Day Retreat

In preparation for our week of “going out,” we spent our first full day in Honduras looking within – a day spent in quiet prayer and reflection within the confines of the San Serafin home. We began the day with Morning Prayer and Mass, followed by an opportunity to go to Confession.

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament during afternoon Holy Hour. 

Picture of mountains, taken from the rooftop of the San Serafin home. 

Fr. Pascal (above) follows Brother Diego's talk on mercy by leading a discussion. Fr Pascal focuses on how we can apply mercy to dissolve barriers that divide us as God's children. Divine Mercy is a form of love and forgiveness that pierces deep, bitter hatred and/or suffering to usher in God's healing grace.     

Throughout the rest of the day, individual reflection time was broken up by three different talks and discussions. Brother Diego’s morning talked revolved around mercy and the good news of the gospel. Using a reading from Isaiah 56, Brother challenged us to reflect on the times that God’s mercy has rained down on our own lives, and produced fruit. Brother also touched on how the plight of poor and suffering here in Honduras can be overwhelming  – that often times there is no consolation, but that we must trust in Jesus and His mercy.

Gathering for Brother Rock's (left) afternoon talk.

Brother Rock delivered a talk on “lectio divina” – a method of praying by using text from Scripture. This method utilizes the following four step/ “R” formula: 1) Reading  - text from Holy Scripture 2) Receive – meditate on the reading, let it soak in. 3) Reply – “respond” to it in prayer 4) Rest – spend time in quiet contemplation, allow God to do the talking.  This afternoon, we applied the methodology of lectio divina to Luke’s passage on the Transfiguration.  Our one-day retreat concluded with Holy Hour, followed by dinner, then a Ping-Pong tournament. Tomorrow we will begin our first day of work.

We have three projects on the “To Do List” for tomorrow. The first project involves laying an underground water pipe to a community in the hills (The people living there have been without water for a couple of months since the pipe they were using got shut down). The second construction project involves building a house. The third project/ activity in-store revolves around outreach, and visits to the sick and elderly.

It was another early night to bed – this time in preparation for tomorrow’s work. Instead of rain, however, we were lulled to sleep with by the sound of a soccer game being played in a field across the dirt street from the the San Serafin Home.