Ya en Honduras (Now in Honduras)

Praying the Rosary with Missioners of Christ.

On Friday, November 18, I flew into Tegucigalpa, and was met at the airport by two Honduran members of the Missioners of Christ community in Comayagua. Actually the two young women who met me are both currently college students who stay during the week at Missioners' university residence in Tegucigalpa, where we went for lunch and later met Carol Restaine and Roger Blanco. After picking us some supplies (always part of a trip to Teguz) we headed to Comayagua. When I return to Honduras after being away for a while I am always overwhelmed by the amazing natural beauty of the mountains, sky and vegetation - lush and green now at the end of the rainy season.

St. Seraphin Friary and Casa Guadalupe.

One of my principal purposes in coming to Honduras is to assist Missioners of Christ as they integrate new members into their long-term community in Honduras and begin a new "season" of activities, as well  as to be part of a team that will be preparing Honduran high school and university students (whose vacation begins next week) for a week of evangelization in mountain villages, during which I will also accompany them.

Provisional Chapel at the Granja, with statue  of Jesus
donated by Mary Our Queen Parish, Norcross, Georgia.

One of my great joys in returning to Honduras is the opportunity of visiting and spending time with the residents and staff of Jesus of Nazareth Farm (Granja Jesús de Nazaret), who are like family to me. Maynor and Bryan (Honduran Missioners of Christ) accompanied me to the Granja on Sunday morning for Mass. I was very inspired to see the way in which a classroom became a provisional chapel, complete with a statue  of the Resurrected Christ - a donation from the parish of Mary Our Queen Parish in Norcross, Georgia.  It was particularly appropriate on the Solemnity of Christ the King, which we celebrated at Mass. It is the fervent hope and deep desire of everyone at the Granja that one day there will be a permanent chapel on the property that enshrines the Eucharistic Presence of Christ the King.

Young man reading at Mass (he did a great job).

 As always the Mass was well prepared, with clean linens and fresh flowers, and the two young men who proclaimed the Scripture readings did an excellent job. Similarly, all the boys who received Holy Communion did so very devoutly.

An attentive congregation.

Fr. Herald and Bryan (a Honduran Missioner of Christ).

A young boy fascinated by the articles used for Mass
- a future vocation?

Right after Mass Chema and Ada Alcerro helped to distribute small Ethiopian crosses I picked up during my recent trip to Africa to everyone who came to Mass. The crosses have a distinctly Ethiopian design and I saw many people wearing them in Addis Ababa. It's a special joy for me to share, even in a small way, my missionary experiences with these boys and young men, and to help them feel part of a Church that spans countries and centuries.

A Down's Syndrome boy wearing one of the Ethiopian crosses
distributed to everyone at the orphanage.

Group photo after Mass.

 To round off the day, we showed the most recent Narnia film to the younger boys (some of the young men came, too). Next Sunday after Mass we'll take the older boys on an outing.

Watching Narnia.