Details, Details, Details

We just got this photo. These are the lay missioners from the four sending groups that met here last month. Aren't we a good looking group? Two are going to Asia, about half are going to Latin America and the other half to Africa. We had a great time together and learned much from one another.

It seems impossible that we only have three weeks left here at Bethany! Classes are starting to wind down, but practical details have become pressing. There are only three more classes scheduled. Our travel medicine expert will be talking about staying healthy in mission. Next week we have our final Scripture class with Brother Jack and then a closing retreat. The rest of the time will be spent in individual meetings about health care, benefits, human resources, and accounting. All that fun stuff that is so important.

There are two big ceremonies coming up. On Friday, December 10th we will be having our Commitment Ceremony. This is a small gathering of the seven candidates (us), other Maryknoll Lay Missioners, staff, mentors and special guests that have been a part of our orientation program. During the Mass we will sign our covenant with Maryknoll Lay Missioners.

The biggest celebration is our Sending Ceremony on December 12th. This is a combination graduation and send off. The theme is "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news" Isaiah 52:7 The altar will be decorated with items from the countries where we will be going: Bolivia, El Salvador, Panama, Cambodia, China, Tanzania,and Kenya. Prayers will be spoken in the languages we will be speaking. We will be "called forth" into mission, presented with our mission crosses and then "sent forth". As a closing there will be a ringing of the sending bell. This is a tradition that dates back to 1911 when the very first Maryknoll missionaries were sent to mission.

The night before the Sending Ceremony is the Christmas Concert. This too is a traditional event with choir members from the Fathers and Brothers, Sisters, and Lay Missioners. I'm singing too! I haven't sung in a choir since high school. I'm usually stationed at the keyboard. Those high notes aren't as easy to reach as they used to be. The chapel is dark as the concert starts. We will enter from the basement with lighted candles. I guess it is a very impressive sight and a musical treat.

Now, not only are we finishing classes and planning these ceremonies, but also trying to take care of travel details. We're working on booking flights, applying for visas, setting up bank accounts so we can receive money, purchasing last minute needed items. Think getting ready for vacation, but this trip will last a much longer time.

Here's what our break is going to look like. We will start driving back to Kansas on Sunday, December 13th arriving home the evening of the 14th. On Wednesday we'll fly to Dallas to see my sister Kathy, her family, and Dad and Betty. We'll return home on Friday. Sunday is Korb Christmas. Andrea will be flying in that morning. I think we'll be spending Christmas day with John's mom. She usually comes over to our house for lunch, but that won't be possible this year! Andrea leaves on the 26th and we are hoping to start driving back to New York on the 27th. We'll stop by Andrea's gym in between those two-a-day practices she'll be having.

We'll try to see as many of you as possible during our limited time in Kansas. I know and understand that with the holidays your time too is limited with holiday preparations.

We leave for Kenya on January 1st. What an appropriate start to the new year.

Healing of Memories

Talk about going from one extreme to another. Today at lunch we had the opportunity to hear a guest speaker, Father Michael Lapsley. He is an Anglican priest originally from New Zealand. He moved to South Africa in the 1970s. In the late 1970s he was banned from South Africa and was on their hit list. While living in Zimbabwe, he was sent a letter bomb by the South African government. It was hidden between two religious magazines. As a result he lost both hands, an eye, and his eardrum was shattered.

His message was that all people have a story to tell. Every story needs a listener. This is even more essential when a traumatic event has occurred. He said that even as the bomb was exploding he felt God's presence. The Scripture promise of "I am with you always" was being kept.

He had traveled extensively working for human rights before the bomb. As a result, he received numerous messages of love, support and encouragement from around the world. Because of this encouragement, he was able to heal not only physically but emotionally.

"Quite early on after the bomb I realised that if I was filled with hatred and desire for revenge I’d be a victim forever."

He felt he was able to heal emotionally because his experience was recognized, acknowledged, and given reverence. Acknowledgment is more than knowing or realizing something has happened. It is admitting at the deepest level that a wrong was done. This step is essential for healing. When abuse or a traumatic event occurs the perpetrator has inverted the moral order. (S)he in action or word told the victim that what happened to them is their (the victim's fault). Not true at all!

When an evil is done on a personal level, there are response three stages: victim, survivor, and hopefully victor. In the victim stage something awful has happened. Many people don't get beyond the victim stage. Those people ultimately become victimizers who do terrible things to others lashing out because they have been so hurt. In order to leave victimhood behind, the survivor needs acknowledgment by themselves and others of what has happened. Only then can they begin to put the awful event behind them. A victor is able to reclaim their lives. They are no longer an object that something happened to, but an active subject able to move on.

In order to heal, one needs to reveal. If past events are buried, they fester until they erupt. The burden of these events never goes away no matter how much one tries to ignore them. The past must be acknowledged, but we can't let ourselves become a prisoner of that past.

Forgiveness is a choice. It is a journey where you begin to look again toward the future.

He views interfaith dialogue as the future for the world. We must work toward an interfaith journey in which we must reference, reflect and receive from one another.

We can't be human by ourselves. To be fully human we need other.

He has since returned and become a South African citizen. After apartheid he worked for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Witnesses who were victims of gross human rights violations were invited to give statements about their experiences. This commission heard reports of human rights violations and considered amnesty to perpetrators of violence.

If you'd like to find out more about Father Michael Lapsley and his Institute for Healing of Memories take a look at his website www.healingofmemories.co.za

Importance of Laughter

This afternoon we had a chance to attend a lecture by Father James Martin titled Laughing with God. His is an interesting story. He was on the fast track working in corporate finance for General Electric and moving up the career ladder. However, he found that he was unhappy living and working in the corporate world. Surprisingly everybody including himself, he ended up joining the Jesuits and became a priest.

Father James has written several books and I think I will be adding a couple of titles to my Christmas list. In fact we didn't realize that we had bought one of his a year ago titled This Our Exile: A Spiritual Journey With the Refugees of East Africa about his two years spent in Kenya. I doubt there is much humor in that one, but it sounds like his sense of humor comes shining through in My Life With the Saints.

He emphasized that we all need joy, humor and laughter in our spiritual lives. We Christians tend to take ourselves entirely too seriously and don't laugh enough. God wants us to laugh and enjoy ourselves. We need to show our joy and love of life. He gave ten reasons why laughter is essential. I'm afraid I didn't take notes and can't relate them here, but do know that we laughed with him for over an hour. He told great stories as he illustrated his points.

Here is one of his jokes simplified to make it a little shorter: A Franciscan and St. Jesuit priest were killed in an automobile accident. They were killed upon impact and found themselves at the gates of heaven together. The gates were thrown open and they were surrounded by hundreds even thousands of angels. All of the sudden a red carpet was rolled out and ended up at the feet of the St. Jesuit priest. A parade of Jesuit saints came down the carpet to welcome him including Francis Xavier, Francis Jerome, and Anthony Daniel. The final saint was Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order. Once all the greetings and hugs were given a blue carpet landed at the Jesuit's feet. Who should come down the blue carpet to welcome him, but Mary the mother of Jesus. Now a third carpet came rolling down out of heaven. This one was white and it was Jesus himself coming to escort the priest into heaven.

The Franciscan priest was thrilled to see how his friend was being welcomed into heaven. The angels, saints, Mary, Jesus and Jesuit priest entered heaven and the gates closed behind them. That left the Franciscan priest alone outside the gates of heaven. While he was there he was imagining who would come out to welcome him. Would it be St. Francis de Sales, St. Bonaventure, Agnes of Prague and even St. Francis of Assisi, founder of his order? He started rehearsing speeches that he would give to each of them. Suddenly he realized that he had been outside the gates of heaven for over 15 minutes. He waited and waited. An hour went by. Then it was two and finally three.

At this point he was starting to get upset. Over at the side of the main gate a small door opened in the wall surrounding heaven. "Psst!" a minor saint hollered. "Over here."

"What?" the Franciscan priest said.

The minor saint said, "Come over here. Come on in."

"What? My friend got such a huge welcome. There were angels and saints, Mary and even Jesus to escort him into heaven. Where is my welcoming committee?"

"Oh that. We have Franciscans coming every day. We haven't had a Jesuit in over 50 years!"

The Widow's Mite

John and I have enjoyed Father Mark's homilies over the years as they are humorous and show much wisdom. They are insightful, relevant, challenging and yet practical. We leave Mass feeling inspired and uplifted.

Brother Jack has been teaching our Scripture studies and has many of the same talents, but an altogether different method of opening up the Scriptures. He is a Capuchin Fransican Friar who travels from Boston to be with us. We all look forward to his classes as he forces us to dig deeper to gain more understanding.

During class we read and look at the Bible in three different ways. First is a exegesis reading. "What jumps out at you? What did you notice?" What does the Scripture text actually say?" Here we are not looking at any interpretation, just things to notice and ponder. We will come back and discuss them later.

Next comes the hermeneutic reading. Hermeneutics is the art and science of interpreting the Scriptures and examining their true meaning. Now we ask those questions and look at explanations.

Finally, Brother Jack gives us the historical and cultural background that impacts the meaning and helps to give a fuller intrepretation.

Lots of big vocabulary words, but here are some of the insights he gave us today as we discussed yesterday's Gospel, Mark 12:38 - 44 (the Denunciation of the Scribes and the Widow's Mite).

Mark's Gospel was written to an audience of the poor. The Scribes are the VIPs in the village. They are one of the few literate people, study the Law, and write down the insights of the rabbis. Because of their education, they would know Jewish Law better than anyone. They would know what is expected of the communnity to take care of the poor.

The Scribes are only supposed to wear their long robes (special symbolic clothing) in the Temple and when they visit the poor. However, they are wearing this clothing all the time out in public to show off their importance. Yet they aren't visiting or taking any action to help the poor. Their actions don't match what they know they should do. Much is expected of them, but they aren't doing what is expected. Mark is telling the poor to beware of the Scribes. They aren't being good role models since they aren't concerned about and helping the less fortunate.

The widow symbolizes the poor and the voiceless in society. During ancient times women were considered property. According to Levite Law if a woman's husband died, she was her son's property if he was of age. However, if her son was young or she had no son, she became the property of her husband's oldest brother. If he died, she was handed over to the next brother, etc. She had no rights, could not own land or property, had nothing, and couldn't support herself.

In verse 40 it says "They devour the houses of widows . . ." The widow is made even poorer by the Scribes. She is expected to tithe as she enters the Temple. A part of this tithe goes to help support the Scribes. Even though they know they should, the Scribes are doing nothing to help her. In fact, they are making themselves richer while trying to make it appear that they are helping others. She forgot herself and her needs in order to help others. Even though her contribution was practically nothing, it was all she had. The rich were getting richer while she was getting poorer. She was helping others. She gave her all, everything that she had while the Scribes gave their "extra" money. It didn't hurt them at all to give the money they tithed.

This passage affirms the place of the poor. God loves them and appreciates them even more because they give what little they have to help one another. Jesus is the supreme example of giving everything for those he loved.

Prayer Experiences

As you might guess, we are having many different types of prayer experiences as we prepare to go into mission. Wednesdays at noon those that are interested are invited to join in Centering Prayer. If you are interested in learning more about it, watch this short video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mfaK6XOq5E


Here are a couple of variations of the Lord's Prayer we've discovered. Isn't it interesting to see how the different cultures interpret it? It makes you rethink it's meaning to us.

A Latin American Adaptation of The Lord's Prayer

Our Lord,
Who is in us here on earth
Holy is your name in the hungry
Who share their bread and song.
Your kingdom come, which is a generous land
That flows with milk and honey.
Let us do your will,
Standing up when all are sitting down,
and raising our voice when all are silent.
You are giving us our daily bread
In the song of the bird and the miracle of the corn.
Forgive us
For keeping silent in the face of injustice, and
For burying our dreams,
For not sharing our bread and wine,
love of the land,
among us, now.
Keep us from the temptation of shutting our hearts in fear;
of resigning ourselves to hunger and injustice;
of taking up the same arms as the enemy.
But deliver us from evil.
Give us the perseverance and the solidarity
To look for love,
Even if the path has not yet been trodden,
even if we fall.
Help us to know and rejoice in your Kingdom
Which is being built for ever and ever.
Amen



The Lord's Prayer
Based on the original Aramaic- source unknown

O Cosmic Birther of all radiance and vibration!
Soften the ground of our being
and carve out a space within us where
your presence can abide.
Fill us with your creativity so that we
may be empowered to bear
the fruit of your mission.
Let each of our actions bear fruit in
accordance with your desire.
Endow us with the wisdom to produce
and share what each being needs to grow and flourish.
Untie the tangled
threads of destiny that bind us,
as we release others from the entanglement of past mistakes.
Do not let us be seduced by that which
would divert us from our true purpose,
but illuminate the opportunities of the
present moment.
For you are the ground and fruitful vision,
the birth, power and fulfillment,
as all is gathered and made
whole once again.