This Saturday morning, I took of this picture of this native woman with a child on her back selling nuts and other products from here wheel barrow.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
saturday morning
This Saturday morning, I took of this picture of this native woman with a child on her back selling nuts and other products from here wheel barrow.
july 31, 2010
Dear Jonrey,
A little reflection for your ministry this week and also taking care of Archi.
Leaning on God
by Joyce Rupp
Which of you walks in darkness and sees no light? ... lean on GodIsaiah 50:4-10
Some people lean against fence postswhen their bodies ache from toil.Some people lean on oak trees,seeking cool shade on hot, humid days.
Some people lean on crutchesBrozova/dreamstime.comwhen their limbs won’t work for them;and some people lean on each otherwhen their hearts can’t stand alone.
How long it takes to lean upon you,God of shelter and strength;how long it takes to recognize the truthof where my inner power has its source.
All my independence, with its arrogance,stands up and stretches within me,trying to convince my trembling soulthat I can conquer troubles on my own.
But the day of truth always comeswhen I finally yield to you,knowing you are a steady stronghold,a refuge when times are tough.
Thank you for offering me strength,for being the oak tree of comfort;thank you for being the sturdy supportwhen the limbs of my life are weak.
Praise to you, Eternal Lean-to,for always being there for me.Continue to transform mewith the power of your love.
from your brother Frank
Friday, July 23, 2010
friday, july 23, 2010
Dear Jonrey,
It was nice talking with you this morning and to find out that you were having heavy rain. I know that there was a shortage of water in your area that changed your electrical situation.
So I hope that these rains will help your power situation.
In China on the BBC news it has shown the great damage that has been done in that country.
Your new president will be talking to the parliament this coming week
The connection with skype was not good this morning due to the weather conditions in your areas.
The weather is getting slightly warmer here after a cold spell and the kids have been out of school now three weeks which is called
Winter break.
It is now the weekend and I will be going over to the Maryknoll Sisters for lunch today. One of our Brothers, Al Patrick will be returning to the United States. He turned 65 years old and will be retiring.
He was a nurse and working in the Middle East as well as here in Bolivia.
This is all for now.
frank
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
These days I am reading a book called “Thomas Merton’s Gethsemani Landscapes of Paradise”
These words by Thomas Merton struck me, His love of nature is like St. Francis of Assisi … He is a true Franciscan…
In the sacramental vision of reality, each bird, each frog---and Merton himself--- was continually created; moment to moment each creature was loved into being by a God who is intimately present to each speciesAnd each individual in that species. Merton understood that each creature reveals the immanence of God. Each creature is God coming to us. Each day is an experience of Advent. Making straight the way of the lord, building a highway in the desert is not for the purpose of going to God.We can’t “get to God” for God is too great, too transcendent, God must come to us. God has and God does. God is continually revealing God’s self in the world around us. God’s fullness is present in the person of Jesus, and in God’s overflowing love expressed in each creature. God is not Deus absconditus but Deus imtimus, a God who Saint Augustine said , is more intimate to me than I am to myself, a God longing to be discovered as the very Ground of my being.This is what I want to share with you today for a reflection my dear brother and friend Jonrey.
And I would like to know what are your own true feelings on this that is written by the famous Contemplative Trappist monk Thomas Merton.
It is in this honest sharing with each other that we truly grow as brothers in service to others in the classroom hose in the nursing career within our family as well as with our intimate friends. Would you agree with me on this?
your brother in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Frank
Monday, July 19, 2010
july 19th,Monday evening
I just finished talking and seeing you on Skype this monday evening. The baby is very big now and quite active.
I have a slight cold and a sore throat due to the cold weather here in Cochabamba today. It has been very cold here which is unusual for here but in a week or so it will be over wtth. It is Winter time here but it is short and not like Chicago or other places in northern United States.
I took this picture of the flowers on the vine and on the other side is a tennis court that is hardly used by the students at the language school.
One of our older Brothers died and his name is Leon Cook and was 92 years old from Michigan. He worked many years in Guatemala. He was a farmer but also collect many insects for study for different universities in the United States.
Well soon you will be going for another hospial experience in your country or near your home.
This is all the news for now. Take care of yourself and share with me your photos of your home area.
Frank
Sunday, July 18, 2010
St. Theresa's
This is the monatery of St. Theresa here in Cochabamba, Bolivia, the Carmelite Nuns monastery which is near the Franciscan churh of Hospicio. A five minute walk only.
The Sanctuary
I went up to the altar this morning and to this photo or our Lady of Mount Carmel above the altar.
Our Lady of mount Carmel
So I send her to you again. plus a couple more photos of the monastery which is small and not very big chapel.
snow in the mountains
Dear Jonrey,
It rained last night and to my surprise we had snow on the mountains this morning.
I didn't realize this until I took the taxi this Sunday morning to the Franciscan church of the hospicio.
Today the homily was on Maria and Martha. As you know Maria was sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to him and Martha was doing the work around the house to prepare everything for the guest to make Him feel comfortable and at home.
There is tension in this gospel reading between the contemplative and active life. The Benedictine life style and the Maryknoll missionary life style.
You your self know the difference because you are always busying and doing something around the house, taking care of the needs of your own family and now taking care of Archi as well. Plus being concern about your studies in nursing.
Always busy and seldom finding the time to rest and to reflect.
I am reading a book called "Thomas Merton's Gethsemani Landscapes of Paradise" It is about Merton's life at this trappist monatery in Kentucky. He is a Franciscan at heart because of his love of nature. The photos that he has taken of nature is just beautiful. And his own reflections in what he has seen. A great emphasis on prayer but as you know a great writer of spirituality and shring his own life expereinces. A very human peson and not afraid to share his own failings and his challenges in life.
So the gospel readings today on Martha and Mary hit home in makikng that balance in life between the active and and the contemplative side of life. You are fortunate in knowing the differences from your own life experiences.
This is what I want to share with you on this Sunday. July 18th.
your brother,
Frank
Saturday, July 17, 2010
flower shop
Friday, July 16, 2010
Martha
A Woman’s Place
Barbara E. Reid JULY 5, 2010
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (C), July 18, 2010“Martha welcomed him into her home” (Lk 10:38)
M artha always gets a bad rap. In traditional interpretations of her story, she is said to be too preoccupied or anxious about the details of hospitality to attend well to her guest. Her sister, by contrast, sits in rapt attention at Jesus’ feet, drinking in his every word. When Jesus declares that it is Mary who has “chosen the better part,” the message we are supposed to take away, according to many commentators, is that contemplation, rather than active service is the harder but better choice, and that no one can minister without first sitting and learning at Jesus’ feet. While finding the right balance between contemplation and action is a perennial challenge for most Christians, that may not actually be the question that today’s Gospel addresses. There are many tensions in the story left unanswered by the traditional interpretation.
Recently New Testament scholars have proposed that this Gospel incident may be more a reflection of the situation of the Lucan communities and the questions they were trying to resolve, rather than a report of an episode in the life of Jesus. They have noticed that what concerns Martha is much diakonia, and her distress is over her sister leaving her to carry it out alone. Both the noun diakonia and the verb diakonein occur in verse 40.
Elsewhere in the New Testament, these terms refer primarily to ministerial service, as in Jesus’ declaration of his mission “to serve,” not to “be served” (Mk 10:45; Lk 22:27). In New Testament times, diakonia covered a wide range of ministries. In the case of Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna and the other Galilean women who “provided for” Jesus and the itinerant preachers “out of their resources,” diakonein refers to financial ministry (the Greek word hyparchonton connotes monetary resources, Lk 8:3). This is the same nuance diakonia has in Acts 11:29 and 12:25 regarding Paul’s collection for Jerusalem. In Acts 6:2 diakonein refers to table ministry, while in Acts 6:4 diakonia connotes ministry of the word. In Acts 1:25 diakonia is apostolic ministry. One individual in the New Testament is named a diakonos, Phoebe, “deacon of the church at Cenchreae” (Rom 16:1).
Scholars are now thinking that the incident in today’s Gospel is not about preparing a meal; instead, Martha voices how burdened her heart is over the conflicts surrounding women’s exercise of their ministries in the early church. Some people were greatly in favor of women evangelizers and teachers like Prisca (Acts 18:26), Euodia and Syntyche (Phil 4:3), women prophets like Philip’s four daughters (Acts 21:9), and women heads of house churches, like Nympha (Col 4:15), Mary (Acts 12:12), Lydia (Acts 16:40), and Prisca (Rom 16:5; 1 Cor 16:19). Others, however, argued that a woman’s place was in the home and that speaking and ministering in the public sphere belonged to the men (e.g., 1 Cor 14:34-35; 1 Tm 2:11-12). Luke takes the latter position, giving it validity by placing approval of the silent Mary on Jesus’ lips.
There was never any question in the early church about women becoming disciples. Both Martha and Mary welcomed Jesus and the word he spoke (vss. 38-39). The controversy swirled around what women would do with what they learned while sitting at Jesus’ feet. The answer Luke gave was quite understandable for his time. Today’s Gospel invites us to reflect on what answer Jesus might give today to the question of woman’s place in the ministries of the church as they have now evolved.
sweets
Outside the church they sell all kinds of sweets including nus raisins and cookies etc. for this feast day.
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