Mission Post #15

We have been accepted.  We are going on our mission.  The official word has been sent to us.  We've spoken to Fr. Marcelino to start our planning on the parish end; we have spoken to Sr. Darlene and we think we will be staying with her; we have spoken to Fr. Armando - our pastor - and the details of our appeal to the parish for contributions have been settled.  

We will make our appeal at all the Masses on September 14th and 15th and then once a month after, until we leave, there will be an announcement that we will be outside after Mass. 

Fr. A. also mentioned that La Favorita (a Spanish language radio station) has an English and Spanish Catholic program and we may be able to arrange to make an appeal through there.  

Athens (a friend) is setting up a radio interview for us on her radio program later in September or early October.

Now is the time for me to touch base with Sue again (in Mineral Wells, TX) and start the ground work for a news article and connect with the Catholic Church there.  

We are going to be meeting to make a presentation to Knights of Columbus, YLI, and the Rosary Ladies' group, and others.  Just those three alone will make a deeper connection with parish members.

Our friends Alicia Ruelas and Sara Fontana will translate for us at the Spanish Masses.  So - we are set to go.  I'm excited.

Mission Post #14

My path was set and I thought that with age, that path was cast in stone.  How short-sighted of me.  Age flung the door to my path wide open. 

The walk on this path has been ambling and without special purpose.  Each corner and curve revealed new choices and possibilities. 

Each threshold leads to a new path, some short and some longer.  But no matter the length, each was ambled upon and carefully examined. 

Creativity

Theology

Political Philosophy

Each takes their turn, in turn. 

My daydreaming self-achieved some completion – showing my photography, completing a class on the basics of my faith, exploring political thought and the why of our society’s current conflict.

Satisfaction followed by satisfaction followed by dismay.  I had to ask myself, “What path is right for me?”  Epiphany flared up, dropping glittering awareness, like shining confetti, creating a path of an entirely new direction, a quest, if you will, to live a new way by following:

The corporal works of mercy - feed the hungry; give drink to the thirsty; clothe the naked; shelter the homeless; visit the sick; ransom the captive; and bury the dead.

The spiritual works of mercy – instruct the ignorant; counsel the doubtful; admonish sinners; bear wrongs patiently; forgive offences willingly; comfort the afflicted; and pray for the living and the dead.

This new path will lead me to new places in the coming spring.  Now I plan the endeavor, prepare myself emotionally and pray for spiritual guidance and a willing heart to accept what is asked of me. 

Mission Post #13

We are simply waiting now.  The application is in.  The clearances are completed. The personal recommendations are received.  Now we are simply waiting for final approval to volunteer with the Glenmary Sister at their mission post in Caruthersville, MO.

Lately, I've started to make lists of what I need for basic packing and living on the road for a few months.  I ran across a blog a while back that, in part, talks about this as well as economizing on sleeping and eating on the road.  I also discovered a couple of creative journaling books by Vivian Swift.  One that has been especially helpful is Le Road Trip.  As you might suspect, this has a French twist to it but traveling is traveling and it doesn't take much tweaking to use her ideas as a fun and useful guide to getting myself organized.  Most of it is common sense but having it laid out here, and in such a fun way, helps me focus, not to mention the reduced brain power I need to use to get it right and not think, down the line, "How could I have not thought of that?".

Post-mission we are now fine tuning our adventures.  Civil War sites and Catholic shrines are high on our list.  Shiloh National Battlefield in Tennessee is just three hours from where we will be in Missouri.  Later, after leaving Indianapolis, we will be heading east visiting Gettysburg in Pennsylvania and Antietam in Maryland.  In between is The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.  There are so many historic sites so close together that the mind boggles.  I'm already thinking forward to 2015 and another mission and trip.

The other nice news is that three of my blogging/Facebook friends have volunteered to host us as we travel through their area.  Texas, Maryland, and Michigan friends - "Thank you so much".   Sue, Dave, and Jeanie - so looking forward to meeting you face to face.

Bye for now.  More soon.

Mission Post #12

This post of this meeting was summarized and written by Don Jeffries.

Letter to Sr. Darlene

Yesterday morning we had an hour long visit, with Father Marcelino, who is the Associate Pastor of our Parish.  He is our newest priest here and from the Philippines.  A very conservative person, who knows the value of American freedom as the Philippines were basically enslaved for 300 years, by the Spanish.  First he became a priest and then he became a medical doctor.  His personal mission, in the Philippines, is the caring of discarded babies, who were born of unwed mothers.  He donates his salary, from here, to that mission.  So he relates to your own mission of Mother’s House, which we discussed.

The Pastor is Father Armando, whom I think may have received a letter of enquiry from Glenmary Sisters, concerning Annie and I.  Father Armando is finishing up his vacation and will be back at the end of this week.  I say this because it is relevant later in this report.

Father Marcelino discussed many aspects of our trip, to Caruthersville, with us.  Remember that I sent you an email reporting what had transpired, when we attended the Catholic Charities meeting?  We also informed Father of that.

Bottom line is that even if Annie and I are not accepted, for temporary home mission work with you, we are still going to visit Caruthersville and bring any items donated by the Parish here, for Mother’s House.

By the way, I have noticed indications that we will be accepted, including from you, but of course none of us can assume that we will be accepted and must act accordingly until the formal acceptance is received.  Just wanted you to know that we know.

Father does know that our application is still pending.

Some of his ideas are the same as those thought of at the Catholic Charities meeting.

I need to compose a two minute presentation concerning Glenmary Sisters, your Pemiscot County mission, our visiting, Mother’s House and the requirements for Mother’s House.  This presentation will be delivered, by Annie and I, at weekend Masses, on both Saturday and Sunday.  The appeal will also be placed in the Parish Bulletin.  All of this is pending approval by Father Armando, who Father Marcelino will confer with next week.

We already discussed the receiving, warehousing, packaging and transportation of the received items, which Annie and I have experience with, from a project Annie once achieved for another project concerning an orphanage.  Oh…if we are so blessed, what we cannot transport via car we will ship.

This brings me to the point of asking you if you can please compose a priority list of items required, for Mother’s House not only for continuous need, but also for the time we will be there, during the winter season.  The list will be printed up and distributed.  One item we are including is WalMart Gift Cards, to be used by you.

Father Marcelino suggested that you write a letter to Father Armando explaining the Glenmary Sisters Order, their mission in general, your respective mission and what Annie and I might be doing there or even Sister Sharon writing it.  The address is:

Saint Anthony Catholic Church, 7820 Fox Road, Hughson CA  95326

I told him that you and other Sisters will go to Parishes and promote the Glenmary Order and its Missions, to receive donations.  He stated that donations, for Glenmary Sisters, could also be requested; therefore I plan to use the “Adopt a Sister Program” form, from Kinship, to include in the handout.  I will include the Glenmary Sisters web site as well.

Also in the handout, I will include the Kinship articles on Mother’s House.  That is if it is okay to do so.  Father suggested providing photos, for a more tangible effect.  This too he will request permission, from Father Armando.

I just noticed that I need to contact Richard, for reprint permission.

Father mentioned having some kind of feedback, from us, concerning our trip.  I told him that one of the Parish Council members suggested that Annie do photos and I do reports, to be sent by email, to the Parish, or placed on the Parish’s Face Book page.  As I said, in my previous email, we want to talk to you concerning the photography protocol.

Father views us as representing the Parish, in our activity, in your mission.  All of this rather amazes me.  In my mind, we were just going to visit back home and assist you.  I was clueless concerning all of the formalities and now the Parish involvement here.

Look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Mission Post #11

I made an appointment to talk with Fr. Marcelino and then cancelled it.  I wanted to talk with him about the mission but it felt forced and I couldn't focus on what it was I really wanted to talk about so . . . I cancelled the appointment.

This past Sunday, after Mass announcements told of a meeting to be presented by Catholic Charities on responding to the call of Pope Francis.  The agenda for the evening was to discuss serving the poor, working for peace, and caring for God's creation all under the umbrella of Catholic social teaching.  

I thought this meeting might give me a place to start for pulling together the loose threads of my unfocused thoughts on what this mission would mean for me.  I knew what I expected for Don - something positive, a way to inner peace and an escape from the negativity that our political activism has surrounded us in.  Like most new things I take on, I just commit and then put one foot in front of the other and follow the bread crumbs.  The meaning and purpose always seems to come afterwards.

There were about ten of us there, seven from the Hispanic community and Don, myself, and Melanie.  I was relieved that there were ten there, I was disappointed that there weren't more.  I guess this was a sort of Matthew 22:14 moment.  By the end of the evening, we had navigated some dangerous waters.

Political buzz words such as globalization, climate change, social justice and redistribution of wealth reared up.  Don listened closely, damping down his feelings about these buzz words.  I focused on the messenger and tried to determine if this was pure Catholic social teaching or if it was tainted by catholic liberalism and humanism and socialism.  Lots of isms trying to do what Christ taught us, all of them taking out the spirit that makes His teachings whole.  Absent God, we really have nothing.

After the meeting, we told the group what we had planned for January and both of us were completely unprepared for the reaction.  All of a sudden, there was a community of people reaching out to help us help others.   YLI, KC, the Tuesday night Rosary ladies, Life Teen, Matthew's Ministry - with them there would be a way to receive assistance, prayers, and perhaps even goods to bring to Mother's House.  Fr. Marcelino spoke of perhaps setting up a sister parish relationship.

Suddenly I feel more focused; I have more of an idea of what I can bring to our work whatever that will be.  I'm going to call Fr. M. this week and get this ball rolling this week.  

Mission Post #10

Today, and all this past week in fact, I've been thinking on things to finish and how that relates to going forward with the idea of the Mission.  Mission is a serious effort.  What I am doing and its outcome has a direct effect on others.  It's more than a job, hence the naming of it as Mission.  What I leave behind will echo far beyond me.

It's one thing to lollygag at home and put thing off until tomorrow what can be done today.  However, I can't do that on Mission.  So, today I started looking for some pictures that Don needs.  I have no idea where they are so I'm looking through all the boxes and albums I have.  Believe me, that is A. LOT.  In the course of starting the work, I ran across pictures on CDs.  I have copies of them but uploading the CDs will save time on the other end of scanning the copies.

So far, the pictures for Don haven't surface but I've uploads seven CDs and gone through six boxes.  I have a lot more to go and feel a strong sense of purpose.  I will be busy for the next couple of days.

Mission Post #9

Well, it's been a bit of time since my last post.  The world has been providing me with lots of reasons to be depressed for the future of our country.  Abortion.  Homosexual marriage.  HHS mandate coming at us like a screaming runaway train.  The craziness of our politicians, particularly Nancy Pelosi.  The lack of support for the U.S. military.  And more.  I allowed myself to fall into the trap of believing that my world, the world we all live in, would derail hopelessly onto the path of becoming a new Sodom.  The I read this.   

After reading How to be an annoying Catholic, I resolved to:

• Laugh more
• Be the real me
• Be unexpected
• Know what I believe and why
• Grow a backbone
• Love - live the example of love the sinner, hate the sin
• Pray more

I think God meant for some of this to be easy.  In fact, the list wouldn't have had to exist at all but for our fall from Grace.  No, what should be so easy - love one another - is the hardest this we can do.  Love has powerful enemies - Fear. Hate. Anger. Bullishness. Contempt. The view of tolerance as a virtue. And more.  These are all weapons that we use on each other almost indiscriminately.

I've felt the slings and arrows of all these enemies and these weapons haven't been limited to just "those liberals" attacking "we conservatives".   I've noticed that these weapons are used whenever any ideological brethren strays from an approved line of belief.    Consider Juan Williams and his ejection from NPR or, more prosaically, the damaged career of The Dixie Chicks when lead singer, Natalie Maines, infamously criticized President Bush on the eve of the Iraqi invasion.

As I sit here mulling matters, sorrowing over the state of my world, and wondering what social calamity will hit us next, I really have to just remind myself to suck it up, quit the pity party, focus on the rules above and pay close attention to the example of Pope Francis who simply "lives it" and that, my friends, is no simple thing at all.