Southern Exposure

In my last post I made two major announcements about what life would hold for me over the next year, beginning with two months in Mexico on May 31. I’ve appreciated all of the comments and the congratulations, and thank all of you very much!

But there is another announcement to be shared now. As some of you may have been wondering, and a few of you even asked, why there is a big gap between now and May 31. What exactly will I be doing until then?

How about another road trip?

As some of you may remember, I traveled from San Diego to Washington with a classmate of mine last year, writing about our journey and beginning my filming “experiment” on the road. This year, our trip is less practical as it is fraternal: traveling with two other friars in formation, we plan to visit all of our “southern” ministries over a period of a week, spending some time with the friars and getting to know their life and ministry.

Even though we’ve always had friars living in the south (and, if you ask me, our best places in the province today are in the south) it is sometimes treated as “mission territory” among the friars of the “New York” province because it is not located in Manhattan. As a result, most guys in formation don’t get a chance to see many of our places or get to know the southern church.

Just over 1500 miles in 8 days, this trip will be less about the road and more about being with our brothers.

No longer. Starting from Washington, D.C., we’ll stop in Raleigh/Durham NC, Macon and Athens GA, Clemson, Anderson, and Greenville SC, Stoneville NC, and conclude with a stop in Triangle VA before heading back to DC. In a span of eight days, we’ll get to see six parishes, two universities, and a retreat center, not to mention 23 different friars living in nine different friaries. Unlike last year in which much of our time was on the road and all of the things I shared (videos and blogs) had to do with the sights and tastes of each region of our country, this year we’re hoping to spend most of our time with the friars, sharing more about the Franciscan presence in each area. I don’t plan on making any videos this trip, but will definitely be blogging and posting to the Facebook page. (If you’re interested in seeing pictures, you’re definitely going to want to “like” the Facebook page.)

This was my mom’s reaction when she saw me at church today. Worth it.

As a final note, being that we we’re starting day three of the trip today and will be behind in sharing come the first post, you might be wondering why I didn’t announce this in the last post with the other announcements or get ahead of the story with more pictures or posts. Funny story. We planned this trip two months ago and I told my mom about it. Being that my parents live two hours away from Raleigh/Durham (where we are staying now) and were not planning on adding two hours to our 1500 mile trip, she accepted the fact that we wouldn’t see each other and forgot about it. Since it was Mother’s Day yesterday, however, she later made plans to see my sisters in Raleigh and to attend mass at the parish we’re staying out now, forgetting the fact that I would be here. When my sisters and dad found this out, we decided not to remind her, and since she reads this blog, I decided not to announce it. Her reaction was worth the wait…

 8 Comments

 Posted on May 9, 2016 by

 Fraternity, Ministry, Trips

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Our Franciscan Mission

After ten days of reflecting and slaving over a hot computer, I am pleased to present a video about our mission to Nicaragua.

There are two things you might notice right away. The first is that the video does not follow the chronological order of the trip. In fact, it doesn’t even show every aspect of the trip. There is only one clip of us praying and no clips of us reflecting, two things we did together every day of the trip. There’s also very little about our meals or relaxing time, and believe it or not, no description of the organization that ran the whole trip or the great work they’re doing (you can check it out here if you’re interested). These are not oversights. Part of it was simply a decision to put the camera down at times in order to fully participate (prayer) or a respect of others’ vulnerability and privacy (reflections), but part of it was simply a conscious decision to show something more than the just “my trip.” I wanted to show mission. What is it about this trip that is true for other trips? What is it about this experience that represents the experience of Franciscans on a larger scale? This I found much more interesting than cataloguing every detail and event.

The other thing might be a bit more surprising. Outside of the opening introduction, you will not hear me speak in this video. Unlike all of the other videos that were entirely directly by my voice and reflection, this one is directly entirely by my fellow Franciscan friars on mission. Did I all of the sudden get camera shy? Not exactly. What I realized part of the way through the trip was that this was not my trip to give some wise, all-encompassing reflection, it was our trip. Each friar brought with him different expectations and added to the life of the mission in a different way. Sure I have reflections to share (as I’ve shared two posts on it already) but there was something about the Franciscan nature of this mission that couldn’t be shared by one person, and there was even a thought that it couldn’t be shared by me. I decided to document my brothers’ experience, to let them tell our story.

As usual, if you are reading this via email, you can click here to watch the video.

Big Announcement: Another Trip

Although technically 300 miles closer than San Diego, this trip will be a world away.

Although technically 300 miles closer than San Diego, this trip will be a world away.

For the second time this summer, I write to you today to announce a major trip I will be taking with the friars: in one week’s time, I will be on a plane with five other friars and twelve lay people on the way to Ciudad Dario, a small city in the western part of Nicaragua. There, the group of us from St. Camillus parish will help to make progress on a new school being built for 240 students.

As you can imagine, this trip could not be any more different from the road trip across the country in May. In fact, with the exception of my classmate Edgardo, there may not be anything in common. For the road trip, I planned everything long in advance, knew mostly what I was getting into, traveled willingly, moved almost constantly for a week (although remaining almost entirely sedentary for much of it), and kept in contact with people throughout with updates, pictures, and videos. This trip, I have planned no aspect of it, have very little idea what I am about to do, was assigned to go on this trip by the formation team (I would have went even if it was optional), will remain in basically the same location for a week’s time while working very hard, and will have no way of contacting anyone until I return to the States. But there’s more. This trip is actually different from any trip I have ever been on. While, yes, I have been on a mission trip, this one is the first one amidst “third world” poverty, and actually, my first trip out of the United States at all. 

Naturally, the more I’ve thought about it over the past week the more anxious I am about it. This is seriously new territory for me. Although technically closer to home than San Diego, where I am going will be a world away. Language, culture, food, sanitation, customs. All of these things will be foreign to me and no doubt difficult to adjust to at first.

And yet, there is definitely a corresponding excitement to all of my fears. Since I will be traveling with a large group–some of which were on this same trip last year–to a place run by an American company, there is a sure sense of relief that I don’t have to know everything or be prepared for every situation. Sure, there are obviously dangers in what we will be doing and I have so far taken all of the necessary precautions (shots, research, medicine, packing, etc.), but there is something to be said about simply being a follower and active participant for once. It’s in this sort of space that I look forward to experiencing so many things for the first time, good and… “less good.”

Our main task will be, as I said, to build a school, but there is much more to it than a desire to complete a task. We’re Franciscans in the end, aren’t we? We know that people have started the project before us and we know that we will not be the one’s who will finish it, and so, while we want to give a week of honest work, we also recognize that there’s more to be built on the trip than the school: we are going to build relationships. Our desire is to work together, for the poor, with the poor, and as the poor, always focused on the reason for the school, the people, more than on the school building itself. As our leader said, “If you get a little tired or if one of the students comes up to you with a soccer ball… or even if you’re not tired and you just want a break… we encourage everyone to spend time with the kids. Play a game. Read them a book. Put together a puzzle.”

Overall, I think I really am looking forward to the trip. Since I will be going with five other Franciscan friars (four of which are in temporary vows like me), it will definitely serve as a strong bonding experience. There are just some things you can’t know about each other living in Maryland; throwing people together in an intense, uncomfortable situation is just a different experience than living together normally!

As I said, I won’t be able to share anything along the way as I did last time, but my hope is to put together a video of the experience the week after we return. Until then, it’s back to work here at St. Francis parish where I am finishing up my summer assignment this weekend. Peace and good!

 4 Comments

 Posted on July 17, 2015 by

 News, Trips

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Bury My Heart at St. Anthon-knee

On the road by 6:30 Saturday morning, Lalo and I were off to our final destination: Greenville, SC. Long-time readers will know that Greenville is where I went to college (Furman University) and is also where I first discerned religious life. Naturally, I have an affection for Greenville that I simply do not share with other places in the world, and you may notice a bias in this video. For this, I do not apologize. Greenville is a fantastic city with incredible people and I would move there in a heartbeat if I were able. (Interestingly enough, Fr. Patrick Tuttle, OFM, featured in this video, just had an article written about him in the Greenville News. You can read it here.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-_PFRZmNdI

Since the final day of traveling was more of a sprint than a journey, and since our destination was our normal home, not a new or interesting destination, I’ve decided that this video will be the last one of the road trip. I want to thank everyone who supported us along the way, and I really hope you enjoyed the journey as much as we did.

Tomorrow I head to Triangle, VA, where I will spend eight weeks at St. Francis Church teaching, preaching, listening, organizing, and maybe even some sleeping! It’s going to be a great summer for sure, and now that I’ve gotten a taste for movie making, I may even show you what life is like at some point!

 5 Comments

 Posted on June 1, 2015 by

 Trips

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There Were Some Nice Things Too

After talking with a few people over the past few days, I realized that I may have been a little too harsh on New Orleans given my limited experience. I still won’t say that I had a good experience, but given all that it has to offer, I’d be willing to give it another try with the right tour guide. Anyway, when I went back I was able to find enough good footage from the day to share another video. Check it out and tell me what you think!

In other news, the videos are two days behind the actual experience, so we made it back to Washington, D.C. just a few hours ago after a long day of traveling. It was a great trip, with a lot to reflect on and much more to share than I have already. Look for a video about our experience in Greenville tomorrow, a few reflections about the experience in the coming weeks, and after I’m able to bring it all together, a much longer video that will try to give an overall narrative to the experience. I hope you enjoyed our trip! We certainly did!

Breaking In The Habit

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