Lent Continues...

Buenos dias/tardes/noches (depending on when you’re reading this)!

As I write this, the other missionaries and I are preparing (slightly feverishly) for the arrival of 2 mission groups from the US who will be arriving this weekend. Both are groups of university students on spring break who are coming down for a week-long mission trip. Much to do before they arrive!

As we enter more deeply in to Lent, I want to reflect a little bit on something really important, and something almost none of us have enough of: silence. I had the blessing to go on a 2 day silent retreat this past week, and although it was short, it was truly amazing. We are all surrounded by “noise” almost constantly: TVs, cell phones, computers, people, music, announcements……and other things that don’t necessarily make noise, but fill our souls with noise: stress, millions of things to do. The world speaks to us with constant noise. God speaks to us in silence. It is only when we try to separate ourselves from these things and calm our hearts that we can truly hear His voice. Mother Teresa used to say: “The fruit of silence is prayer; the fruit of prayer is faith; the fruit of faith is love; the fruit of love is service; the fruit of service is peace.” So it all stems from silence!

Entering in to just 2 days of complete silence really is like entering in to a different world. It makes you think differently, realize small things that you normally pass over, and helps you to see how God is working in little ways. It’s so hard to “tune out” all the noise in our daily lives and take time to just be. But how important it is! God is not going to try to compete for our attention. He calls us quietly.

The other day during holy hour, I was just reflecting on two things: what do I want to do; and who do I want to be? Do the things I do help me to be the person I want to be? And the answer to that, many times, is “no.” I want to be a person who loves, who tries to help others, who tries to reflect God’s light in the world. But do I really work super hard to love? Many times, no. I think all of us can agree that, deep down at least, we all know that love is the reason we are here. Do we work harder on loving than on all the other things in our lives? Often times I put more effort in to my facebook than I do in loving! How sad! Let’s try to put the things we do in line with the people we want to be.

One last thing. The other night, it was suuuper hot here, and I couldn’t sleep at all. We had a prayer vigil throughout the night, where each person signed up for 1 hour to pray in front of Jesus in the Eucharist. My hour was 2am to 3am, and I barely slept at all up until this time. And afterwards, I had to get up at 5am, like every day. I was really grumpy on the way to Mass in the morning, and just wallowing in self-pity (woe is me, I didn’t get any sleep, etc etc). Up until the time Mass started I was just in a horrible mood! And then, God spoke to me: “Eric, there are people who can’t sleep a minute because they have chronic pain shooting like lightning through their body. There are children in Africa who have to huddle together and sleep outside because they live in fear of being taken from their families and forced to be child-soldiers. And you are going to complain because you had one bad night of sleep? And on top of that, you got to spend one hour of your night with Me.” Well! Needless to say, after that loving reprimand from God, I was completely humbled and ashamed, but at the same time really grateful. My bad mood became one of peace in about 2 seconds. God is so good at doing that!

Ok, I should get going…lots to prepare before tomorrow! Please pray for us this week and next week as we serve the people in the mountain villages! God bless!

Eric