN, naming a food crisis a famine does not legally require action in the way that announcing a genocide would, despite the politicization of the term and the gravity of the label.

Recently, the Al Shabab militia, which control parts of Somalia, requested international food assistance. The inability of agencies to work in the region since early 2010 had prevented aid from reaching the very hungry, especially children, contributing to the crisis.

With nearly half of the Somali population - 3.7 million people - in crisis, of whom an estimated 2.8 million people are in the south, the scale of the crisis is huge.

About 1,300 Somalis are arriving at the Dadaab refugee camps in northeast Kenya every day. The help they are seeking - refuge from a severe drought and the effects of years of conflict - is being handed out as fast as possible. But in a camp complex that has already been stretched well beyond its limits, the new arrivals need more assistance than can be provided.

Outside the camp, the local Kenyan population is not faring much better. A nutrition assessment by Doctors Without Borders showed that the local community was suffering from malnutrition at the same rates as the refugees living in camp outskirts, and people had stopped feeding their animals in order to have enough food for themselves.

Half the people arriving in villages near the camps come from the Kenyan countryside, so they are unable to qualify as refugees and officially obtain the corresponding food and medical aid. A registration expert from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said many Kenyans have attempted to register as refugees to obtain aid. Kenyans just outside the camp have to pay for water, school and medicine while people inside the camps get them for free.

Guided by its agency-wide Emergency Response Team, based in Nairobi, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is responding to the crisis in East Africa. Go here to learn more about CRS's efforts and how you can help.

Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

Great movie: Of Gods and Men

2011-07-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers in a monastery perched in the mountains of North Africa in the 1990s. When a crew of foreign workers is massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist group, fear sweeps though the region. The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. Should they leave? Despite the growing menace in their midst, they slowly realize that they have no choice but to stay… come what may. This film is loosely based on the life of the Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from 1993 until their kidnapping in 1996.

When I was recently back at the Maryknoll Center, I had the opportunity to watch this movie with the community. It's a great "mission" film about what it means to live out the Gospel is difficult situations.
More...

Nairobi

2011-06-24T11:54:00.001-07:00

We all arrived safely and are staying at the Maryknoll House in
Nairobi. After a relaxing morning we did a little site seeing
downtown. Tomorrow we will be at the Maryknoll Institute for African
Studies.

Jesus Came to Bring Joy

2011-06-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

"Jesus came to bring joy to the world." As the website "Jesus Laughing" explains, this is a central understanding of Jesus' nature and mission, yet we too often forget it - or never grasp it in the first place. But in encountering, breaking bread with, healing, and loving those in His community, He shared in a celebration of God's love and salvation which continues to this day. And the people with whom he most shared this joy - children, the poor, people with disablities - were precisely the people that the rest of us tend to forget about.

This message stands at the heart mission, and thus of our own identity as Christians. Yet we can easily become bogged down with all of our roles and responsibilities in life, even when we are trying to do good work. I'll admit that even the great opportunities provided by work for Maryknoll can also prove stressful. For instance, traveling to the Maryknoll Society building in Ossining, NY, for the first time last week was truly a blessing, yet also put me somewhat behind in my work at the Mission House in Seattle. Moreover, my wife and I are in the process of moving into a new home, so time away from that responsibility is especially difficult.

Sharing in joy with others, then, does not always leap to the top of our list of priorities. In fact, at times life seems too busy and important to "waste" on enjoying ourselves in the company of others. So often, we have to push ourselves to do so, and will usually be surprised by the outcome. My first afternoon at Maryknoll in New York, I was taking a walk around the upper balcony of the building. I was still on Seattle time, did not sleep much the previous night (after a day of traveling), and had just been through a full day of meetings. As I was walking, I came upon Fr. Phil Erbland, a Maryknoll priest who had worked in Peru. Although I was tired, I sat down and began talking with him. Before long, we were sharing our experiences of working in Birmingham, AL - me as a teacher in low-income, all African-American school five years ago, he as a street preacher during the heart of the Civil Rights movement. I was also fascinated in his stories about the struggles in providing quality education in parts of Peru, being passionate about education myself.

He then invited me to dinner, showed me where I could find ice cream, watch TV, and make a sandwich, should the mood strike me. Later, he gave me a tour of the grounds, showing me, among other things, where a small farm on the property was used to grow food for local shelters. We even saw a group of priests and brothers playing musical instruments together at the nursing home on the property.

I'll admit that, at first, I was not up for any sort of adventure or exploration. But I went with it, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I shared in joy with Phil, as well as other Maryknoll Society members and employees whom I met over my short trip. It reminds me of the times that I spend at my wife's school some evenings after work. I am usually tired, and would be happy to go home and rest, but something keeps me there. Laughing with her coworkers or throwing the football with some of her students is worth in joy far more than it costs in time or energy. And that, for me, is pretty tough to argue with.

Africa

2011-06-21T22:22:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow we go with a parish group on a mission immersion trip to
Kenya and Tanzania. Keep us in your prayers.

Pentecost: Jesus' Mission Depends on Ordinary People Like Us

2011-06-12T16:12:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to present this Pentecost Homily by Deacon Noe Tuason, which was delivered at St. John the Baptist on Pentecost Sunday, July 12, 2011. Deacon Noe will going on a mission immersion trip with Maryknoll to East Africa in a couple weeks.

The Holy Spirit who descended on the disciples on the day of Pentecost, is the same Spirit who descended upon us when we were baptized, and when we were confirmed. The Spirit who formed the disciples into a community and moved them, is the same Spirit who animates our Church. The Mission that Jesus gave the disciples at that time, is the same Mission given to each and every one of us, no matter who we are.

What is this mission? Do you know? This mission, our mission is to tell the whole world, that Jesus, by dying on the cross and rising after three days, and by ascending into heaven, gave us the chance of rising too after we die and being united with God, in Heaven, in His love, for all eternity. This is the Gospel, the Good News of our salvation. We must tell the whole world that God's love and gift of salvation is not reserved for a few, but for everyone – for all who will accept it. The Gospel is the power of God, the power to release people from their burden of guilt, sin, and oppression, and the power to heal, restore, and make them whole.

But, you might ask, why me? Why should I be the one to bring that Good News? I am just a dad, or a mom, or student, or old man or woman, or just a child. I am not a priest, not even a deacon. I don’t know much about theology, or even the doctrines of the Catholic Church. I am not a good public speaker. I get so nervous before an audience. Even if I can speak in public, how do I know what I am saying is right. I am just an ordinary person.

You are right, we may just be ordinary people. We are not movers and shakers. But think about this. Jesus did not go to the temples to find his disciples. He took ordinary people like us from many walks of life. They were, so to speak, plucked off the streets. He gathered them, trained them by word and example, and inspired them with a vision. He linked them together and sent them out into the world. Initially, the disciples did not know what to do and how to do them. They were afraid. But, by the Power of the Holy Spirit, they changed the greatest empire in the world-the Roman Empire.

The Spirit that gave them the power to go into the world, is the same Spirit that dwells within us. The seven gifts that the Spirit gave them--Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Courage, Knowledge, Reverence, and Fear of God to help them in their mission, are the same seven gifts that the Spirit gives us.

We must open ourselves to the Power of the Spirit. We must believe that He is within us. We must believe that with those gifts, we can do anything. If we cannot preach with words, let us preach by example, let us preach by our action. As we say sometimes, actions speak louder than words. That might be a cliché but what people see, not what they hear, speaks a thousand words.

As we leave the Church today, let us wear our Christianity as a badge in our minds and in our hearts. Let us bring the Gospel by just who we are and how we relate to people. Let everyone around us see the fruits of the Holy Spirit in us: by being charitable, by bringing joy and peace, by being patient, kind, generous, gentle, faithful, modest, disciplined, and clean both in and out; or, in the ultimate analysis, by being simply a good person.

If we have been remiss in some of these fruits of the Spirit, then let today’s celebration of Pentecost be a new beginning for us just as it was to the disciples of Jesus Christ. Let that event 2,000 years ago be TODAY, when strong driving wind came from the sky filling the entire house, and tongues as of fire parted and rested on the disciples heads. My brothers and sisters in Christ, let the Power of the Holy Spirit fill our hearts today and kindle in us the fire of God’s love.

Mission, abortion and crossing cultural borders

2011-06-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

As we get ready to celebrate the great feast of Pentecost this coming weekend, we're reminded of how the Holy Spirit animated a small group of frightened and confused disciples to change the world. This first generation of missionaries took bold steps to cross barriers and leave their comfort zones to bring the message of God's love to a world that was parched and dry.

Mission has many paths. Witness and proclamation are the best known. But the paths also include offering the world the gift of Catholic social teaching to help make sense of difficult social issues. As Pope John Paul II reminded us, we are called to spread the Good New not only across geographic borders, but cultural ones as well. This brings mission into the thicket of the complex and controversial social and political issues of our day. Issues like immigration, poverty/development, death penalty and abortion. Even here, and perhaps especially here, we need to bring and proclaim love.

There is no one set way of doing this. We need to continue to explore the rich and diverse set of gifts that the Holy Spirit continues to shower down upon us to not only continue the mission, but keep it fresh, new and relevant.

Here's an example of how that might look. Check out this link to Pastor Eugene Cho's blog on the Sojourner's webpage about a young man named Gowe — an emerging hip hop artist — and his song, “I Wonder,” which is dedicated to his biological mother. Eugene offers Gowe's song and story as an alternative approach to looking at the abortion issue with fresh eyes.

Let us pray this Pentecost that we will be open to letting the Spirit moves us and takes us to new places to bring the message of God's love to the world.

Crossing Borders: the Mission Rosary

2011-05-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

I don't typically attend the Saturday morning Mass at my local parish. For one thing, it starts at 8am on Saturday morning. This past Saturday, though, I had the opportunity to lead a Mission Rosary immediately following Mass. So I went to Mass first, and the moments leading up to the Rosary itself were a little nerve-wracking. I had never led a Rosary of any kind, let alone a Mission Rosary, let alone a Mission Rosary requiring the use of a laptop and projector. Because the Rosary is prayed in the church immediately following Mass on Saturday mornings, I needed to do all of my set up right before we were to begin. Naturally, this took longer than it should have, leaving everyone waiting for me in the pews.

By the time that I stood to introduce the Mission Rosary to the expectant parishioners, I was fairly frazzled. Still, almost immediately after I began praying the Apostles' Creed, all of that nervousness melted away. We continued with our prayer, each decade of the Rosary prayed for a different region of this world - Asia, the Island Nations, Europe, the Americas, and Africa - and each of the people living in those regions. For each Hail Mary, a different photo of people from these regions was presented and reflected upon. All in all, it was an extremely positive experience.

For me, it reinforced again the value of crossing borders. I had been nervous - reluctant, even - to lead this prayer, to step beyond my comfort zone. But, in diving right in, I found pretty quickly that I was doing exactly what I should be doing at that moment. Moreover, it allowed me to spend time in prayer with my fellow parishioners on behalf of people in need throughout the world. It is one thing to consider the needs of the world's poor and most vulnerable, to understand those needs on an intellectual level, but quite another to see the faces of that need, to keep individuals in our thoughts and prayers as we reflect upon our role in creating a more just, peaceful, and loving world in Christ's image.

For this reason, I am especially grateful to the Rev. John-Otto (Joshua) Liljenstolpe for his presentation on Peace in the Holy Land, which he gave at the Seattle Mision House on Friday evening. Joshua is a Lutheran minister active in Pax Christi, who has recently visted the Holy Land and is immensely knowledgable about its history and present-day situation. He explained many of the historical and political realities that have led to and maintained the current divisions and injustices in Israel-Palestine, but then transitioned into the effects on the people involved - the Palestinians that spend hours each day traveling to and from work in Israel due to security checkpoints; the Israelis that live in settlements for no other reason than affordability. Whatever our political leanings on the issue, it is helpful to remember that the people most affected by this conflict are people much like ourselves: they seek to care for their families, earn a living, and live in peace with their neighbors.

Just like when we pray the Mission Rosary, when we take actions or make statements on matters such as this, we should keep these people's faces in mind, think of them as we would our own relatives living under similar circumstances. For our actions, our words, even our votes, are all extensions of our prayers.

Sunday readings: In response to injustice the community calls forth first deacons for mission

2011-05-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

The first reading this Sunday finds the first Christian community confronting an internal social justice. The Greek speaking widows were getting treated unfairly in the daily distribution of the communal food and supplies. They had a number of strikes against them. Not only were they women in a patriarchal society, but they were widowed, without a man's voice. Moreover, in the Jewish community of disciples mostly from Galilee, they were minorities, who likely came from places other than Palestine with a different language and culture.

The response of the community, after prayer and direction of Holy Spirit is to lay hands on seven Greek speaking men. They are seen in our tradition as the first "deacons." Although the passage talks about their ministry as being primarily service at table to address the injustice, it's important to note that two of them, Stephen and Philip, become immediately involved in missionary activity. Stephen goes out into the streets to proclaim the Good News and ends up becoming the community's first martyr. Philip leaves the security of the Jewish community to do mission work, first in Samaria and then heads south where he encounters the Ethiopian court official, who he baptizes along the road.

Deacons Joe, Leo and wife Edith with veteran Maryknollers

We recently had our third gathering of deacons and wives back at Maryknoll, NY. This is an initiative to help better engage deacons and wives in the U.S. in mission through mission formation and immersion trips so that they can become animators of mission in their local parishes and dioceses. The excitement and enthusiasm among these men and women of the diaconate for mission is a great sign of hope.

What happened almost 2,000 years ago in response to an injustice within the community continues today. The Spirit continues to call and send men and women to participate in the mission.

The Value of Feeling Valued

2011-05-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

One of the best parts about my position at Maryknoll is that I am constantly reaffirmed in the work that I am doing. Just this morning, I received an entirely unexpected thank you card from members of a JustFaith group at which I spoke recently, with handwritten messages from each member of the group. I also sent out the monthly newsletter from the Maryknoll Northwest, and almost instantly received positive feedback, first from a priest with whom I am friends, and then from the director of our Maryknoll Western Region.

I mention these things to highlight the value of this sort of positive reinforcement, and to contrast it with the lived experience of so many. When I was a teacher, positive feedback was often difficult to come by. Schools can be very isolated environments for the people that work in them. In too many, teachers do not get many chances to observe others teaching or be observed in the work that they do. The only people that really see how these teachers are performing on a day-to-day basis are their students, and, as anyone that knows young people can attest, they tend to be too wrapped up in their own concerns and development to recognize the contributions of adults. Thus, teachers are often left to reassure (or diminish) themselves without any outside acknowledgement. That's a tough road to travel, and one not only traveled by those that serve. Indeed, often those of us that do serve, even if we do not receive enough direct acknowledgement, can still fall back on the love of our friends and families, our past successes, and a general sense that we are of value to the world.

This is not necessarily so for many. I will always remember the first time I met one of the students from my homeroom in Birmingham, AL. She was with her mother, who first introduced herself, and then her daughter, whom she labeled as "lazy." Now, I am sure that my parents had accused me of laziness more than once as an adolescent, but I can't imagine them introducing me as such to a new teacher - or to anyone, for that matter. This is not a condemnation or judgment of this parent, but simply recognition of the reality in which so many people find themselves - unacknowledged and devalued. In fact, though it may be tempting look at this situation and pass judgment, we devalue the world's poor and oppressed in much the same way every day by ignoring their plight, supporting policies that harm and exploit them, and in any way not viewing them as our own brothers and sisters.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus gives value to the overlooked and oppressed merely by being present with them - sharing meals, entering into their homes and other domains, and simply treating them as human beings. We know this, and for thousands of years people have struggled to follow this example, yet it is still the most difficult hurdle to peace and justice in our world. Once we not only encounter, but join with those most in need, treat them as equals and allow ourselves to be treated as their equals, then the passion to reverse the injustices of this world is almost impossible to suppress. And, indeed, Christ definitely challenged the socio-political norms through dialogue with the designated leaders of his community, just as we must do with our own leaders, be they elected, appointed, or simply recognized as such. But that, especially in our age of free speech and open dissent, is often the easiest part. I, for one, would feel much more comfortable debating local policies towards the homeless than sharing a meal with a homeless man on the street.

Ironically, though, the aspect of Christ's ministry that we find most challenging to live out is also the most immediately rewarding and effective. People feel when you love and respect them, and the effect, especially from those that do not expect that sort of genuine acknowledgement and esteem, is immeasurable. Conversely, the ways in which we are enlivened and altered by such an openness of heart is almost indescribable, and also serves to guide us through the long, often tedious work of effecting lasting change. Affirmation is a gift that many of us have received time and time again, and one that we would do well to share with others. But we cannot genuinely affirm people without knowing them, and without putting ourselves in a position to need that affirmation from them as members of our community. In short, we can not serve people without meeting them AS people, and that can be pretty scary, especially when there is a certain amount of safety in viewing ourselves as somehow separate from those that have suffered most. But, of course, we are no different.

Good Friday, From Contemplation to Action

2011-04-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

Earlier in the week, Kris posted on her Good Friday experience. This is the reflection of Ana, a Maryknoll Affiliate, who was with Kris:

As long as I can remember I have spent some part of Good Friday (morning or afternoon) at church praying and meditating on the Passion of Jesus. This year that setting changed and the meditation and prayers took a more active form. Church became the gates of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. I went there with two affiliates from Maryknoll to support the annual Good Friday demonstration against water contamination and nuclear weapons. My intention when I decided to go was to join the services and to be one more participant. Instead I ended up with one of those spiritual/religious experiences that are part prayer, blessing and totally unexpected.

We arrived at the gathering site, which was approximately half of a mile from the gate. The majority of the demonstrators had already arrived. Shortly the program began with songs, prayers and reflections. Later small groups began processing towards the gate, stopping for Stations of the Cross along the way. When we arrived at the gate a group of military police were already lined in front of the gate in full riot gear – hard hats, shields, batons, etc. Demonstrators were milling about singing while a small group of musicians played guitars and drums. We all were invited to form two concentric circles for a dance and song to Mother Earth.

After the dance my friend Kris asked me if I wanted to join the line-up in front of the gate to face the military police, with the understanding that if we lined-up, more than likely we would be arrested. I wasn’t sure that that was necessarily what I wanted to do, but I went along anyway. As I stood there a deep sadness came over me at the realization of the destruction and pain caused by the use of nuclear weapons. Against my will tears streamed down my face, and at that point I knew this is where I needed to be. Again Kris asked me: “are you sure you want to do this”. My reply was: ‘yes I’m positive’. The curious thing at that moment was that my will was no longer a factor in the decision to stay. A force or grace beyond my will had taken over; and although I felt sad, vulnerable and helpless, I was not afraid of what was to come. As I write this, tears of sadness still come to my eyes.

Finally, our turn came to get arrested. We were led to an area inside the gates and each person was hand-cuffed. As my wrists were encircled by the manacles, I had this sense of not being me, but Jesus that was being arrested and hand-cuffed (Kris shared later that she also felt like Jesus). Once again I experienced that feeling of grace and lack of fear. I also understood that all of us there, in a very, very small way, were living through the suffering of Jesus. Also that Jesus dies and rises every moment of every day through our sufferings and joys.

Good Friday at Ground Zero for Nuclear Weapons

2011-04-25T21:26:00.001-07:00

I don't know if you remember my blog from the last Good Friday (it's okay if you don't) but I went to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory located in the city of Livermore, CA. It's a big facility that engages in all kinds of secretive nuclear weapon kinds of stuff with scary signs on the outer fence about being arrested for trespassing and all the federal codes one would be violating should one be bold enough to enter without permission. The scariest facts about the Lab are not on any sign: a plume of contaminated ground water inching its way ever closer to the source of drinking water for Livermore Valley. Endangered wildlife such as the red-legged frog living in toxicity (rumor has it some have 3 eyes). Trees so radioactive they have to be disposed of in the same manner as nuclear waste. Eight-five hundred employees exposed to this site on a daily basis. Weapons of mass destruction capable of destroying life on earth several times over. None of that on a sign anywhere!

Like last year's Good Friday, I resisted the temptation to sleep in and got up while it was barely light, dressed in the dark so as not to wake anyone, had a small breakfast of coffee and toast. This year I waited for my friend and Maryknoll Affiliate, Ana to knock on my front door. For a couple of days I had been debating whether or not I would actually cross the line at the Lab and risk arrest but told myself I wouldn't do it if Ana was on a tight schedule because I was going to be her ride out to Livermore. I heard a soft knock at the door and soon Ana and I were on the freeway heading east. We arrived at 6:45 and the musicians were still setting up. The now familiar crucifix fashioned out of flat boards was erected on the back of the white pickup truck just like last year. New were the large origami cranes folded in various stages of completion taped on the truck bed rail as a backdrop while the bed served as a stage. There was a lot of standing around trying to stay warm but at least this year was rain-free. Daniel Zwickel, Carla DeSola and Silvia Brandon Perez began with singing "For the Beauty of the Earth" and Kyrie Eleison (Ghana). Dr. Amer Araim made a Muslim call to prayer and Carla DeSola led us in liturgical dance. Speakers featured Marylia Kelley from TriValley CAREs with an update on legislation and funding for nuclear weapons R&D as well as Lab activities. Ana and I decided we had to speak out against the manufacturing of war machines and gave our names and addresses as a part of crossing the line at the gate. I made sure she could spare the extra time, asked if she was up to the experience and if she had her I.D., etc. to which Ana responded...'don't worry' giving me a calm smile. Signing in helps the promoters of the event notify any who have been arrested that some have received a court date and to assure that each person has access to pro-bono counsel. Once we signed our names, I felt a sense of resolve and courage...privileged to be able to join the ranks of those who have gone before me in taking a stand for my beliefs. After the speakers and a few more songs, we headed in groups to visit "the Stations."

Station One: In the Cross-Hairs of Torture/SOA Watch - http://soaw-w.org

Station Two: Refugees/Immigrant Issues - www.eastbaysantuary.org

Station Three: Occupation of Palestine - Berkeley Women in Black - wibberkeley@yahoo.com

Station Four: Border Issues/The wall - Pacific School of Religion Border Immersion - www.psr.edu

Station Five: Militarization of our Youth - American Friends Service Committee - www.afsc.org

Station Six: Nuclear Weapons - Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment - www.trivalleycares.org

Station Seven: Religious Freedom - Islamic Community Outreach of California - www.islamicoutreach.org

The liturgy ended with the Elm Dance in front of the Laboratory gates and the Alameda County Sheriff officers in full riot gear with Lab security personnel in camouflage combat uniforms. I wondered what was running through their minds as they stood in a row, looking ahead through their face shields and fidgeting with their billy clubs while we danced. Once the dance ended, people began to line up in rows facing the officers at the gate and several songs broke out...old songs many from the 60s including "We Shall Overcome." Ana and I were in the last row and sticking close together. Once the California penal code was read off and we were warned about being arrested, the officers plucked off the first row and took them onto the Lab property to be handcuffed. More songs, more arrests, and we moved up closer to replace those who had been taken away. It was a slow process leaving all with time to reflect while we waited our turn. Friends standing off to the side cheered everyone on, clapping as the next group was led off. People started new songs. Dr. Araim began another Muslim call to prayer. The call to prayer really is beautiful and as the sun broke through the clouds, shining warm on our faces, I reflected on Jesus in the garden, contemplating his own arrest and pending crucifixion. Would I have the kind of courage needed to give my life for my people? No, I wouldn't. But perhaps God would give that courage to me just when I needed it.

Throughout history, millions of people have stood before an authority figure and pondered their own imminent loss of life. From governments who open fire on a gathering of its own citizens, indiscriminately wiping out hundreds at a time to those who kill prisoners on death row to teach that killing people is wrong. Jesuits in El Salvador murdered by the military police and a priest murdered while celebrating Mass. Millions of Jews, Rwandans and Cambodians slaughtered in waves of genocide campaigns. Hundreds of thousands of innocents in Darfur, the Sudan, the Congo. Chinese students in Tienanmen Square speaking out against a repressive regime. And here we were, about to experience a pretty cushy arrest process. I was grateful to live in a country where I could be pretty certain I wouldn't be shot at the end.

Finally, Ana and I were among the last people in line...toe to toe with officers who by now were probably ready to go home. One particularly stern looking young man kept readjusting his grip on his billy club, fanning his fingers out as he did so and staring straight ahead. Is he worried about the 80 something year old nun to my right causing a problem or the lady with the walker, I thought to myself. Some people just get off on power I guess. The final reading of the California Code was read, the final threat of arrest was made, and we were all grabbed by one arm and led to the first arrest station: emptying our pockets into a plastic bag, being wanded with a metal detector and handcuffed. The officer who had led me by the arm must have thought I was a blood relative of Houdini so he put the cuffs on as tight as he could, behind my back. Ana was cuffed behind her back also while the others were cuffed in front. Did we look more threatening than the others? One veteran older lady told us we should have requested looser cuffs and to have them in front. But that's not why we went. That Friday, we were in solidarity with all those who are unjustly incarcerated. Sitting in the van with our hands uncomfortably behind our backs, Ana and I reflected on what we were doing and how we were feeling, and what it might have been like for Jesus.

After some struggling to get the woman with the walker into the van, we headed off to the next station on the Lab property: the cage. When the van pulled up to the cyclone fenced enclosures, the protesters already present looked like prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. These were permanently constructed pens and I could only wonder what purpose they served the other 364 days of the year. The upside of going into the pen was the handcuffs were removed. We stayed there very briefly before being led to a warehouse for booking. Name, rank, serial number...well actually, just CA Drivers License, state your place of birth, get a citation and an escort to the North gate. Walking back to the car, Ana and I felt that we had made the right choice for how to spend Good Friday and grateful for the opportunity to experience just a little taste of what millions of people go through everyday. Note: the Alameda County Sheriff Dept officers were very kind and polite as were the LLNL guards. I wish them well and hope they were given some food for thought.

"Peace Be With You"

2011-04-25T15:28:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, the Holy Spirit whispers in your ear, and sometimes it shakes you by the shoulders. When Father Tom Marti, MM, director of our Maryknoll Mission House, shared with me his copy of America: the National Catholic Weekly today, the day after Easter Sunday, I immediately zeroed in on the editorial, "Easter Peace." It offers this reflection and challenge: "The disciples' grief over Jesus' death, their dismay over Jesus' rejection by Israel's leaders, their shame over abandoning Jesus at the cross, their bewilderment over the empty tomb and Mary Magdalene's wild report - all those feelings came to an abrupt halt with the familiar salutation: Peace be with you." This, of course, is how Jesus greeted them when He appeared. And this is His Easter challenge to all of us, to live and breathe the Peace of Christ.

This message, for me, captures perfectly the issues that I have been struggling with following the Holy Triduum. On Good Friday, my apartment complex in Renton, WA, was swarming with police officers and members of the SWAT team. A neighbor had fired a weapon in a domestic dispute, and the police officers spent hours trying to get the man out. While this event was certainly out of the ordinary in my neighborhood, it points to a world still and always in need of Christ’s peace. It strikes me that so much of the pain and suffering even in our own neighborhoods goes either unseen or ignored. I also recognize that, while the scene of tank-like vehicles and officers carrying assault rifles on my own streets may have been atypical for me, it is not for many people. And the fact that I could stand in the presence these armed men and women, and, at the very least, feel that they posed no threat to me - that they were there to protect me - is a luxury that many in this world do not share.

Christ's message and challenge of peace calls us not only to create community with those we encounter every day, but also to work on behalf of those that we don't encounter - or encounter but choose not to engage. Last week, I was struck, as I often am, by the image of men standing on the corner next to Home Depot, looking for day labor. How far removed their lives seem from my own, and yet, they are my brothers. Like me, they worry about caring for their loved ones and living healthy, happy lives. But the struggles that they face in achieving this basic hope far outstrip my own.

Over the weekend, I watched the documentary, “Waiting for Superman,” about educational inequality in this country, highlighting many of the challenges that I have witnessed and experienced in educating children in low-income areas. And listening to the radio at my desk this morning, I heard a report that Seattle, the city in which I work, is one of the least racially diverse cities in the nation, with 66% of residents describing themselves as “Non-Hispanic Whites” on the US Census. Still, when I drive up and down Rainier Avenue through places like Renton and Hillman City, I see a level of diversity – and poverty – that many in this area do not often encounter. And, as Jack Jezreel, Executive Director of JustFaith Ministries, points out that it is extremely difficult to empathize with people that you do not see.

Thus, the need for peace – the need for Christ – persists, and in this Easter season we are renewed in our awareness of this call. Like the disciples gathered together after the death of Christ and His disappearance from the tomb, we may be dismayed and confused. But despite some troubling realities, we now celebrate the risen Christ, and the triumph of life over death. We are called to go out, join with our brothers and sisters, and build the Kingdom. This, too, was epitomized by an experience that I had this morning: a soon-to-be retired gentleman called the Maryknoll Mission House, requesting information on how to become a missioner. This act, and the many acts of those that commit their lives to giving as opposed to taking, stands as an infinitely powerful symbol of hope.

Feet washers: Kindergartners, HIV/AIDS patients and a woman with Down Syndrome on mission

2011-04-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

As we enter into the Triduum today with the re-telling of our most sacred stories, we begin with Jesus, who, knowing the end is near, decided to celebrate supper with his friends. Before dinner, he shocks them by washing their feet, a disgusting job left to the lowest servant.

Just imagine the condition of those feet. If you've traveled through poor countries, it's common to see folks walking barefoot or in simple sandals or flip flops through the muddy, garbage and sewage filled streets. ( The picture is of street kids in Cambodia learning about basic sanitation.)

In washing their feet, Jesus gives them the final lesson of what discipleship is all about: serving others. Soon after his death and resurrection, he will be on a hill top before he ascends back to the Trinity to give them their ultimate marching orders. He passes on the mission to them.

During Lent I had a couple of grace filled moments where I came to a deeper understanding of what it means to do God's mission.

The first was in talking to a Kindergarten teacher in Seattle. Without any hesitation she told me how her 5 and 6 year old students were missionaries. Through her gentle guidance these youngster understand that they have an important job to do in helping others experience God's love, whether through how they play together in the classroom or how they interact with their parents or siblings at home. Each day brings opportunities to share God's love. Reminds me of the poem about All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.

The second was in Jamaica on an immersion trip to visit the missions and projects of the local church there. One day we were at Hope Hospice, a place created to respond to the growing number of people with HIV/AIDS that had no one to care for them at the end of the their lives. Going in we expected to find folks who were sick and suffering and likely depressed and lonely. As we went from room to room we encountered some of the most hopeful and joyful people. It became clear that they were ministering to us. One woman who had both her legs amputated shared with me how she has a mission to bring God's love to everyone she encounters, whether it's her fellow patients, visitors or her care givers. She sang a song for us about passing on God's love. See the video.

The last was from a letter a friend send me after our parish mission. She has an adult daughter with Down's Syndrome and has had the difficult journey of watching her daughter's slow decline over the years. Way back around Thanksgiving, she was told that her daughter was near the end of her life. As much as she could, she prepared herself for her daughter's death, but she hasn't died yet. In trying to make sense of this, she talked with her son who said, "Mom, she has not completed her mission on earth! She is showing love to others, and the nurse and aides are learning from it."

Not the typical people you'd pick to carry on your mission: kindergartens, HIV/AIDS hospice patients and a woman with Down Syndrome. They are doing what Jesus said to do: washing the feet of others. What humbled me was to think that if God works through them, if they can be effective missionaries of his love, could I possibly have any excuse or obstacle that would prevent me from doing my part to carry on the mission. I say this not out of a sense of guilt but a deepening sense of trying become more aware of God's love in my life. And as I am more and more open to that, I am more and more immersed in God's love, and the more and more I realize it, I want to pass it on.

Go out and wash some feet!

Tommy Kobayashi: A Lifetime of Service

2011-04-20T12:21:00.000-07:00

An inspiring example for us all. Tommy Kobayashi was taught by Maryknoll sisters in Seattle and worked with Father Leopold Tibesar, MM, to serve the poor. Now 94, Tommy has been volunteering for over seven decades.

http://ncronline.org/news/people/japanese-americans-life-dedicated-serving-poor

"Hope is the Light" by James Sampson

2011-04-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

Shared by BestNet

“Hope is the Light”- By James Sampson- The song “Hope is the Light” was originally released on World Malaria Day, April 25, 2010 at a public health conference in Copenhagen. The song was written and produced in the HIP CAT Studios in Denmark by local musicians Michael Skouboe and Danny Otto with hit singer James Sampson (also known as the winner of a Danish version of “American Idol”) and South African rapper Edward V providing the vocals. The video to accompany the song was filmed in Uganda in June 2010 by film producer Johannes Berggreen from Datamus Films.

Maryknoll News from the Pacific Northwest

2011-04-08T23:30:00.000-07:00

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs091/1102122234591/archive/1103609161319.html

Berkeley woman goes to Bolivia as Lay Missioner

2011-04-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

Ann Kennedy of Berkeley, Calif., who was attracted to the Maryknoll Lay Missioners (MKLM) because of the organization's recognition of Christ in diverse cultures, looks forward to encountering Christ in Bolivia. "I shall be blessed to share core Gospel values with those with whom I work," she says. Kennedy brings to her mission 30 years' experience teaching English, English as a second language and introductory Spanish in California and New Mexico plus a host of teaching and learning experiences in China, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and India. In Bolivia she plans to be involved in education and to assist in prison and hospital ministries. "I hope my work will result in others' knowing the joy of expressing their full potential," she says.

Still time this Lent for Spiritual Reading

2011-04-04T16:14:00.000-07:00

As we journey through the final weeks of Lent, there's still time for spiritual reading.

We'd suggest of course any number of our Obris book, which can be found here at the Maryknoll Mall.

And, here's a great article on 10 tips on how to read spiritual books.

Singing at Glendevon, Montego Bay, Jamaica

2011-03-31T15:36:00.000-07:00

Signs of Hope

2011-03-30T22:24:00.000-07:00

God is Good, All the Time

2011-03-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

(Below is a talk on faith given to students at Assumption-St. Bridget School in Seattle, WA)

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I used to teach in Birmingham, AL. Who knows where Alabama is? Who has been to Alabama? In Alabama, and in other places around the South, there is a popular saying: "God is good, all the time." If you are a Christian in Alabama, and I said to you, "God is good," you would probably respond back, "All the time." And if I were to say to you, "All the time," you would probably know to say, "God is good."

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Now, this is a nice thing to say, but a very hard thing to feel and believe sometimes. "Really? God is good ALL the time?" How can God be good all the time if my life doesn't seem good all the time? How can God be good all the time if bad things happen to me? Raise your hand if something bad has ever happened to you? I know that I have. I have had people lie about me, gossip about me, try to hurt me. Raise your hand if anyone has ever done these things to you. Now keep them up if you have ever done any of these things to other people. I've done these things. I've treated people poorly, and I have had people treat me poorly. Life is hard. We get hurt by people, we lose people that we love. I know this, I have lost a parent, grandparents. So how I can I stand here and still tell you that God is good all time?

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Well, I was thinking about it, and there are two kinds of bad things that happen to us. Think about this first type - teasing, gossiping, lying. Did God do those things to us? Did God tease me? No. Who did? Us! People, we do these things to each other. Most of the bad things that happen to us are these things that we do to one another, that we do to ourselves. When I was your age, I had a lot of people that I thought were my friends, but they did not treat me very well. And if you surround yourself with people that do not show you respect, that do not show you love, then it can be hard to feel like the world is a very good place. But when I started to realize that there were people that would value me, that would show me love, I started to realize, "Wow, there is a lot of love in the world."

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And that's what God gives us. God gives us that love to show to one another, that's how we face all of the people that don't treat us very well. That's how we know that God loves us, and that God is good. It's hard to tell someone that "God loves you, but I'm going to treat you like you don't matter." And if you feel that love, you want to give it to other people.

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But not every bad thing that happens is done to us by other people. Sometimes, things just happen. About a year ago, I got extremely sick. I couldn't get out of bed, I was dizzy all the time, I would get terrible headaches, and I couldn't work. I am fine now - it turns out that I have severe allergies -but, at the time, it was really scary. The doctors could not figure out what was wrong, and I wasn't in control of what was happening to me. At time's like that, you wonder, "Why is this happening to me?" It's hard to feel like God is with you.

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But what got me through was love. I have a wife who loves me very much, and a family that loves me, and that helped me feel like I was not alone. And my love for them, my need to care for the people that love me, this motivates me to keep going. And where does all of this love come from? It comes from God. God gives it to us, not because we deserve it - we don't "deserve it," especially when we treat each other poorly - but because God loves us, and wants us to show that love to one another.

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And that's how I can stand here and tell you that, "God is good, ALL the time."

News from Maryknoll Fr. Richard Czajkowski on Japan after the earthquake

2011-03-20T14:41:00.000-07:00

I thank you so very much for your kind and love-filled e-mail! Time is short now.....so this will be just a short note. Surely the super giant earthquake and tidal waves have been truly unbelievable - so many many deaths, missing persons (at least 16,000 plus), destruction of lands, houses, families, businesses, roads, etc.

I survived with "a colorful face" - as the family I reside with and I were fleeing to a higher level of land, along the way, we had to walk rapidly for about 4 or 5 miles; when crossing a street I fell down, banging the right side of my head and face on the ground - resulting in a big black/blue right eye, a partial black/blue left eye and a slight bruise on my face, besides the bump on the forehead. No pain and no damage to my eyesight. Two doctors have said that "the black/blue" will go away naturally. So, praise God, nothing to worry about.

We are concerned about more strong earthquakes - with our necessary belongings at the front door of the apartment here, just in case we have to leave here very quickly. And, of course, our hearts are lifted up in prayers and thoughts for all the victims and their families. I live about 250 miles away from the center of the earthquake. Yet we all have some fears about radiation coming upon us - because of the explosions of the nuclear electric plant.

God will protect us, for sure!

Please continue to pray for the Japanese people and all of us here! Many thanks! God's many blessings be YOURS! With thanks & prayers,

Fr. Richard Czajkowski

Report from Japan from Maryknoller Missioner Fr. Jim Mylet, MM

2011-03-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

I am Father Jim Mylet, A Maryknoller, ordained in 1975. I was born and raised in St. Margaret's Parish on Queen Anne Hill attending St. Margaret's Grade School and graduating from O`Dea High School. I first came to Japan as a seminarian in 1970. I work in the northern island of Hokkaido where we presently have a couple of feet of snow around the rectory. I am pastor of two Japanese parishes and diocesan coordinator for migrant ministry.　Our Diocese (Sapporo) consists of all the island of Hokkaido、population of about 5,8 million people (roughly equivalent to the population of Washington I believe) with about 17,300 Japanese Catholics and about 2,100 foreign Catholics.

All the parishioners here and I are physically okay. but depressed by the overwhelming devastatiopn dealt to our nation. There really are no accurate figures on the deceased and missing since whole towns were swept out to sea. The estimates are that the death toll will be well over 10,000, but nobody really knows since lines of communication are down and the roads are blocked and power cut off to so many people. Sizable aftershocks are still taking place. Because the nuclear plant was affected (Fukushima) which is about 150 miles north of Tokyo, and there is a seeming melt down taking place there, people are deeply troubled . This sensitivity is heightened by the experiences of the atomic disease from Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the recent memory of the catastrophe at Chernobyl. It is not only this nuclear reactor which is not functioning, but there was previously a problem with another one. So there is a serious power shortage hitting the Tokyo metropolitan area where much of Japan's population is concentrated. There are rolling blackouts in Tokyo due to the power shortage , which is affecting the trains, subways etc. With this being on the news all the time , it is kind of like when President Kennedy was assassinated, it has had a very depressing and numbing effect on the nation's psyche. It is at times like this that people really pull together and help one another out. There are all kinds of stories like this on TV. The subways and trains were stopped, and people were taking other people into their homes, although many were also just sleeping in the stations.

After the earthquake in Awaji and Hanshin (Osaka) area approximately 17 years ago, people really pulled together and rebuilt the area. This earthquake and tidal wave were much stronger though and the devastaation is overwhelming. Japan right now was just starting to recover economically, with many of the young people being unemployed or underemployed, and the recent college graduates finding few job opportunities. People really want to work together to rebuild, but with so much of the infrastructure being wiped out the task is formidable.

The two main diocese affected are Saitama and Sendai. Where the earthquake hit, Sendai, is a diocese with probably around 13,000 Catholics. One priest a 77 year old Quebec Foreign Missioner died of a heart attack at the time of the quake. One priest is also missing. Because the Church tends to build on hills everywhere only two places were affected by the tsunami, although there was damage from the earthquake. With the phones still being out in so many places and the power lines being down、it will be a while before an accurate p;icture can be drawn up. The other diocese, Saitama, is unique in that approximately 82% of the Catholics there are foreigners (many from Brazil and Peru of Japanese ancestry). In many of the cities around Japan there were simulation drills in case a disaster struck, also trying to involve the foreigners, although this met with limited success. No word is out yet about the foreign population.

The diocese of Sendai being rural has an aging population, The struggle to get the people their medicine , an adequate supply of water, food, and blankets are the immediate needs; with providing housing coming up in the next phase. Many people are sleeping and staying on the floors in gymnasiums or public halls..

Right now Japan is like Israel when they came back from the Exile and found the Temple destroyed and their homes occupied, homeless-( In the case of Japan homes destroyed) It is a time when people lose heart, and the Church is trying to be a beacon of hope in these difficult circumstances.

Keep us in your prayers and thoughts.

God's peace,

Fr. Jim Mylet M,M,

Maryknoll Sister Recognized

2011-03-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

Sr. Jean Fallon, MM, was recently recognized as a distinguished alumna of Holy Names Academy in Seattle. Read more about Sr. Jean below, as well as her words of acceptance of this honor.

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"As a Maryknoll sister, [Sister Jean] studied Japanese at the Yale University Institute of Foreign Languages. For 23 years she found something worth living for in her parish ministry in the Kyoto diocese. She was energized by her participation in the World Awareness Group that fostered a better understanding of global situations. She was enthused by her work with the Nuclear Issues Committee. She continued to move ahead with her passion for justice when she returned to the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns and through her involvement with the United Nations...Since 2005 to 2011, Sister Jean has travelled to Palestine several times and lived with the Christian Peacemaker Team in learning to understand what has happened to the Palestinian children in the occupied Palestinian Territory. She has spoken out on behalf of teens who have been arrested and separated from their families. Along with others she has worked to make it safe for Palestinian women and children to get to school or to the market."

- Sister Mary Annette Dworshak, SNJM

Read Sr. Dworshak's entire introduction

Read Sr. Jean's words of acceptance

Sr. Jean Fallon with Fr. Thomas J. Marti
at the Maryknoll Mission House in Seattle

Maryknollers in Japan ok. Ways to help through Maryknoll

2011-03-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

A MASSIVE 8.9 EARTHQUAKE struck Japan Friday March 11, 2011 followed by a tsunami that washed away homes, property and thousands of people. More than 50 countries that surround the Pacific Rim have also been affected.

We have received word that all our Maryknoll missioners are fine, although the teams in Sapporo and Tokyo reported feeling the effects of the earthquake and the continuing aftershocks.

Maryknoll has had a mission presence in Japan since 1933. Currently Maryknoll Fathers Regis Ging, William Grimm, Roberto Rodriguez, Alfonso Kim and John Brinkman are stationed in the Tokyo Archdiocese. Fathers James Jackson, Bryce Nishimura, Joseph Hamel and Robert Nehrig are assigned to the Kyoto Diocese. Fathers James Mylet, Francis Riha, Joseph Hermes and Kenneth Sleyman work in the Sapporo Diocese.

Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers will be assessing the devastation in its totality, to determine where the Society can best provide help as the situation develops. Because of the cascading effects of a tsunami, it is possible that other countries in which we are stationed will also be affected by these acts of nature. Please join the people of Japan, and all the Pacific Rim, in prayer.

We have been receiving inquiries regarding contributions for the victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The Maryknoll Society is accepting contributions and gifts for this tragedy. If you make an online donation, please write "relief efforts in Japan" in the Your Intentions section of the online form.

Holy Names Peace and Justice Day 2011

2011-03-10T14:59:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, March 10th, Holy Names Academy held it's annual "Peace and Justice Day" on campus. For those of you that don't know, Holy Names Academy (HNA) is an all-girls high school in Seattle that was founded in 1880. A few Maryknoll sisters are graduates of HNA, including Sr. Jean Fallon, MM, who did mission work in Japan and was recently honored as a distinguished alumna of the school. Fr. Thomas J. Marti, MM, the director of our Maryknoll Mission House in Seattle, was invited to speak, and I had the honor of accompanying him.

The entire vibe of this day, not to mention the school itself, was inspiring from the get-go. As Tom and I wandered the halls in search of the sign-in desk, a student quickly noticed our confusion and offered to help. As we walked to the desk, many students greeted us with smiles and "hellos," and I was surprised at how welcoming the students at the school were. The student assigned to lead us around, a junior by the name of Angela, definitely went above and beyond the call of duty in offering to help in whatever way possible, and we could sense her genuine interest in making us feel welcome.

We were led into the assembly hall, where we heard a presentation by students and alumni on a building project in Lesotho with Holy Names High School there. The three students spoke very eloquently about what they had learned from the people on this trip, and how working with and within another culture enriched their own lives. The degree to which HNA students are passionate about service and mission was truly moving - and the event that we were attending was a testament to the education that instills this passion.

Peace and Justice Day includes sessions hosted by guest speakers, which students sign up to attend. Tom was there to talk about "People Power" in the Philippines, a country in which he served as a missioner for sixteen years. The man that sat next to me during the assembly, Gary Teale, is the former principal of St. Anthony's School in Renton, WA (coincidentally, my parish), who left to live in Guatemala, where he teaches and works to develop the school system there.

One of the continuing inspirations of this work, for me, is meeting people like Gary, who live out mission in such incredible ways. He was not the only person that I met that had started a small non-profit to work with people in foreign nations. It is amazing to see what people are doing in the world, and at all ages, as well (Tom spoke to the students about a Maryknoll sister who earned her medical degree in her 50's and now provides medical care in the Philippines). This spirit of mission is continued in the students - from the immersion and service experiences in which they participate, to their genuine kindness to all of us as guests. It was just one of many inspiring days for me as a mission educator, in which I learned much more than I taught. Thank you so much to the students and staff of Holy Names Academy for your welcoming and mission-minded spirit!

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(On a side note, it was great to run into about ten or eleven former students, most of whom came up to ME to say hello!)

Mission Education Ideas and Tips from Veteran Missioner Br. John Blazo

2011-03-09T17:51:00.000-08:00

Check out these great ideas and tips from veteran mission educator and Maryknoll brother, John Blazo, in Catechist Magazine:

Teaching beyond Borders

by John Blazo, M.M.

CATECHIST Magazine - Article Archive

My Problem with Lent

2011-03-05T15:23:00.000-08:00

I had breakfast today with my good friend who is a Church historian and he was telling about the Lenten regulations from the early 1900’s about when to fast, abstain, eat, etc. This weekend, I had been thinking about what I planned to do this Lent. While I certainly appreciate the freedom that we have to tailor our Lenten renewal and not have to follow a strict regiment, I began to think more about the whole Lenten experience and how it fits in with big picture, and particularly how it connects with mission.

I find myself sometimes thinking of Lent as primarily a personal renewal program. There is certainly some need for that and ongoing personal conversion and renewal are essential and important. But I think that there is a problem if that is all there is. Personal conversion and growth are only one part of the Gospel. It’s never solely about our own relationship with God. I’m reminded of that in the parable of the final judgment in Matthew 25 involving the sheep and goats. None of the criteria of salvation were individual. Rather they specifically had to do with relationship with others, particularly the most vulnerable in society, such as feeding the hungry, visiting the prisoners, etc. The sheep find salvation because of their relationship with others.

At our Mission Education Training Program last weekend, we had great reflections on how we are baptized into the mission of Jesus. In other words, with baptism comes a job description to carry on the mission.

Thinking of Lent in the context of mission helps me shift the focus from inward to outward. On Ash Wednesday we will hear again from the Gospel about the three time tested disciplines for spiritual renewal: fasting, giving alms and prayer. I thought it might be good to reflect on them in light of criteria of the parable of the final judgment and how we are called to carry on Jesus’ mission.

Fasting: How can fasting connect us with others? One thing that comes to mind is that my attachment to all the things in my life may be distracting me from connecting with others. I can’t help but wonder if I am so comfortable that I am blinded to reality of the majority of the world that lives on less than $2 a day. Would intentionally making myself feel hunger through fasting help me to better appreciate their suffering and grow in solidarity with them? Would physical hunger help me realize my spiritual hunger and my dependence on God’s love? That would certainly be a different focus for me than fasting because I need to lose some weight.
Almsgiving: I have some of the same questions about almsgiving as I do with fasting regarding my attachment to my possessions that seem to impact my ability to share well with others. But I am also wondering whether I need to look closer at how grateful I truly feel because I think that the sharing that Jesus talks about is not out of a sense of guilt or a feeling that I should do this, or even that this is how I earn salvation. Rather, the Gospel seems to speak of giving that is a more compassionate and joyful, even spontaneous, response arising from deep gratitude that comes from being aware that we are loved by God. After all, the sheep in the parable didn’t even know it was the Lord that they were feeding and visiting. The paradox of love is that it needs to be given away or it dies. Am I sharing the love I’ve experienced with those who really need some love in their lives? I don’t think giving some coins or a few dollar bills to a beggar on the street, who I don’t even make eye contact with, will do it.
Prayer: At our Program last week we also reflected on prayer as an essential path of mission. If it’s truly God’s mission and not our mission, our only hope to stay on track is to stay in constant communication with God, through prayer. This is I know from almost 25 years of marriage: communication doesn’t happen if only one side is doing all the talking. So for me, the challenge is to do more listening, which in prayer means being quiet in contemplation and listening to what God is saying in the silence. My fear of listening to God is that he may tell me that he needs my help showing his love to others, especially people I may not like or feel comfortable being around.

So my hope for this Lent is that I don’t make it all about me and that my Lenten practices will really be more about moving outward from myself. If I can do that as we journey through Lent to the Easter Season, I will grow more in my baptismal call to participate in the mission of Jesus, not just for myself, but for the sake of others. And, that may be my only hope in being less like a goat and more like a sheep.

Reflections on My Volunteeering in Oaxaca Mexico

2011-02-27T16:48:00.000-08:00

Below is a message from Pat Bader, a Maryknoll Affiliate from Seattle

Hi Family and Friends,

My two-week volunteering trip this month centered on the Oaxaca Ecology Project ranch in the hills above the city of Oaxaca that former Maryknoll Lay Missioners Pat and Mary Denevan started a few years ago. The city of Oaxaca lies in the central mountain range of the country about 300 miles south of Mexico City.

The 5-acre ecology project "combines principles of Permaculture, modern technology and the wisdom of indigenous cultures of Mexico to promote efficient uses of natural resources and organic, sustainable agriculture" (from the Ecology Project mission statement) and includes over 30 fruit trees watered by a drip system, solar cells to generate electricity, solar water heating system, thermally efficient adobe home, rain collection ditches and roof collection system, composting system, ecological dry toilet system, biointensive gardens, and raising small farm animals such as chickens, turkeys and rabbits. A center for women's integral health is also a part of the project.

The state of Oaxaca comprises about 3.5% of the country’s population but generates only 1.5% of the GNP which makes it the second poorest state (the state of Chiapas to the east being the poorest). With at least 17 indigenous groups in the state and numerous languages, Oaxaca is one of the most culturally diverse states in Mexico. Maryknoll is one of a number of religious and social justice organizations ministering to the poor of Oaxaca.

The Denevans arranged for me to stay with friends of theirs living in a village of about 5000 inhabitants a few miles from the ranch. Liz and Carlos and their two adult sons living with them welcomed me to their home as if I were a family member. Their third adult child and her two preschoolers visit the family home a few afternoons a week. Her kids affectionately called Pat Denevan and me "los dos Patricios."

Liz and Carlos volunteer in some of the poor villages near Oaxaca City teaching on social justice issues to adults and teens and advocating with them. I was blessed to be staying with this couple who were also ministering to the poor.

As their guests, I attended family gatherings, neighborhood fiestas, and anniversary celebrations as well as visiting markets and small villages where Liz and Carlos volunteer. Extended families seem to be more important than acquiring possessions and wealth for most villagers. Their social life is centered on family gatherings and celebrations.

Carlos and I helped Pat refurbish a storage shed at the ranch installing three windows, two barn doors and siding. However, the most important part of the volunteer trip was not how much we accomplished but rather how we became friends in the process.

All in all, working on the Ecology Project ranch and especially living with such a caring Mexican family made this trip among the most rewarding of the 10 volunteer trips I’ve taken to Latin America. The attached photos give you a sense of our work and activities in the Oaxaca area.

Peace,

Pat

Forgiveness: Heart of the Matter for Mission

2011-02-15T12:17:00.000-08:00

Don Henely’s song “The Heart of the Matter” talks about forgiveness, even if you don’t love me anymore.   We used that song as a mediation at our liturgy during our Forgiveness Retreat this weekend.   As it played in the chapel, the fifteen of us on the retreat together hung homemade peace cranes on a bare branch.   The visual image as the branch came alive with the color of the birds was stunning.   Perhaps what made it so impressive to us was the hard work and frustration that went into making the cranes.   While I thought I was quite skilled at making paper airplanes and those little triangular “footballs” we used in school, the cranes were surprisingly difficult.

In many ways the cranes symbolized for us the process of forgiveness that we focused on during the retreat. We watched the film, Power of Forgiveness, which stimulated good discussion on what forgiveness is about and what happens when we fail to forgive.    Did you know that forgiving people have lower blood pressure?

Using guided meditation we examined our hearts to see if we were harboring anger, resentment and bitterness from past hurts that we needed to let go of.   Recognizing that forgiveness is a decision that we can make to begin the healing process without the acknowledgement or apology of the person who hurt us, we each worked on forgiving one person.   Again, not as easy as some of us thought it would be. Like making the cranes.

The series of folds were more complicated than you’d think. The paper didn’t always cooperate and bend and fold as we wanted. For some the process had to be aborted and started over.   A few couldn’t do it at all.   It required patience and gentleness. I learned the hard way if you force it, it tears.   But the transformation of a square of paper into a crane is amazing.

The crane captured for many of us the transformation that happens when a hurt and resulting anger and bitterness are transformed by forgiveness.   The walls of defense come down and the light of love floods in again.   The choking weeds of hate and resentment wither and disappear. In their place the flowers of relationship with God and others begin to sprout and bloom.

For us as followers of Jesus, this might not even seem possible except for his example. He preached forgiveness, he told stories about forgiveness (like the story of the Prodigal son) and he literally lived and died forgiveness.   But it didn’t end there because he passed on his mission of forgiveness to his disciples.

As we concluded our time together on retreat, we not only gave thanks for the gift that is forgiveness, but we recommitted ourselves as his followers to carry on the mission of Jesus by being agents of forgiveness.   Again, the paper cranes reminded us of the broader dimensions of forgiveness.   The paper cranes came to worldwide attention through Sadako Sasaki, who was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on her home in Hiroshima.   She developed leukemia from the radiation and as she made the cranes in the hospital before she died at the age of 12 she became a global symbol of forgiveness, healing and peace.

We realized that forgiveness starts within us and then moves out to our closest, most intimate relationships and then continues to ripple out to our co-workers, neighbors and even to strangers who cut us off on the freeway.   In fact, the circles of forgiveness expand even further to systems of politics, economics and international relationships.

In a world so fractured by conflict, hurt and anger, perhaps the heart of the matter in our efforts to carry on the mission is forgiveness.   Stay tuned for our next retreat opportunity.

Leading By Example

2011-02-13T14:29:00.000-08:00

I was walking on a Friday night in a busy stretch of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, and ended up waiting at a crosswalk next to a man with two very young children. As we waited, a number of other pedestrians decided to cross the street without waiting for the signal to change. Seeing this, one of the man’s children asked his father, “Why don’t we just cross?” The man replied that they needed to wait for the light to change. The boy countered, “Then why are those people crossing?” The father struggled to offer an explanation. As he did so, another pedestrian crossed towards us, smiling sheepishly and apologizing as he noticed the conversation. The man explained to his son that kids always need to wait for the signal, but sometimes adults can cross if they look both ways and know that there aren’t any cars. The boy wasn’t swayed. When we finally did cross, we again found ourselves waiting at yet another crosswalk. The boy huffed, “Oh, let’s just cross!”

That boy learned more from watching the behavior of adults than from his dad’s explanation of the “rules.” This incident caused me to reflect on the fact that we are always, intentionally or not, role models to others, especially children. This is a powerful realization for the way in which we live our lives. We may talk often about compassion, concern for people in need, and truly joining together with all people as human beings, but people do not follow words. Words merely explain our actions, which stand as true examples that we set for others to follow. As James Baldwin once wrote, “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”

With that in mind, I would like to thank Mike Kocharhook and Lindsay Leeder for sharing their mission experience with the Maryknoll Affiliates in Seattle this past Saturday. Mike and Lindsay are a husband and wife – him a contractor and her a nurse practitioner – who recently completed mission work in Kenya, helping to repair and run a medical clinic and a school. It was especially inspiring to hear them tell of the ways that they worked with the local people to develop sustainable building and medical practices, so that the people with whom they were working could continue providing these services to their community long after Mike and Lindsay had left.

Mike and Lindsay are just some of the many examples of people leading by doing in mission. We appreciate them sharing their experience with us, so that we may be inspired and renewed in our own call to service. Theirs is an example that we would all be blessed to imitate.

Missioners in Bolivia

2011-02-07T10:22:00.000-08:00

Below is a letter and slideshow of pictures from Karen and Jim Halberg, Maryknoll Lay Missioners in Bolivia.

Click here for the slideshow: https://picasaweb.google.com/halbergweaver/February2011Newsletter?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ2b44X3yoDudg&feat=email#slideshow/5566589716740423010

Summer greetings from Cochabamba, Bolivia!
For some great pictures of our family and life in mission, we invite you to our web page. Just click on “Play slide show” above.
The Bolivian school year began this week, on February 1. Dan is starting 5th grade and Emma 2nd in a Fe y Alegria elementary school down the street from our home. The Fe y Alegria schools were started by the Jesuits and have a good reputation. Dan and Emma enjoyed their seven months of double summer vacation, but are now eager to make new friends at school.
I began work on February 1 as well. I have joined a newly-formed team that will provide spiritual accompaniment to the students at the Fe y Alegria high school that is part of our parish. As a former high school teacher, I am surprised by the grace of returning to that setting after nearly twenty years. Our team will lead a retreat with each grade level over the course of the school year (which ends in November). We will also provide a “listening ministry” to the youth as a way to foster their spiritual and emotional well-being.
Jim and I have joined a diverse team in the very large parish (80,000 families) of Santa Vera Cruz. The pastor is a young Bolivian Jesuit of Quechuan descent with an assistant pastor who is from Spain and in his 80's. Three Maryknoll Priests also form part of the team, along with a Maryknoll Sister. Seven other congregations of Sisters work in the parish, from an international community of Mother Teresa's Sisters, to Sisters from Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Peru, Poland, the U.S. and Bolivia.
The majority of the parish is migrant families from rural Quechua and Aymara villages who have left the farm to make a life in the city. Jim is hoping to build on his experience working with Aymara farmers in Peru to encourage people here to stay connected to the land and their faith while adapting to this more urban environment. Jim has also been asked to be part of the team working to make the technical classes offered at the high school productive, giving students skills needed in the marketplace.
We have enjoyed sharing a home with Maryknoll Father Paul Sykora who welcomed us upon our arrival. His workshop is a great attraction, particularly to Daniel and Jacob. They have crafted airplanes, building blocks, stilts, kites and other toys. Emma most enjoys the swings that Paul built out of recycled tires. Paul works with a team promoting composting, worm production and organic gardening in the always abundant recycled tires.
Over Christmas we took the opportunity to travel over to the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca where Jim and I worked from early 1995 through mid-2000. It was a very special visit. We spent Christmas with former Maryknoll colleagues in Puno, and traveled the bus lines to connect with many friends from the area. We loved meeting the newborn daughter of our goddaughter, staying the night in the same adobe home where we had lived in a rural community, and recharging our energy with the beauty of the lake and its environs. It rained hard nearly every day of our visit, so everything was green and cool, a relief after the heat we had been experiencing in Cochabamba.
The best thing about our trip was returning to Cochabamba with a renewed love and commitment for our life here. We are grateful for the gifts we receive and the gifts we offer as a family together in mission, and we are hopeful for the unknown graces that wait to be lived here.
Thank you for your support and love. We wish you hope and joy in this new year!
Karen, Jim, Dan, Emma and Jacob (Panchito)

Christianity is not a spectator sport: Called to be salt and light

2011-02-06T14:22:00.000-08:00

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Mt 5-13-16)
Homily by Deacon Matt Dulka, Our Lady of Grace, Castro Valley, 2/6/2011

I was born in Wisconsin, so I’m a cheesehead by birth. So as you might guess, this Superbowl Sunday is a big day for me and my family. The Superbowl is one of the largest spectator sports events around. I don’t know how many people will be gathered around TV sets watching the the game today.

By contrast, in the Gospel today, Jesus couldn't make it much clearer. Being a Christian is not a spectator’s sport. You can’t be a Christian and sit by on the sidelines and watch life go by. Jesus expects his followers to do what he did. Wherever life has lost its flavor or meaning, we are called to get in there and be salt. Wherever there is darkness, we are called to be light.

But how can we be salt? How are we to be light? And what happens when we do?

The first reading from Isaiah is helpful. He speaks very concretely about what it means to be light and what happens when we do. Let’s take a look again at what he said.

First he tells us how to be a light:

share your bread with the hungry,
shelter the oppressed and the homeless,
clothe the naked when you see them,
do not turn your back on your own,
remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech,
and again, bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted.

Very specific, real life ways to be light. And, when we do that, what happens? Isaiah tells us that:

our light shall break forth like the dawn,
our wounds shall quickly be healed,
we will be vindicated, meaning that our life’s will be justified, have meaning,
that we will be able to call on God, and he will be present, and
all the darkness and gloom in our lives will be gone, replaced by light

So there you have it. Do you want joy in your life? Do you want your life to have meaning and purpose? Do you want to be healed from past hurts?

All you have to do is be light or salt in the lives of others, especially the poor, the hungry, the afflicted and those who are lost in darkness or have given up hope. The way to experience God’s love is to give it away.

It almost sounds too easy to be true. But we know it happens. We’ve seen it on our lives. These readings invite us to ponder how we are light and salt to others and how they are to us. I’d like to share a personal story with you of how I experienced this.

After college in the Midwest, I joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps to do a year of service. I wish I could say that my motivation was purely altruistic. Although I think I did have some desire to try to make the world a better place, to be honest, the winters in Minnesota are cold. It was a good way to get to California.

I was assigned to live in a community with other volunteers in West Oakland and was assigned to do detention ministry at the Alameda County Juvenile Hall, which is just over the hill from us. Coming from rural, northern Minnesota, it was an amazing, eye opening experience from me of living and working with some of the poorest people in our community.

My work at the Juvenile Hall was basically to visit the kids who were locked up there. There wasn’t much I could other than to listen to their stories, their fears and hopes and occasionally prayer with them. Although it was a great education for me and really enjoyed it, I wondered whether what I was doing was really having any impact. Being young and impatient, I left that ministry after a few years . Eventually I ended up getting married and then thinking that I needed to get what parents called “a real job.” So I went to law school and got a job with a law firm in the City.

Over time, I mostly forgot about my experiences at the Juvenile Hall. Then one day, several years later, I was with a client. We had been at his deposition at another law firm in the financial district and were walking back to my office. I’m not sure how it works now, but then, documents and legal papers that had to be hand delivered where done by bike messengers. They were mostly guys with lots of tattoos and piercing who were fearless in maneuvering their bikes in and out of traffic.

As we were walking back, a bike messenger jumped his bike up on the side walk and started heading straight towards up. Both the client and I stopped mid-sentence, wondering if we’re about to be hit or mugged. He skidded to a stop just in from of us.

He said to me, “I thought I recognized you down the street and had to come back. It’s me David. I used to be in the Juvenile Hall. Remember, you used to come and hang out with me when I was there.” It took me a moment but I started to recognize him. He said he just wanted to come over and let me know that he was doing great. That he had a job and an apartment and even a girl friend. That life was good. And then he was gone.

Later that evening, when I was in my office alone and thinking about the strange encounter on the street, it dawned on me. A light went off. I was flooded with memories of my time doing detention ministry. Although I was doing quite well as a lawyer, I had been wondering if that was what I should be doing with my life. And as I continued to think about my encounter with David, I realized how much more joy I felt doing that work than what I was practicing law. That led to a period of discernment that would eventually lead me away from the law firm to work for Maryknoll and to become a deacon.

Although I didn’t appreciate it at the time, in some way I had been a light to David when he was in the Juvenile Hall. Many years later, by his taking the time to stop and talk, he became a light to me. He helped me realize what’s important and helped me find figure out how to better become the person God intended me to be.

I think that’s what Jesus and Isaiah are talking about. Going out there and being a light to others and in turn they become lights to us. We give what little we have and in return we are blessed with more than we realized possible.

I wanted to share my story with you because each of us has our own stories of how we have been light to others and how they have been light to us. I encourage you to spend time this week remembering your stories. And in remembering your stories to think about the stories that have yet to be written, the places and situations where we are needed to bring light and how in doing that others will bring light to us. And how when that happens, we illuminate the world and move closer into the ultimate light that is the Kingdom of God.

Celebrating Catholic School's Week Part II

2011-02-04T18:38:00.000-08:00

To end Catholic Schools Week on a lighter note, we pass these on. Who knows whether they are true, urban legend or just made up...
__________________________________________________________________________________________
PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE WORDING AND SPELLING. IF YOU KNOW THE BIBLE EVEN A LITTLE, YOU'LL FIND THIS HILARIOUS! IT COMES FROM A CATHOLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEST.

KIDS WERE ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS ABOUT THE BIBLE WERE WRITTEN BY CHILDREN. THEY HAVE NOT BEEN RETOUCHED OR CORRECTED. INCORRECT SPELLING HAS BEEN LEFT IN.

1. IN THE FIRST BOOK OF THE BIBLE, GUINESSIS. GOD GOT TIRED OF CREATING THE WORLD SO HE TOOK THE SABBATH OFF.

2. ADAM AND EVE WERE CREATED FROM AN APPLE TREE . NOAH'S WIFE WAS JOAN OF ARK. NOAH BUILT AND ARK AND THE ANIMALS CAME ON IN PEARS.

3. LOTS WIFE WAS A PILLAR OF SALT DURING THE DAY, BUT A BALL OF FIRE DURING THE NIGHT.

4. THE JEWS WERE A PROUD PEOPLE AND THROUGHOUT HISTORY THEY HAD TROUBLE WITH UNSYMPATHETIC GENITALS.

5. SAMPSON WAS A STRONGMAN WHO LET HIMSELF BE LED ASTRAY BY A JEZEBEL LIKE DELILAH.

6. SAMSON SLAYED THE PHILISTINES WITH THE AXE OF THE APOSTLES.

7. MOSES LED THE JEWS TO THE RED SEA WHERE THEY MADE UNLEAVENED BREAD WHICH IS BREAD WITHOUT ANY INGREDIENTS .

8. THE EGYPTIANS WERE ALL DROWNED IN THE DESSERT. AFTERWARDS, MOSES WENT UP TO MOUNT CYANIDE TO GET THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

9. THE FIRST COMMANDMENTS WAS WHEN EVE TOLD ADAM TO EAT THE APPLE.
10. THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT IS THOU SHALT NOT ADMIT ADULTERY.

11. MOSES DIED BEFORE HE EVER REACHED CANADA THEN JOSHUA LED THE HEBREWS IN THE BATTLE OF GERITOL.

12. THE GREATEST MIRICLE IN THE BIBLE IS WHEN JOSHUA TOLD HIS SON TO STAND STILL AND HE OBEYED HIM.

13. DAVID WAS A HEBREW KING WHO WAS SKILLED AT PLAYING THE LIAR. HE FOUGHT THE FINKELSTEINS, A RACE OF PEOPLE WHO LIVED IN BIBLICAL TIMES.

14. SOLOMON, ONE OF DAVIDS SONS, HAD 300 WIVES AND 700 PORCUPINES.

15. WHEN MARY HEARD SHE WAS THE MOTHER OF JESUS, SHE SANG THE MAGNA CARTA.

16. WHEN THE THREE WISE GUYS FROM THE EAST SIDE ARRIVED THEY FOUND JESUS IN THE MANAGER.

17. JESUS WAS BORN BECAUSE MARY HAD AN IMMACULATE CONTRAPTION.

18. ST. JOHN THE BLACKSMITH DUMPED WATER ON HIS HEAD.

19. JESUS ENUNCIATED THE GOLDEN RULE, WHICH SAYS TO DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO ONE TO YOU. HE ALSO EXPLAINED A MAN DOTH NOT LIVE BY SWEAT ALONE.

20. IT WAS A MIRICLE WHEN JESUS ROSE FROM THE DEAD AND MANAGED TO GET THE TOMBSTONE OFF THE ENTRANCE..

21. THE PEOPLE WHO FOLLOWED THE LORD WERE CALLED THE 12 DECIBELS.

22. THE EPISTELS WERE THE WIVES OF THE APOSTLES.

23. ONE OF THE OPPOSSUMS WAS ST. MATTHEW WHO WAS ALSO A TAXIMAN.

24. ST.. PAUL CAVORTED TO CHRISTIANITY, HE PREACHED HOLY ACRIMONY WHICH IS ANOTHER NAME FOR MARRAIGE.

25. CHRISTIANS HAVE ONLY ONE SPOUSE. THIS IS CALLED MONOTONY.

Bus From Chipole

2011-02-03T12:23:00.000-08:00

Here is a blog from lay missioners and Seattle Maryknoll Affiliates Kitty and Roger Shiltz who are currently serving in Africa:

January 30, 2011

Dear Friends,"If you don't see be at the back of the bus, you can't find me nowhere, come on over to the front of the bus. I"ll be riding up there."We left Chipole a few days ago. It's the home of the Benedictine Sisters of St. Agnes. What a beautiful experience and the beginning of a beautiful relationship with them. Working, singing, dancing and praying with them is a meaningful spiritual experience. It took us 21 hours to reach Chipole from,Dar es Salaam so in leaving, we decided to stop in a few places on the way hoping to have no breakdowns.We started in Songea with peanuts and Maandazis (doughnuts) for the bus ride. It's a 3 hour ride by Tumaini (hope) bus from Chipole. We were with Deo Gratias who was the pre school teacher at Chipole. She is now beginning secondary school in Songea. She is sponsored by two parishioners from St. Michael's Parish in Olympia, our home parish. She is motivated and filled with hope.From Songea in southern Tanzania to Mafinga was a 7 hour bus ride and our first stop on our journey to Dar ed Salaam. We stopped here to visit a young man we have known since he was in 6th grade in Musoma where we Maryknoll Lay Missioners for 3 1/2 years. Some of you will remember him in some of our earlier stories. His name is Melkiadi. Our first meeting with him after Mass at Mwisenge parish in Musoma. Walking with him after Mass he asked us in English "Is it possible to live like St. Francis today? This surprised us for many reasons since few young students could speak English. When we asked how he knew English he answered, "I study." Melkiadi for the next two years volunteered his time helping us teach children to read Kiswahili. Kitty and I sponsored him at Nyegezi seminary in Mwanza. He graduated first in his class in science and first in his class over all. He is now beginning form 6 at Mafinga seminary and next year will begin medical school in Tanzania.Our next stop from Mafinga along the Tanzam Highway was Morogoro. Stopping at Morogoro would be of interest to Maryknoll Affiliates because we visited Janet Srebalus and 3 other Maryknoll Sisters there. Janet was the Maryknoll Sisters' representative to the Maryknoll and Affiliates and visited many Affiliate groups across the US. She asks us to say hello to all of the Affiliates.Sometimes you are seated at the back of the bus when you start from a small town like Mafinga. From Mafinga to Morogoro (7 hrs) we were sitting at the back of the bus. With each bump and there many we would bounce to the top of the bus. It was like riding a bucking horse. But there was an advantage. We had a panoramic view through the windows at the front of the bus and the side windows. These were perfect seats for viewing animals for 50 kilometers through Mikumi National Park. Although the bus never slowed down, it was possible to see animals along the highway through the park. We say 20 elephants, 3 giraffes, a herd o 50 to 70 buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, antelope and a wart hog. After staying one night with the Maryknoll sisters in Morogoro we had only a 3 hour ride to Dar where we stay with the Benedictine Brothers from Hanga. Excuse the spelling, the Maryknoll Sisters are Janet, Sr. Sue, Sr. Leh King and Sr. Jen.Today we are waiting to board an airplane for Musoma. We are helping 11 students. in secondary school. Six will graduate this October. Four of them are girls. Last year we gave them solar powered lights so they could study at night. They has a two hour walk to and from school. Their final year they will board in town with tutors. This is an important year for them since the government exam after secondary school determines the future plans of the students. We will encourage them. One of the girls, we think will want to attend medical school also.We will also visit and buy items that women at Tupendane make. Christmas cards and sewn items such as purses that our parish sells at the Fair Trade Sale each December. This has been a very successful relationship with our parish. So here we are at the front of the bus filled with hope because we are beginning new relationships. Some in the States have sewn dresses for the orphans, some have crocheted prayer shawls for sisters who are ill whom they will never meet, some have knit hate for the orphans. Others have sponsored girls in secondary school, some have helped sponsor a kid that will begin medical school. Others have helped by volunteering time and donated books to bring books to begin a library. And the sisters and the people of Tanzania have welcomed us, loved us, fed us and prayed with us showing us the way to peace. Together we have begun relationships. In our prayers and our hopes we are riding on the front of the bus, sitting side by side. We are the Body of Christ

What is mission?

2011-02-03T08:59:00.001-08:00

We come from God, created in God's image. But we are so immersed in God that we can lose sight of that. Sometimes mission is simply helping each other stop, take a breath and become aware of that.

Catholic Schools Week

2011-02-02T00:22:00.000-08:00

This is Catholic Schools Week. Although I haven't done a poll, over the years, I've heard more than a few Maryknollers talk about who influenced their decision to become a Maryknoller. Especially with the older veterans, over and over again, they said that their grade school teachers played a significant role in their wanting to become a missionary. Most, if not all of those teachers, were nuns. Not Maryknoll Sisters, but women religious from various communities that got them enthused about mission.

My three kids went through Catholic School K-12. They never saw a nun in the classroom in all their years of education. They had great lay teachers and received a wonderful and solid education. But I did notice one thing. Because of my work with Maryknoll I'd quiz them about whether they ever talked about mission in their classes. Not very often, they'd tell me; except of course the time I came to their classroom to give a mission education presentation and that was just plain embarrassing to have your dad come to your class.

I appreciate that there are a lot of demands on Catholic School teachers and I very much admire their dedication, especially the long hours at often lower pay. However, I think we have some work to do to help them grow in their identity as mission educators. They play a significant role in forming the next generation of Catholics who hopefully will take seriously their baptismal call to participate in the mission of Jesus.

As Maryknoll celebrates its 100th Centennial this year, we follow in the footsteps of our founders, who made mission education a priority. We are trying to step up our outreach to Catholic teachers this year. One effort has been to get the Maryknoll Magazine, along with posters and study guides into the classroom. About 150,000 students currently are participating in this Classroom Program. Please check out our mission education resources and recommend them to your Catholic School teacher friends.

Mission on the home front

2011-01-30T16:50:00.000-08:00

Marriage is in the news a lot. In all the debate, one thing I haven't heard much about is the connection between marriage and mission. The reason this comes to my mind is that today I presided at the convalidation of the marriage of a couple involved in the parish RCIA process. They been civilly married several years and have a couple children. During their preparation we had the chance to talk about why they would want to have their marriage "blessed" or affirmed by the church.

In California, not much more is required for a marriage license than a photo ID. For this couple, they came to appreciate that marriage was much more than legal recognition of their partnership. They realized that the third party to their partnership is God and that God is the source of their love. This meant that their marriage has a deep spiritual context and that God is interested and even invested in their relationship. So much so, they are confident that they can call on God to support and help them in their ups and downs of being in relationship.

Through their involvement in the parish they have come to understand the importance of community. Just as it has been said that it takes a village to raise a child, they saw that it might take a faith community to stay married. There is great value in having community support from couples who have been married 50 years, or 20 years, who have seen the importance of sticking it out through not only the good and bad, but also the monotony of everyday life.

So what's this all have to do with mission? During the RCIA process, they have learned that a sacrament is an outward sign of God's grace. In having their marriage convalidated or affirmed as a sacrament, their marriage is no longer merely a private matter just between them, but rather a public witness of God's love. In their love and commitment to each other, they witness God's love to their children and family. But it doesn't stop there. In choosing to publicly "sacramentalize" their marriage they are witnessing to their friends and the whole community that love matters, that love works and that it is through love that we encounter God.

As Christians we follow Jesus in carrying on God's mission of being love. This happens in many ways and through a variety of paths. In deciding today to have their marriage convalidated and recognized by the community as a sacrament, this couple is participating in mission. They are witnesses to the love that is God.

If we can't witness God's love in our most primary relationships at the family level, I doubt we'll have any success in witnessing God's love to others.

New Blog: Best Practices for Mission Education

2011-01-28T23:46:00.000-08:00

Check out our new blog dedicated specifically to Best Practices for Mission Education.

In his most recent mission message, Pope Benedict states unequivocally that the responsibility of mission (carrying on Jesus' mission of proclaiming the Good News of God's love) belongs to every baptized Christian. So with baptism comes a job. Unfortunately, we are not well trained and formed for that job.

Maryknoll has a long history of helping Catholics in the U.S. do mission. A key aspect of that is helping teachers, catechists and ministers incorporate a stronger mission identity and develop the skills and tools they need in their ministry to help educate, support and form the next generation of missioners.

In addition to our new blog for best practices in mission education, we are offering a Mission Education Training Program. Join us Feb. 25-27 at our San Lorenzo Mission Center.

Pope Benedict's Mission Message For 2011

2011-01-28T23:34:00.001-08:00

On the occasion of the Jubilee of the year 2000 Venerable John Paul II, at the beginning of a new millennium of the Christian era, forcefully confirmed the necessity of renewing the commitment to bring the Gospel proclamation to all with “the enthusiasm of the very first Christians” (Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, 58). It is the most precious service that the Church can render to humanity and to every individual seeking profound reasons for living his or her existence to the full. Therefore that same invitation re-echoes every year in the celebration of World Mission Day. In fact the ceaseless proclamation of the Gospel also revitalises the Church, her fervour, her apostolic spirit; it renews her pastoral methods so that they may be ever more suited to new situations – also those that require a new evangelization – and animated by missionary thrust: “Missionary activity renews the Church, revitalizes faith and Christian identity, and offers fresh enthusiasm and new incentive. Faith is strengthened when it is given to others! It is in commitment to the Church's universal mission that the new evangelization of Christian peoples will find inspiration and support” (JOHN PAUL II, Enc. Redemptoris Missio, 2).

Go and proclaim
This objective is constantly renewed by the celebration of the liturgy, particularly by the celebration of the Eucharist, which always ends by reiterating the risen Jesus’ command to the Apostles: “Go…” (Mt 28:19). The Liturgy is always a call ‘from the world’ and a new sending ‘into the world’ to bear witness to what one has experienced: the salvific power of the Word of God, the salvific power of Christ’s Paschal Mystery. All those who have met the risen Lord have felt the need to proclaim him to others, as did the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. After recognising the Lord in the breaking of bread, they “set out that instant and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven assembled” and told them what had happened to them on the road (Lk 24:33-34). Pope John Paul II exhorted us to be “watchful, ready to recognize his face and run to our brothers and sisters with the good news: 'We have seen the Lord!'” (Ap. Letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte, 59).

To all
The beneficiaries of the Gospel proclamation are all peoples. The Church “is missionary by her very nature, since it is from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she draws her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the Father” (ECUM. COUNCIL VATICAN II, Decr. Ad Gentes, 2). This is “the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize” (PAUL VI, Ap. Ex. Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14). Consequently, she can never withdraw into herself. She is rooted in particular places in order to go beyond them. Her action, in obedience to Christ’s command and under the influence of his grace and his love, becomes fully and truly present to all men and women and to all peoples in order to lead them to faith in Christ (cf. Ad Gentes, 5).

This task has not lost any of its urgency. Indeed, “the mission of Christ the Redeemer, which is entrusted to the Church, is still very far from completion…. An overall view of the human race shows that this mission is still only beginning and that we must commit ourselves wholeheartedly to its service” (JOHN PAUL II, Enc. Redemptoris Missio, 1). We cannot be content when we consider that, after two thousand years, there are still peoples who do not know Christ and have not yet heard his Message of salvation.

Not only this: but there is an ever greater number of people who, although having received the proclamation of the Gospel, have forgotten it or abandoned it and no longer associate with the Church; and many sectors, even in traditionally Christian societies are today reluctant to open to the word of faith. Cultures are changing, nourished also by globalisation, by movements of thought and by the prevailing relativism, a change that leads to a mentality and a life-style that disregard the gospel Message, as if God did not exist, and that exalt the search for well-being, easy money, a career and success as the aim of life, even to the detriment of moral values.

The joint responsibility of all
The universal mission involves everyone, everything and always. The Gospel is not an exclusive possession of those who have received it, but it is a gift to be shared, good news to be passed on to others. And this gift-commitment is entrusted not only to some, but to all the baptised, who are “a chosen race … a holy nation, God’s own people” (1 Pt 2:9), in order that they may proclaim his marvellous works.

All activities are also involved in this. The Church’s attention and cooperation in missionary activity in the world cannot be limited to some particular moments or occasions, nor can they be considered as one of many pastoral activities: the Church’s missionary dimension is essential; therefore it must always be kept in mind. It is important that both individual baptised persons and ecclesial communities should be involved not only spasmodically and occasionally in mission, but constantly, as a way of Christian life. Mission Day is not an isolated moment in the year, but a precious occasion for pausing to reflect on whether and how we respond to the missionary vocation: an essential response for the life of the Church.

Global evangelization
Evangelization is a complex process and includes various elements. Among these, in missionary animation particular attention has always been given to solidarity. This is also one of the objectives of World Mission Day, which, through the Pontifical Mission Societies, appeals for help to carry out evangelizing activities in mission territories. It involves supporting institutions necessary for establishing and consolidating the Church through catechists, seminaries, priests; and also giving one’s own contribution to improve the living conditions of people in nations where poverty, malnutrition, above all infantile malnutrition, diseases, lack of health care services and education are most serious. This, too, is part of the Church’s mission. Proclaiming the Gospel she takes human life to heart in the fullest sense. It is unacceptable, the Servant of God Paul VI declared, that in evangelization the themes of human promotion, justice, liberation from every form of oppression, obviously with respect for the autonomy of the political sphere, should be neglected. To ignore the temporal problems of humanity would be “to forget the lesson which comes to us from the Gospel concerning love of our neighbour who is suffering and in need” (Ap. Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, 31.34); it would be inconsistent with the behaviour of Jesus, who “went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness” (Mt 9:35).

Therefore through co-responsible participation in the Church’s mission, the Christian becomes a builder of communion, of peace and of the solidarity that Christ has given us, and he or she collaborates in fulfilling God’s plan of salvation for all humanity. The challenges it meets call Christians to journey together with others, and mission is an integral part of this journey with all. In it, albeit in clay pots, we bring our Christian vocation, the priceless treasure of the Gospel, the living witness to Jesus dead and risen, met and believed in in the Church.

May World Mission Day reawaken in each person the joy and desire to “go” out to meet humanity taking Christ to all. In his name I wholeheartedly impart my Apostolic Blessing, especially on those who toil and suffer most for the Gospel.

From the Vatican, 6 January 2011, the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord.
Benedictus PP XVI
(Agenzia Fides 25/01/2011)

Retreat FAQ - Google Docs

2011-01-16T18:46:00.000-08:00

Retreat FAQ - Google Docs

Retreat: Forgiveness, the Path to God

2011-01-15T16:10:00.000-08:00

Contact

Kris East
Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers Western Region
keast@maryknoll.org
510 276-5021

When

Friday February 11, 2011 at 6:00 PM PST
-to-
Sunday February 13, 2011 at 1:00 PM PST

Where

Maryknoll Regional Center
16642 Ashland Ave.
San Lorenzo, CA 94580

How to Register

Online at:

www.Maryknoll.us

Email:

info@maryknoll.us

Call Kris: 510-276-5021

________________________

Suggested donation of $100 to cover the costs of accom-modation, food and materials, but please feel free to give what you can and if you cannot afford to give now, to join us as our guest.

Retreat: Forgiveness, the Path to God

"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

Unfortunately to be human is to hurt and be hurt by others. However, we have a choice about what to do when that happens.

Over and over again, Jesus makes it clear that a major stumbling block to right relationship with God is failure to forgive. Experts from a variety of different disciplines agree that forgiveness, whether of self or other, is key to a healthy and balanced physical, emotional and spiritual life. Failing to forgive leads to anger, bitterness and resentment that does us great violence and can keep us from experiencing God's love and the love of others.

As Christians, following the example of Jesus, we are called to be instruments of forgiveness and reconciliation. This begins in our own lives and ripples out to our community and the whole world.

This retreat weekend will provide time and space to examine the importance of forgiveness and to explore where in our lives we need to forgive and be forgiven. Through silence, community prayer and faith sharing we will journey from within to seek the healing love of God so that we can then move outward to be instruments of forgiveness and peace in our relationships with others and to the world.

This retreat will be limited to 12 people.

Overnight accommodations available. Please visit our website at www.maryknoll.us for more information about our House of Prayer, Retreat and Reflection.

Diarmuid O'Murchu: The Missionary Shift in Our Time

2011-01-07T11:55:00.000-08:00

Diarmuid O'Murchu: The Missionary Shift in Our Time

Fr. Diarmuid O'Murchu

Tuesday, January 18th

7:30 pm

Maryknoll Center

Join us for a special Mission Forum with renown author and speaker, Fr. Diarmuid O'Murchu.

He will share with us his reflections on the changes, challenges and opportunities of doing mission today.

The missionary endeavor today adopts as a primary focus the tripartide challenge of "Peace, Justice and the Integrity of Creation." It marks a distinctive shift from earlier understandings, with a significant shift to adult catechesis, growth and development. Diarmuid O'Murchu, drawing on his international experience as lecturer and workshop leader, will explore the implications of this new approach.

----

His best known books include Quantum Theology (1996 - revised in 2004), Reclaiming Spirituality (1998), Evolutionary Faith (2002), Catching Up with Jesus (2005), The Transformation of Desire (2007), Ancestral Grace (2008), Jesus in the Power of Poetry (2009).

Diarmuid O'Murchu, a member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order, and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin Ireland, is a social psychologist most of whose working life has been in social ministry, predominantly in London, UK. In that capacity he has worked as a couple's counselor, in bereavement work, AIDS-HIV counseling, and laterally with homeless people and refugees. As a workshop leader and group facilitator he has worked in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, The Philippines, Thailand, India, Peru and in several African countries, facilitating programs on Adult Faith Development.

God, creation and climate change

2010-08-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

Maryknoll Mission Education & Promotion West Mark Twain: "Everybody complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it." Now it is clear that human actions are doing quite a bit to change the weather….and so much for the good. What are the moral, economic, social and political implications? Check out the ORBIS book, God, Creation, and Climate Change

Welcome to the Maryknollmall.org

www.maryknollsocietymall.org

Looking for Summer Reading, continued...

2010-07-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

Orbis all time best sellers:

1. Albert Nolan, Jesus Before Christianity.
2. Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation.
3. James Cone, Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare.
4. Henri Nouwen, With Burning Hearts: A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life.
5. David Bosch, Transforming Mission.
6. John Kavanaugh, Following Christ in a Consumer Society.
7. Watch for the Light and Bread and Wine.
8. Thich Nhat Hanh: Essential Writings.
9. Vincent Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered.
10. James W. Douglass, JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters.

Yep, we have them here at the Regional Center to borrow or buy.

Visit our Mission Resource Library

2010-07-07T23:27:00.000-07:00

We have over a thousand ORBIS books and other mission resources at our Mission Resource Library at the Regional Center. Now you can search our library on line.

The Library is open Monday to Friday 9 am to 4 pm and by appointment.

Website is back up!!!

2010-07-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

Our local webiste: www.maryknoll.us is back up. Check out the job listing for a full time mission promoter in Southern California.

Hope you had a good 4th of July!

Sorry. www.maryknoll.us is down for repair

2010-07-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

In the meantime, check out our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Maryknoll.MEP.West

What are you reading this summer?

2010-07-01T12:20:00.001-07:00

Maryknoll Mission Education & Promotion WestCheck out our bookstore for some great summer reading

Jul 1, 2010 10:25am

Length:0:48

about an hour ago

Maryknoll Lay Missioner Susan Nagele

2010-06-24T09:04:00.001-07:00

Maryknoll Mission Education & Promotion West Check out the NCR cover article on Maryknoll Lay Missioner Susan Nagele and the upcoming 35th anniversary of the lay missioners.

Emerging Church: 'Laypeople, future of missions' | National Catholic Reporter

ncronline.org

(No, not about the NCRonline webathon. Your support has been great. Update: With more than $17,000 donated over three days we’re within striking distance of our $30,000 weeklong Webathon goal. Please support independent Catholic journalism and donate right here, right now.)

Update from SF Maryknoll Affiliates, now Lay Missioners, Pat and Ilona Helmholz

2010-06-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

April – May, 2010

Helmholz Update No. 11 Street Children (Survivors)

Dear Family and Friends,

Since my arrival in Mombasa I have been very disturbed by the presence of children on the street. Sometimes mothers with children, toddlers or babies, sitting all day and into the night. I have driven home at night and seen children fast asleep on the curb and just one child rolling over could be killed by an oncoming car. I have asked the question why isn’t somebody doing something – doesn’t anybody care? The expression, familiarity breeds contempt, is very true and one can become inured to any situation but as long as someone cares deeply enough, action must be taken and I believe there are others out in society who do care and are doing something – I would like to meet them.

The thought has come to me “But for the grace of God go I, or my children, or my grandchildren. For mothers of children, who are trying to survive on the streets, what must be their thoughts when they go to sleep at night not knowing where their children are? Our circumstances are not always in our control, which is true of many, but little children of whom the Lord said “Suffer the little children to come unto me for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven", the least so. Children, we are told, are a blessing from the Lord, so impressionable (like wet cement) and all they ask is to be loved. “To whom much is given much is expected.”

Bernard has been meeting with the street children and I have accompanied him for 3 weeks now and really feel connected with the kids. They have beautiful spirituality and some really want to improve their lives. Apart from snacks they are given we have added an apple and last week a banana. We have discussed some of our ideas with which they were very pleased but we also cautioned that progress will take time. I have run into a few on the street and they gladly greet me and I them.

Rescue, rehabilitate and resettle are our goals. Shelter, food, clothing are their immediate needs. We need more volunteers to help in this endeavor. Let’s work together to help our most vulnerable of society to become responsible citizens with a future of which they could never have dreamed.

If you wish to support Lay Missioners in the field, please refer to the text further below.

Love, Ilona and Pat

Our work would be impossible without your prayers and financial support. With this in mind, we ask that you consider making a gift to Maryknoll Lay Missioners or even becoming a Companion In Mission sponsor, by which you can schedule a donation in the amount and frequency you determine. To do so, log onto our website: www.mklm.org or call Donor Care on our toll free number below. Use the Special Intentions box to designate application of funds. Reference General Fund #5890 and/or Helmholz Mission Account #5891.
Legal name: Maryknoll Mission Association of the Faithful, Inc
PO Box 307 Maryknoll NY 10545-0307
Toll free # 1-800-867-2980
www: MKLM.org

Missio Dei

2010-05-28T10:00:00.001-07:00

This Sunday we celebrate the mystery of the Trinity: the community of God, whose overflowing love brings forth all creation and whose self-giving love is the mission. We are created to participate in that mission of God: Missio Dei.

The Interfaith Peace Project

2010-05-26T08:56:00.001-07:00

Maryknoll Mission Education & Promotion West Many thanks to Fr. Tom Bonacci for a very stimulating Mission Forum on interfaith dialogue. The dialogue isn't about playing nice and glossing over differences but the hard work and respect required to make peace.

The Interfaith Peace Project

interfaithpeaceproject.org

The United States is the most religiously diverse nation on earth. Our American tradition of religious diversity creates a fertile opportunity for dialogue, understanding, cooperation and peace.

Pope calls for new ways of doing mission

2010-05-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

Maryknoll Mission Education & Promotion West The church's traditional idea of evangelizing must change. In today's increasingly multicultural societies, the church needs to be able to mix dialogue with proclamation and witness of the faith...the church's missionary map is no longer geographical. PB16

CNS STORY: In Portugal, pope calls for new style of evangelization

www.catholicnews.com

By John ThavisCatholic News ServicePORTO, Portugal (CNS) -- On a four-day visit to Portugal, Pope Benedict XVI turned the church's attention to Fatima and offered a new perspective on the continuing relevance ...

Movies That Matter: The Girl in the Cafe

2010-05-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

Movies That Matter: The Girl in the Cafe

Type:

Education - Lecture

Date:	Monday, June 7, 2010
Time:	6:30pm - 8:30pm
Location:	St. John the Baptist Parish Hall
Street:	264 E. Lewelling Blvd (between Ashland and Meekland)
City/Town:	San Lorenzo, CA
	View Map

Description

THE GIRL IN THE CAFE is a thought-provoking drama from British director David Yates (THE WAY WE LIVE NOW). Yates slices his narrative into two parts; the first involves a lengthy courtship between primary characters Lawrence (Bill Nighy) and Gina (Kelly MacDonald). Meeting by chance in a cafe, the two share a common bond, although Lawrence's natural reticence makes it hard for Gina to read him. The second half of the film sees the couple travelling to Reykjavik in Iceland, where high-ranking politician Lawrence is due to work at the G8 summit. But Gina has a few surprises in store for both Lawrence and the gathering of politicians, leading to an eye-opening second half of the movie. Beautifully shot, THE GIRL IN THE CAFE is a politically-charged romance movie with remarkable performances from Nighy and MacDonald.

Mission: Jamaica

2010-05-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

Maryknoll is mission partners with the San Jose Diocese in Jamaica. I had the chance to visit this place last year. I'm thinking pulling together another group for a mission exposure trip in the fall. Interested? (contact Deacon Matt mdulka@maryknoll.org)

Rededication of Widow's Mite Orphanage

On Wedesday, April 21, I presided at the re-dedication of Widow's Mite Orphanage in Murray Mount. Widow's Mite is affiliated with Blessed Assurance Orphanage (see photo pages): they are both run by Mustard Seed Communities. Present were a group of teens from St. Luke's ...

By:Robert Brocato

Photos:15

Mission Forum: Interfaith Dialogue by Fr. Tom Bonacci, CP

2010-05-12T22:19:00.001-07:00

Maryknoll Mission Education & Promotion West On Tuesday, May 25th at 7:30 p.m. at the Maryknoll Center you are invited to join Fr. Tom Bonacci, C.P. for a dialogue on Interfaith Connections. The United States is one of the most religiously diverse nations on earth. This diversity offers a fertile opportunity for dialogue, understanding, cooperation, and peace. This evening's program will focus on developing and enhancing our appreciation of faith traditions around the world. Come and hear about Fr. Tom's Interfaith Peace Project and the interfaith work that is underway. Come and find out how you can become part of the conversation.

Mission Forum: Interfaith Dialog by Fr. Tom Bonacci

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 7:30pm

Maryknoll Regional Center, San Lorenzo, CA

2010-04-29T11:53:00.000-07:00

From Kathy McNeely at Maryknoll's Office for Global Concerns:

"Just wanted to make you aware of a fantastic performance that wrestles with the impact of the global economy on ecological destruction from a faith perspective. Tevyn East is a woman of fantastic talent. Her performance raises deep theological and ethical questions, and is well worth it. Tevyn was an intern at the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns and some of her performance is based on the work she did with us last year.

I encourage you to see the show and to promote it far and wide!

Below I am sending a link to her web site and dates for when she’ll be in your area."

http://www.affordinghopeproject.org/

Berkeley, CA
May 8th(7 pm) Pacific School of Religion Chapel of the Great Commission (1798 Scenic Ave.)May 16th (10 am) St John's Presbyterian (1212 College Ave.)
San Francisco, CA
May 10th (7 pm) Old First Presbyterian Church (Sacramento St.)

Homily by Deacon Matt Dulka at Mass for World Peace 4/28/10

2010-04-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

Mass for World Peace / San Jose Diocese

April 28, 2010 / St. William Church, Los Altos

Homily by Deacon Matt Dulka

First reading: Colossians 3:12-15 / Gospel: Matthew 5:38-48

Almost everyone is for world peace. The real question is how to get there, how to achieve peace. Jesus tells us that the way to peace is by loving our enemies. Like most people I struggle with that. The temptation to make war against our enemies is great.

I’ve never been to war myself but I grew up in the shadow of war. I was born in 1960 and certainly wasn't raised to be a pacifist. When I celebrated my 5^th birthday I got an army helmet and a toy gun. I remember how excited I was and how I played war.

However, by the late sixties I became well aware of the Vietnam war. I heard people talk about it and saw it on the news and began to live in fear of that war. Fear that it would be still going on when I was 18 and that I’d be drafted to fight in it. Even though I couldn’t articulate it then, I knew war wasn’t good and wasn’t something I wanted to be a part of. Somewhere along the way I stopped playing war.

That war ended when I was in my early teens and I remember thinking that that was it. There would be no more war to worry about. However, in college during the 80’s I learned of the wars going on in Central America. They didn’t make me afraid. Perhaps because I knew the chance of my having to fight in those wars was nearly impossible. But they made me mad. I learned from hanging around the Newman Center on campus that those wars were unjust and that we were often backing the wrong side.

After college, as a Jesuit Volunteer in West Oakland, my attention was turned to the ongoing build up of nuclear weapons. I was concerned not only at the possibility of the world being wiped out but could see living in the slums of West Oakland that while billions of dollars were being spent to prepare for war, nothing was being done to address the poverty and crime in my neighborhood. So with friends, I went out to Lawrence Livermore Labs, where the bombs were being designed and knelt down in the roadway and prayed for peace. I was rewarded with a night in jail. I thought I was finally becoming a pacifist. Looking back, I didn't have a clue.

If I had been overly idealistic in those years, my work with Maryknoll has sobered me to the reality of how pervasive war and violence are and how difficult and complicated peace can be. In my travels with Maryknoll, I’ve been to a number of places devastated by war and three places in particular touched by genocide, one of most horrendous forms of war.

Last year I went to Cambodia, where the Khmer Rouge systematically killed millions during the 70's. The year before that I was in Tanzania, and sat in on the UN war crime tribunals for the genocide in Rwanda where 800,000 people were killed in three bloody months.

But the most profound experience was one I had several years before that, when I visited Guatemala shortly after the end of 30 years of civil war. It still looked like a war zone and the wounds were fresh as human rights groups continued to uncover mass graves and tried to identify the victims. Over 300,000 mostly poor and indigenous Mayans died there as part of a genocide by the government. It was done under the guise of stopping communism. The U.S. supported that war on and off over the years. Whole villages of peasants were rounded up and gunned down or burned alive in churches. Our Maryknollers there witnessed it.

I will never forget one place in particular that I visited, the town of Santiago on Lake Atilan in the highlands. It was there that Stan Rother, a parish priest and missionary from the U.S. was gunned down in his rectory after he had inquired about his catechist who had been arrested and disappeared. As many as a thousand people from that area were "disappeared" and killed.

Shortly after Fr. Stan was killed, one night drunken soldiers shot and killed some women on the street. The villagers had had enough and stood up to them. Not by taking up arms, but by peacefully resisting and marching to the garrison to demand peace and justice. As they stood at the gates, the army opened fire and 11 men, women and children were gunned down, but the people did not give up. They persisted nonviolently and eventually the soldiers gave into their demand to leave the area. As I listened to the survivors and stood in the place where killing had happened, I cried and realized how much I had to learn about what it really means to be a peacemaker.

Our Catholic tradition is clear that violence is not the answer to resolving conflict. Of course over the centuries we have struggled with that and created moral exceptions for self defense and so called just wars. Nonetheless the ideal remains. Rather than offering you a discourse on the importance of nonviolence in the Catholic Tradition, which is quite impressive and interesting, let me summarize it with the words of Pope John Paul II. This is from a talk he gave when he visited

Northern Ireland

at the time when that country was torn by violence. He said:

Peace cannot be established by violence; peace can never flourish in a climate of terror, intimidation and death. It is Jesus himself who said: "All who take the sword will perish by the sword"(Mt.26:52). ... [I] proclaim, with the conviction of my faith in Christ and with an awareness of my mission, that violence is evil, that violence is unacceptable as a solution to problems, that violence is unworthy of humanity....

Violence destroys what it claims to defend: the dignity, the life, the freedom of human beings. Violence is a crime against humanity, for it destroys the very fabric of society... Do not believe in violence; do not support violence. It is not the Christian way. It is not the way of the Catholic church. Believe in peace and forgiveness and love; for they are of Christ. Communities who stand together in their acceptance of Jesus' supreme message of love, expressed in peace and reconciliation, and in their rejection of all violence, constitute an irresistible force for achieving what many have come to accept as impossible....

I get that. I understand why peace is necessary. I've seen what violence has done in places like Guatemala, Rwanda and Cambodia. But here's my dilemma:

One of the biggest challenges for me in being a peacemaker came last year. It wasn’t having to make tough choices in the face of genocide. It wasn’t about supporting a war overseas. It happened in front of my house and involved a different kind of war, a parking war. While it seems trivial to the point of being offensive to even think of it in light of all the war and violence around the world today, it’s helped me to see the Gospel in a new way that has to do with what goes on in our hearts.

One day my neighbor across the street decided that the parking spots on the street in front of his house were his and that I, my family and our guests should not park there. In an effort to be a good neighbor I said that we’d do our best not to park there, but I was hesitant to make our guests go out and move their car if they happened to park in front of his house. It is a public street after all.

Not long after that my son’s girlfriend parked there and it started what we have came to call the parking wars. They put an offensive and threatening sign on her car. She’s a sweet kid and was freaked out by it. We tried talking to our neighbor about this, but they wouldn’t answer the door. We tried with a letter that was not responded to...well they did respond. In addition to the cars and camper they already had, they went out and got first one big pick up truck, and then another even bigger one, and began to park them right in front of my house, so that we’d have no parking spaces.

At first my wife and I thought that this was a good teaching experience for our teen age children on how to respond to conflict. We were clear with them that there would be no retaliation. They and their friends had great ideas, many that involved toilet paper.

As this went on for weeks and then months, I began to notice within myself a growing resentment and frustration. When I’d come home to find the trucks parked in front of my house I was surprised by the amount of anger I began to feel and how almost automatically I would start to fantasize about revenge and doing all sorts of violence to them and their trucks. Where did I put that Army helmet and gun from my 5^th birthday?

How could I reconcile these growing feelings for violence with the experiences I had standing in that peace park in Guatemala or sitting in on the war crimes trials in Arusha or my opposition to the war in Iraq. Was there a connection? Why was it easier to oppose violence and war thousands of miles away than to live peacefully in my own neighborhood?

The answer may be in the Gospel reading. What does it really mean to turn the other cheek, to seek non-violent, peaceful solutions to conflict. The Gospel is the toughest teaching of Jesus. A teaching that we tend to gloss over or ignore. Or try to explain away.

Jesus wasn’t advocating passivity, victimization or condoning oppression; quite the opposite. He was offering concrete examples of how to proactively break the cycles of violence and oppression.

If someone should press you into service for one mile, go with him for two. Roman occupation of Palestine at the time of Jesus was oppressive and violent. Roman soldiers could force a local person to carry their pack. Not only was this back breaking work, it was humiliating, a physical reminder of their oppression and disruptive to their ability to make their own living. What might happen if a Roman solider yanked a farmer off his small plot to carry his pack and the peasant offered to carry it for two? It creates the possibility that the soldier might see the peasant as a fellow human being, that the soldier might see the violence he’s doing to the person, that the solider might recognize his own inhumanity. In other words it creates the opportunity for conversion.

The example of handing over your cloak is interesting. For the poor the only collateral they may have to secure a loan was their clothing. If a lender was threatening to sue to recover one of the two only pieces of clothing a poor person has, Jesus suggests giving them both. How does that leave the debtor? Naked or nearly naked. For the Jewish people it would have been shameful for the viewer to witness that. Again a radical response to an injustice that may shock the lender to think about what he’s really doing to the person and invite him to consider a more just response.

And then there’s the most famous example that deals with physical violence, turning the other cheek. To be slapped on the right cheek was most insulting to a Jew, because it usually meant a backhanded slap. At the time of Jesus, a backhanded slap was used to assert authority and dominance over someone of a lower class. If a person turned the other cheek, it created a problem for the aggressor. To slap with the open hand would be seen as a statement of equality. Turning the other cheek was in effect a demand for equality or respect. Again it would give the aggressor pause, making him think twice about what he was doing and invite him to change.

What if these bold moves don't bring about conversion of the heart in the aggressor? What if the person is struck a second time, pressed into service for the additional mile or left standing there naked? At least the cycle of violence would have been broken. To have retaliated with violence would have certainly invited further retaliation and violence.

I think of the those peasants in Guatemala who turned the other cheek. Some died, but the cycle of violence was broken ultimately. In doing that they were true martyrs, witnesses of God’s love and what it means to be a peace maker.

But most of us aren’t faced with those choices, thank God. Rather we are left with parking wars, with the jerk that cut us off on the freeway or the co-worker that stabs us in the back. The smaller things that in our hearts plant seeds of violence and feed a desire for revenge. The things that Jesus mentions in the Gospel.

I think that there is a connection between small every day violence that can sometimes build and explode into greater violence. When we were kids and someone would hurt us and we would want to hurt them back, many of us had moms who would say, that’s how wars are started. There’s Gospel wisdom there.

It begins small. If we can't be peaceful in resolving the minor conflicts I wonder if we have much chance when it comes to bigger issues.

So peacemaking begins in our hearts. It's not a quaint notion or a warm and fuzzy feeling. Like love itself it is a choice. Not just one big decision. But many small ones. The decision of what do when faced with conflict, no matter how trivial. What to do when we are wronged. What to do when are faced with violence. It's about developing a habit of approaching conflict with love.

It is the decision to not let seeds of violence or vengeance take root in our hearts. The decision to proactively face violence and injustice with acts of love. To turn the other cheek, to make ourselves nakedly vulnerable, to go the extra mile.

It's from that point, that integrity of peace in our own hearts, that we can then witness for peace in broader and larger circles. To address the issues of economic injustice that lead to violence. To confront oppression. To oppose all violence and war.

As FDR said: "Peace, like charity begins at home." So as we continue to celebrate this mass for world peace, perhaps it's good to remember and practice that old song: Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

Even if it means having to park down the block.

Matt Dulka is a deacon of the Oakland Diocese assigned to full time ministry with the Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers as the Regional Director for mission education and promotion in the Western U.S. He can be reached at mdulka@maryknoll.org or through www.maryknoll.us

Mass for World Peace....San Jose Diocese

2010-04-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

Mass for World Peace

Type:

Other - Ceremony

Date:	Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Time:	7:30pm - 9:30pm
Location:	St. William Church
Street:	611 S. El Monte Ave.
City/Town:	Los Altos, CA
	View Map

Description

San Jose Diocese parishes of Mountain View, Los Altos and Palo Alto invite you to a special “Mass for World Peace” on Wednesday, April 28th at 7:30pm at St. William Church. The church is located at 611 South El Monte Ave., Los Altos (Just North of Foothill Expressway). During the Mass, a special homily will be given by Deacon Matt Dulka on the theme of Non-Violence in the Catholic Tradition. Deacon Matt is the Director of the Western Region for the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. People of all faiths and traditions are welcome to attend. A free will offering will be taken up during the Mass for Pax Christi USA. A reception will follow the Mass. For more information, contact Mike Cavera (650) 967-7939 or mikepcavera@yahoo.com