Ash Wednesday

Mercy can take you by surprise.

The other day I was walking to the metro and thinking about an article I read on the Pope's Jubilee of Mercy.  I passed a woman on the corner of the street asking for money.  I was in a hurry, so I didn't want to take the time to dig into my backpack for loose change.  But she looked so sad, and the Pope’s reflections on mercy were in my head.  I returned, fished out a couple of quarters, gave them to her and went on my way.  A teenage boy, who must have seen this exchange, passed me by on his skateboard.  He stopped a few feet in front of me, got out his wallet, pulled out a dollar, turned around, went back to the woman and gave it to her.

I am embarrassed to confess that my silly ego made me first think, “Wow, my act of ‘mercy’ just got bested by a teenager.”  But then I got over myself and thought God is trying to teach me a lesson here.

Mercy engenders more mercy. 

When we see an act of mercy, it spontaneously warms our hearts.  We do the same act of mercy we witnessed, and often, even more.  If you have any doubt about the inspirational aspect of mercy, watch this commercial that a Thai insurance company produced and which went viral.

Today, as we begin our Lenten journey, the commercial’s final question remains:  What do you desire the most in your life?  This year, let us join the pope and respond, Mercy!  It just may be our most transformational Lent ever!

God bless you and all of our Lay Misison-Helpers serving around the world.


-Chad Ribordy

Class of 2015

In just a few weeks, another LMH Class will complete their 4-month formation program and be commissioned for mission on May 17th.  Four LMH candidates have spent the past 4 months participating in classes in Mission Theology, Scripture, Cross Cultural Issues, Adult Development and a variety of other courses while living in community.  Their daily routine consists of morning and evening prayer in the chapel, Mass at St. John the Evangelist Church, morning and afternoon classes, shared meals and community time.

The formation program is both a time of preparation and transition.  Preparation for life in mission and transition from the lives they led before arriving at the Mission House.  It is intense, informative, prayerful, overwhelming and transformative. Just when they are settling in, it is time to pack their bags and start life in a new land.  In a few months, they will put into practice all that they learned in theory over the past few months.   

Ashley Hansen will travel to the Archdiocese of Bamenda, Cameroon, to serve as a teacher at Our Lady of Lourdes Secondary School.  Alicia Adajar-Duante is also headed to Cameroon, to the Diocese of Kumbo where she will serve as a Nurse at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Shisong.  The assignment for Matthew & Vanessa Brown is pending, so they will continue to live in Los Angeles doing a variety of volunteer work while their assignment is formalized.  Martha Franz, a candidate for Mission Doctors Association who has also participated in the formation program, will join Ashley & Alicia in Cameroon serving as a doctor in the Archdiocese of Bamenda.

We ask for your continued prayerful support for our newest LMH.  

Fasting and Feasting

Easter is here. Christ is risen!  It is time to rejoice. The church is overflowing with flowers.  After weeks of its absence, we are singing Allelulia once again.  The candidates and catechumens have changed from their brown robes to ones of white.  Mass seems more special and alive during the Easter season. Fasting is over and feasting has begun.

To put a secular spin on it, it is like going from Kansas to Oz.

But like Dorothy, who discovered there were things to cherish and learn from “home”, I, too, am trying to figure out how to hold on to a bit of Lent in the midst of the Easter festivities and beyond.

We recently had a Lenten Day of Reflection for our LMH Veterans lead by Sr. Gretchen Hailer, RSHM.  It was a great day.  Sr. Gretchen gave us many things to ponder; the Vets shared their reflections; and during lunch we ate soup from handmade bowls donated by Sheila Cavanagh (MDA Veteran).

One of the prayers Sr. Gretchen led us in was a “Lorica” (Breastplate of the Fast and the Feast).  The verses of the prayer focused on all types of fasting – and not the ones we are used to like fasting from certain foods.  Here are a few:

“Let us fast from judging others, and feast on Christ in them.”

“Let us fast from words that pollute and feast on phrases that purify.”

“Let us fast from negatives and feast on affirmatives.”

“Let us fast from thoughts that weaken and feast on promises that inspire.”

As is often the case, for me anyway, is that once Lent is over, I tend to forget about the things I was fasting from, or I’m not as disciplined in continuing the practices I added during the 40 days.

However, I think the above list of “fasting/feasting” is something I (and everyone) can strive to continue.

There were over 20 verses of fasting and feasting in the Lorica.  If we all tried to fast/feast from even one of these, imagine what better persons we would be; what a better world this would be.

The Power of Words

Words have power – to build up or tear down.  What choices am I making – in what I take in and what I give out?

I became aware of how I would feel after reading some comments people would write after an article that was posted online.  I was amazed at how vile people could be – maybe because they could do it anonymously?  I decided I would stop at the end of the article and not scroll to the comments section.

It made me think about how after an event or project I was responsible for, a dozen people could say something nice about it, but often times it is the one negative comment that stuck with me.

In a daily reflection book I read every morning was the following quote:  “Words of love and affirmation are like bread.  We need them each day, over and over.  They keep us alive inside.”  - Henri Nouwen

I also read about an experiment done by Dr. Masaru Emoto (he is featured in the movie “What the Bleep Do We Know”).  In this experiment, Dr Emoto placed portions of cooked rice into two containers. On one container he wrote "thank you" and on the other "you fool". He then instructed school children to say the labels on the jars out loud everyday when they passed them by. After 30 days, the rice in the container with positive thoughts had barely changed, while the other was moldy and rotten.

Sometimes our LMH question the “effectiveness” of their service.  Did they make a difference?  Has anything changed because of their presence?

Alicia Johnson, one of our Veteran LMH, who served in Cameroon with her husband Chris and sons Keaton & Quinn, wrote to us about how she had started something positive in her classroom.  She would have the students compliment the student who sat in front/behind of him/her – she did this row by row each week.  They were not used to giving compliments, but over time, she saw the difference this made to the students.

This is just one example of the difference our LMH are making.  And it is a difference we can make as well.  A kind word to someone, a word of affirmation, and positive thoughts towards others and ourselves can go a long way in making a difference in this world.  Building up people rather than structures is what LMH is about.

To read about how our current LMH are doing this, check out their blogs on our website:  www.laymissionhelpers.org

  

Set The World On Its Ear

Yesterday marked the 50^th Anniversary of the death of Msgr. Anthony Brouwers, founder of Lay Mission-Helpers.  In his short life, Msgr. Brouwers accomplished so much.  In addition to founding LMH, he also founded Mission Doctors Association and started Mission Circles in nearly all of the parishes of the Archdiocese.  I, along with my co-workers and a few LMH Veterans, visited his grave at Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles and had a small prayer service.

Standing at the graveside, looking at his headstone, I realized that I am the same age today as Msgr. Brouwers was when he died.  It caused me to reflect on what have I done to make a difference these past 51 years.  It was humbling.

These thoughts also resonated with something that has been on my mind since New Year’s Eve.  I attended a Kristin Chenoweth concert and she sang the song “I Was Here” by Diane Warren.  It was accompanied by images on a big screen of her (and others) charity work and other contributions and how we should make a difference.  A line repeated throughout the song is: 

I wanna do something that matters
Say something different
Something that sets the whole world on its ear

It is something to strive for, but can seem a bit intimidating.  However, the line following the one above is:

I wanna do something better
With the time I was given
I wanna try to touch a few hearts in this life

That is something we can all do – and what our LMH are doing.  They will improve the education and healthcare of others, implement social service programs, provide clean water in villages, and much more.  But what will have the longest lasting impact are the hearts they touch.  I hear this all of the time when I visit our mission sites.  We are not just humanitarians doing good work – we are sharing the love of Christ with our brothers and sisters around the world.

If we would all do that – share the love and compassion of Jesus with those we meet – in our homes, parishes, neighborhoods, workplaces, on the street – we will truly “set the whole world on its ear.”