Is Robin Hood a Saint?

Wow, it has been a very long time since I wrote… Sorry! We are just heading into exam week for school tomorrow! Then students will have break and we will be starting a few “summer” programs for the children around town!

Most people know that I have a lot of time to think. So, in that time I was reflecting on the president’s statement, “We need to teach republican’s that compromise is not a dirty word!” I do not get a lot of news on TV here, but that is one quote and speech that Al Jazeera covered a few weeks ago. And it got me thinking about compromise and if what he said is true, that compromise is not a dirty word.

Typically I do not enjoy talking about politics, but when I was thinking about “…compromise is not a dirty word,” A fun question that directly relates to this quote came to mind: Is Robin Hood a saint? After all, Robin Hood did dedicate his life to helping others. (A saint being someone who now finds rest in the presence of God in Heaven, not necessarily being recognized as a saint by the church)

This question came to mind because from what I have seen in the past months from the president and what I see in Robin Hood is this, they are both compromising morals! Robin Hood STOLE from people to help the poor. He threw morals out the window to help people out. The HHS mandate is immoral, but is part of something that could possibly help some people. He too threw morals out the window to help some people out. So yes. Compromise IS a dirty word if what you are compromising is morality!!

Merely helping people out while throwing morals out the window is NOT ENOUGH! Yes, helping your brothers and sisters in their physical and spiritual needs is one of the most important aspects of life… But to do so with a complete disregard to morality is not service at all.

On the contrary to Robin Hood is Saint Francis of Assisi! He asked for donations to serve others, never stealing to help others. His life was completely and totally devoted to the service of others, yet he never sacrificed his morality to do so! It was probably more work and sacrifice for Saint Francis than it was for Robin Hood. But that just makes it all the more beautiful!!

Here on mission, I have to compromise. I give up watching the evening news so I can get an extra hour of sleep each night so I can wake up a bit earlier to get to mass. At GT and Elon I did the opposite in regards to sleep, I would give up sleep in order to get another few hours of studying in. I both situations I compromise my sleep schedule so I can perform better. The above are not dirty situations, and ‘compromise’ is not a dirty word here.

‘I will skip church tomorrow morning so I can stay out later tonight!’ Compromising mass to ‘have a good time.’ …Compromise IS a dirty word here.

If you lie… you can get away with doing something wrong. You are compromising morals to save your butt; compromise IS a dirty word. Or, rather, you can compromise your butt’s well being to save your morals! All because we know that Jesus will be waiting with His arms WIDE OPEN, saying, ‘you chose Me when it would have been easier to choose to compromise your morals.’

Beautiful end to a story huh? But that’s the truth. Never compromise your morals and Jesus will welcome you home in the end! J It may be a bit more suffering and sacrifice now if we always choose to save our morals, I won’t deny that. But I can promise you it will always be worth it. Do not conform to what people tell you “the norm” is. Pray about morality and how to always choose it.

 “He is the Truth, and the Truth will set you free” Doing whatever you want is NOT freedom.

Peace and Love,

~Dan

Ps. An answer to, ‘Is Robin Hood a saint’: Only God knows that with certainty. What I do know though is that he does not have a feast in the liturgical year and he spent his life stealing and directly violating the 10 commandments based on a prejudice against whole group of people… 

Life Update

The last post was about what is on my mind... now about what is going on in my life! I will talk about it all here, but I will post pictures on Facebook... it takes way too long for pictures to load here! (...and I used to think that it was quicker to do it here! haha)

First, the trip to Gogrial and Akon (pictures already posted):

Great drive! I always love going for drives through new places! I think that is because I love nature and just think the world and landscape is so beautiful The road was not paved, it was like that scene in Ace Ventura when he is cruising through the forest! haha A lot of fun though! :) We visited some brothers from another religious order in Gogrial, then carried on to Akon (about 45 minutes away) where they were finishing up construction on a new church in the presidents home town. It was pretty massive! 

Second, October 31st rosary procession for the end of the month of the rosary:

I love the processions we have here! First because they are always full of children! But also because it is very rare to find such public acts of faith in the US! It was very beautiful walking around the town near the church for about 30 minutes as the sun was setting! It was also amazing to see a procession that was long enough that the end of the line was on a different part of the rosary because they could not hear the front! Very cool witness to the faith by an abundance of children!

Third, All Souls Day mass:

We had off of school for all souls day (but not all saints day... dont ask, im still confused too.) There was mass in the graveyard in the evening which was very cool. Not just the idea to pray for the dead in the graveyard... but because there were at least 4,000 people present!! This is not an exaggeration. I guessed 3000-5000, some other people guessed even more than that. So i think 4,000 is a good conservative guess-timate!  Mass was celebrated by the bishop and lasted about two and a half hours, it was beautiful! 

In other news, life at the VTC continues to go well! Exams are the first week of December, then we have a 3 month vacation from school. I am sure I will be kept busy with work at the parish and with the street children though!

Now that I am giving the exam, and am on the other side of the test, I know a little more how it feels to give tests... I always thought it didn't matter to the teacher how one student does, but it does! I always get sad when even one student does not do well. So, i have a new understanding! -Thank you to all of my teachers who graded my tests! :) 

I'll be sure to keep you all updated on new works that I start when I do not have school!

Those are the main events!! It is almost time for prayer though, so pictures will come tomorrow on Facebook! :) 

Peace!

~Dan

(sorry if there are some bad spelling mistakes, or worse than usual grammar. I did not type this before hand in Word like I usually do!)

Seek Ye First

I have a new hobby… Reading! This should come as a surprise to most people who know me! But in my spare time I have started to read a lot. One theme that has been coming up a lot in the books I have been reading is the message, ‘Never stop searching!’ This idea of never ceasing to search is what makes me want to read more! It is a fabulous cycle: read, learn, and become inspired to read/search for more! (It just took me about 24 years to get in the cycle!)

The only way we can come to know God is by searching! In prayer, in life, in reading, [and most importantly] in the sacraments! If we search, God will answer. I read recently, ‘one of the Devil’s greatest tricks is to get us to stop searching’ (which is what got me thinking, and eventually writing).

One of the most notorious, or cliché, sayings from someone who refuses to believe in God is, ‘I cannot believe in a God who allows so much suffering and pain!’ But I would bet most people who say that never asked ‘why is there suffering and pain?’ and if they did ask that, I can almost guarantee that they did not search for an answer. Asking is good only if you are willing to search for an answer!

Side note:

If you are reading this and want an answer: Free will! One thing that makes us humans, human, is our free will. We are free to choose good or evil. If God were to step in every time someone was going to choose evil, we cease to have free will. If we have no free will, we cease to be human and our ‘yes’ to God is meaningless if the choice is not ours. BUT our ‘yes’ to God is never forced, thus it is NEVER meaningless… our ‘yes’ is the greatest gift we can give! This is just a quick response to get you thinking, to start your search! If you want to continue your search… read the book, ‘Crossing the Threshold of Hope’ by Blessed John Paul II. AMAZING BOOK! Basically it is an interview with a reporter who asks some very tough questions and JP2 who gives phenomenal answers!

The point of the example is this: the person who has that attitude, or asks that question, never searches. They could eventually end up denying the existence of God. It is about the lack of searching! Something or someone (the devil?) created in that person a hardened heart, a heart that had no desire to search. Maybe it was via comfort, ‘I don’t care about searching for more. I am happy where I am; why bother upsetting the apple cart?’ Maybe the person puts his faith in worldly gratification, ‘Well, instead of searching for the faith and love, I can be happy if I go shopping, have a few more drinks or hook up!’ There are plenty of other examples. With any of these excuses the point is that we are deterred from the desire to search for more.

I used an extreme example of someone denying God because s/he refused to search, but the something similar can be said for those who have a strong faith! I promise if you search for more, you will find it. You can always grow, you can always increase faith, but you have to have the desire: you have to search! I know for me, sometimes pride can get in the way and I catch myself saying, ‘I already read and prayed today.’ Maybe we can catch ourselves only doing the minimum of what we think will get us to Heaven. Yes, the end goal should always be heaven, but your attitude should NEVER be to do the bare minimum to get to heaven. (We know this because Jesus giving us the beatitudes. In addition to following  the commandment, He gave us ‘open ended commandments’ that we can always work on perfecting in our lives; we can always SEARCH for a greater understanding of the beatitudes!

You have to want to search! Like in scrubs when JD is lifting a couch he yells, “YOU GOTTA WANT IT JOHNNY D!!! YOU GOTTA WANT IT!” God has already put that desire in your heart to want more. All you have to do is make the first step (ask a tough question and search for the answer) and He will do the rest! J

                                                                                                                                                                           

I just finished reading, ‘Crossing the Threshold of Hope’ and just today started a book called, ‘To the Field of Stars’ about the camino de Santiago! I am extremely excited for the new book. It might make my day dreaming and staring into space worse than it typically is! But none the less, I am excited!

Looks like this post was a bit longer… Hope you made it through and will click the link to my blog next time I update it!

One final thing: This song sums up what I was trying to say!! J Seek and God will answer!

Seek Ye first the kingdom of God,
And His righteousness,
And all these things, shall be added onto you, 
Alleu, alleuia

Man shall not live by bread alone,
But by every word
That proceeds from the mouth of God
Alleu, Alleuia
Ask and it shall be given unto you,

My Pilgrimage

It is no secret that I day dream a lot (SLMs, this should be no surprise to you especially). It is also no secret about what… as the one picture on facebook suggests, I am day dreaming about walking to Santiago de Compestella! I dream of walking up to the resting place of St. James and saying, ‘wow, this man knew Jesus Christ Himself!!’ I guess you could say, I dream of being a pilgrim.

The never failing Wikipedia defines a pilgrimage as “a journey of moral or spiritual significance.” The definition of a pilgrim, again, relying on Wikipedia is, “a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journeying…”  Yes, typically we always think of a pilgrimage as a physical journey to a religious, physical, worldly place. If we are blessed enough to afford the time and funds, many will take a pilgrimage to Rome or Jerusalem or Santiago or a Marian site.

… but what if we think about our entire life as a pilgrimage to Heaven!? Usually when I think about things like this, I have to bend the definition a little or tweak the meaning of something. But for this one no definitions have to change… just our perception on how we think about it! Life is indeed a journey and we do indeed hope to be journeying to THE holy place! We are all pilgrims in life. When we sin it is as if we are taking a detour (*detour* Jesus’ life and death made sin just a detour, never a dead end)… Reconciliation, the Eucharist and the other sacraments are guidance and direction to the ‘Holy Site’ (Heaven!); they lead us to where we want to go… they lead us to our Father.

So, although I day dream about walking in Spain or visiting Rome and Assisi, I should be dreaming about my ultimate destination (God willing!) of His Heavenly Kingdom and striving to model my life and put my feet on the path that leads there! If a Camino in Spain is part of that… THANK YOU GOD!

Dreaming of the day I will say, “Wow, I know Jesus Christ Himself!” …Working so that I can one day say that. …Shaping my life so that I can one day say that. That is what I mean by making your life a pilgrimage. Making a pilgrimage takes some dreaming. But it also takes work! If I dream of Santiago all day long, but never make the steps to get there… they are just dreams, and if it is just a dream, it stink because it never become reality. So yes, dream! For thinking of life as a pilgrimage, don’t dream about making the pilgrimage, dream about the end goal, because you are already on the pilgrimage!

Don’t let the dreaming hold you back from the ‘walking’… Don’t stop focusing on today because you are caught up in the dream (this, I think, is one of my biggest problems!). Today is the only way to get to tomorrow, and tomorrow is the only way to get to eternity in Heaven… so focusing on Today is how we have to get to THE Holy Place.

Just something that came to mind today as I was thinking and talking about El Camino de Santiago!

Peace!

~Dan

I realize I go between saying ‘you’ and ‘I’ and ‘we,’ probably making my posts torture for English majors, and I am sorry! I get confused because everything I write about are personal stories or things that are very relevant in my life, or things that I need to work on… But I am talking to everyone, so it all gets mixed up. It is just an engineer’s English (there is American English, British English, Australian English… then Engineers English)! haha

And, here are some pictures of a fabulous sun rise here in Wau on my way to mass in the morning... I like to take the longer way around so I can see the sun rise. Some days it is not so great... Some days I am so blessed to see such wonders! 

Enjoy! :)

Happy Mission Sunday!

Greetings from Wau!! 

Today was ‘mission Sunday’ here in South Sudan (and I think everywhere else too)! It was a good day here in Wau… we had a special collection that would go to benefit the mission as well as a sort of fair after the Arabic mass. Many of the parish families came out to help support the mission and have fun winning prizes for games such as ring toss, knock the bottles off the stand and a soccer passing game (I don’t know if these games have real names… but they’re basically the same ones you would find in the US…) I won just 1 game, dropping a coin into a cup in water (reminded me of the ones that Taco Bell always used to have!! Taco Bell offered burritos or tacos, we offered biscuits… but now that I won it here, I’m ready to go back and win some burritos!!)

But the day made me think about missions in general. Even though my ‘job title’ would be Catholic missionary, or ‘Salesian Lay Missioner’ but I don’t think mission Sunday is really talking specifically about people in South Sudan, or even those people described (in the traditional sense) as ‘missionaries’ in the US. I think it is talking about every person who believes in Christ! Every human has a mission, and thus, every person is a missionary! It is extremely important to find your mission in life. Christ called us to serve… not necessarily overseas, or with an official organization, but He called us to serve our brothers and sisters and our community! It is tough to call ourselves Christians if we are not living and working for a mission to serve others and extend His kingdom in the place we are at.

Pray about your mission. If someone asks you what makes you a Christian, and your best answer is “Because I go to Church on Sunday” or “Because I believe in Jesus” …FIND YOUR MISSION! Those are both extremely important things. And yes, our unified belief in Jesus IS what makes us Christian… It is like asking, ‘What makes you American?’ and answering, ‘I was born there’ when there are infinitely many more answers (ill mention some of the cliché ones like ‘freedom’ or ‘loving baseball’ or ‘apple pie’). Our faith needs to be more than the technicalities! Our faith needs to be a lifelong passion or mission. Something that draws us AND others closer to Christ. Below is an amazing quote about love:

“Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, falling in love in a quite absolute final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you will read, who you know, what breaks your heart, what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decided everything.”

-Father Pedro Arrupe, S.J.

That love that Father Pedro is talking about will answer what your mission is!! Fall in love, and make that your mission. Your mission will be what you put your heart into. Yes, we will all need to work and most of us will have families, but we must also find our mission as Christians! How will we glorify God? How will we bring others closer to Christ? Saying you believe in Jesus and going to Church can’t answer these questions fully! (I must admit… I am a bit spoiled, my job is my mission… and even if I have bad days, I still have to live my mission! J)

So, on this fabulous mission Sunday… FIND YOUR MISSION, fall in love with it, and LIVE IT EVERYDAY!! J

Ps. An extra prayer for missionaries in South Sudan is also greatly appreciated today!! J

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

Today's post will be dedicated to pictures! :) Just a few that I took over the past few weeks! They can show where I live, work, play and pray! :) 

Picture 1: I want to know.... have you ever seen the rain? Falling down on a sunny day? It is not a tornado... It is just raining, but i thought it was really cool to see the boundaries of the rain that was coming down!! (and it wasn't completely sunny... But the sun was there! But, i would still safely answer yes to my questions.)

Picture 2: This is the street that I live on. The door you can see is the Salesian sister's health clinic. Usually during their hours, there is a TON of women and children out front. They have a food program in the mornings and early afternoon.

Picture 3: You cannot see it very well, but this is the moon and a star underneath it. The moon is really cool because it is just a sliver. Then with the star beneath it... pretty awesome! Oh, and to make it even more perfect... that is the Salesian church here in Wau! Morning mass is at 6:45, it is really nice watching the sun come up through the windows at mass! :)

Picture 4: The Vocational Training Center (VTC) that I work at! I thought it was a nice picture with Don Bosco, the name and the S Sudanese flag flying!

I did not think of this when I was uploading the pictures... But i now realize that the 4 pictures I selected show (almost) perfectly the 4 oratory criteria!! Home- the street that I showed in Picture 2 is the road that I LIVE on. School- Picture 4 is the school I teach at. Church- This one is easy... Playground- This is a bit more abstract, but the rain coming down was taken when the community I live with went down to the river to swim and have some fun, play in the river!

So, hope you enjoy! :) Ill work on some more next time.. They uploaded pretty fast, so hopefully next time I can get some more up like this too!

Have Patience

I see that I am kind of slacking on the writing! L I might have mentioned this in one of the other posts… but it is because I go to bed right after dinner… and my ‘prime time’ for writing is after the hour of 9:00PM. But dinner is not until 8:30, and I have to wake up at 6:21 for morning mass. So after dinner, at 9:00 I have to do battle with my shower and get ready for bed. By the time I am ready for bed it is creeping up on 10:00 and I am left with only my 8 hours of sleep that I need to get to be able to function all day! So, eating dinner at 8:30 kind of puts a cramp in my writing… but I will see what I have in me before my ‘prime time’! J

I shall first start with a general update! Teaching is in full swing now, and I have had all of my classes a few times each. 4 classes of computer (2 are me showing, 2 are them working on an assignment I create), 3 classes of English, 3 classes of Math and 1 class of religion. This is all per week. Each class is about an hour or one and a half hours. These classes are being taught at the Vocational Training Center (VTC) and are for all of the different trades (electricity, carpentry, masonry, computers, printing, welding and auto mechanic). The students range from about 18 years old to 30 years old in my classes (the VTC students in general range from about 8 to 50 years old).

One thing I know I struggle with here is patience! I want to speak Arabic fluently… I want to be able to love fully... among a few other instances where I know my impatience can get the better of me! As the feast of Saint Francis was recently celebrated, I was thinking about his patience. I always see the saints as the guys up in heaven who did God’s will on earth (and rightly so, that is all true)… But I rarely think of their struggles… They were real humans; they sinned and had frustrations/hardships too! I always thought that if God came down and told me where I was going in life... life would be just peachy and I would never be frustrated or impatient again. But as I was praying about the life of Saint Francis, I thought about his calling. God said to him, “Francis, repair my church” So, here you have a man, who had a divine calling, ‘repair my church’. Life must have been easy after that right? Wrong! It must have taken even more patience than before the clear calling! How am I to rebuild? What do you mean? When? Where? These answers were not clearly given, as we know he started to rebuild the church at San Damiano, when God really meant HIS Church (I am not going to talk about this now… but also think about the INFINITE patience God has with us, and even his saints, too!). Now, I am not Saint Francis, so how this applies to me is in love. I get impatient here sometimes because I know I want to love to my full potential, but at times I catch myself being too impatient to pray for God to fill me with love first! It is impossible for us to love, if we first do not allow God to fill us with love! Yet, I find myself praying endlessly to be able to love everyone I see… but then I forget to pray for God to first fill me with love. It is as if I want to skip that vital step in the process of loving… I get impatient! L Much like the fabulous game Othello, ‘A minute to learn, a lifetime to master’ (it takes a minute to realize that we must allow God love us BEFORE we can lo

I talked about St. Francis because one, he is one of the best examples of how we humans can live as Christ-like as possible and two because it was his feast day… But I also thought about St. John Bosco (as I am a Salesian missionary). He had divinely inspired dreams, yet was never given a clear understanding of what they meant until he saw them lived out! Imagine the patience that took!! Having a vivid dream children turning into wolves and then into sheep, but not having a clear understanding of what it meant until years later when he witnessed as close to that as nature would give! Patience like I cant even imagine!!

Ill leave you with a life changing song! (okay, that may have been an exaggeration… but it’s a good one! Thank you Tracy for showing me this!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kn6Z2Mop5I

I was going to put up a few more pictures... but the internet is slow today, so maybe later this week I will post some pictures!