Warmest of greeting to all!
Tomorrow is our last day in our experiecen groups, so I thought it fit to send out an blog.
We have been worinking in a nursing home that is owned by the Bishop of Alicanto and run by the Sisters of Charity. We spend about two hours a day with the residents witnessing their love, giving them as much of our own that we can and engaging in various activities with them. The first day was a meet and greet where we got ot know teh residents. We introduced oursleves adn did what we could to engage in a back in forth, our activity was the making and decorating of name tags. We helped the resident to make and devcorate their own name tags and helped place the around their necks. Our second day colored in pinwheels of various degrees of difficulty, two, and sang a Someon-says type chuildren´s song. The residents loved it. our third day we played Parcheese with them or simply visited with them, our fifth day we gave them massages with ping pong balls and listen4ed to soothing music. Today was our sixth day and we used tooth picks and markers to decorate images we preovided. Tomorrow is our last day, adn we are going to have a farwell party. Most days there is a part near the end where there is always singing of typical Spanish songs adn dancing. Dana has made up a super catchy one called ¨Viva España¨, the song is mostly in Italian.
We have been blessed with not only the opportunity to serve these wonderful people, but also with the chance to see much of this town we are in. Each afternoon after lunch, siesta time adn our various Magis circles, where we gather in our groups and eflect over how our day went, the good the bad and how it ties into thereading of the day, we go on small cultural encounters. We have gone to seen the face of Chirst at La Santa Faz, where they have one of teh three folds of Veronica´s veil that cleaned the face of Jesus on his way to Golgota. We have been to teh beach on the Medditerranean. We have seent eh University, been visisted by a few of teh students of the school we are staying in, gone to see La Virgen de Orito and climbed the mountain through the vineyards to the cave where the Capuchin Saint Pascual de Orito. WE had mass as the sun set in front of the cave on the hillside.
Our group has become so close. It is hard to believe that it has only been six days. WE stay up late after our evening examen and teach each other how to dance. We stay up frequently duing the siesta time, talking, sharing, getting to know one another. On the beach we had spent an increadible time playing volleyball, soccer and in teh waves. Today we go to see the castle of Alicante adn walk downtown. Tomorrow we have a mass with the families of teh children that go to school where we have been staying, adn then we shall walk the port.
Love to all of our fmailies adn friend back home. We are praying for you, for the rest of those going to WYD and leave on Monday for Madrid!
Peace,
-e
Saturday, August 13, 2011
From Rose and Rebecca -
We have been in Granada since Monday night, after an 11 hour bus ride. Our time here has passed amazingly quickly, but it also seems as if we have been here for months! We are here with a group of Spanish from Valladolid and Madrid and a group from France who are part of the organization Coexister. Our experience is taking place in the house of Las Hermanitas de los Pobres (Little Sisters of the Poor) and we have wonderful accomodations with beds and all! We would love to go into more detail, but we have limited time on the computer so here are some highlights from our time here:
*trying to find a bullet point on a Spanish keyboard
*greatly improving our skills with Spanish and French, as nothing is translated into English for us
*discussion and dialogue with Alseny, a French Muslim who is part of the interreligious group Coexister
*spending time with the elderly who are cared for by the sisters and live here as well, including helping with their dinners, feeding those who need more assistance, playing life-size board games, and taking them for a walk to the supermarket and to the park - where we learned Spanish children's songs and dances
*visiting "El Barrio de los Muselmanes" and speaking with Muslim shopowners and others we encountered about their experiences living their religion here in Granada and their Ramadan here in the hottest part of the year
*multilingual Masses
*trip to the Alhambra to see what beauty God can work through human hands, as well as the gorgeous gardens of the Generalife
*discussion and dialogue with Benjamin, a French Jew who is also a part of Coexister, and sharing a Shabbat dinner with him
*getting to know and love our fellow pilgrims both in our group and in the others
*mandatory siestas from 3 to 4
We are so grateful for the time we have been given here and the wonderful people that we have to share it with, despite the initial language barriers. But now, we should get back to our siesta! Love and prayers to you all.
Rose and Rebecca
We have been in Granada since Monday night, after an 11 hour bus ride. Our time here has passed amazingly quickly, but it also seems as if we have been here for months! We are here with a group of Spanish from Valladolid and Madrid and a group from France who are part of the organization Coexister. Our experience is taking place in the house of Las Hermanitas de los Pobres (Little Sisters of the Poor) and we have wonderful accomodations with beds and all! We would love to go into more detail, but we have limited time on the computer so here are some highlights from our time here:
*trying to find a bullet point on a Spanish keyboard
*greatly improving our skills with Spanish and French, as nothing is translated into English for us
*discussion and dialogue with Alseny, a French Muslim who is part of the interreligious group Coexister
*spending time with the elderly who are cared for by the sisters and live here as well, including helping with their dinners, feeding those who need more assistance, playing life-size board games, and taking them for a walk to the supermarket and to the park - where we learned Spanish children's songs and dances
*visiting "El Barrio de los Muselmanes" and speaking with Muslim shopowners and others we encountered about their experiences living their religion here in Granada and their Ramadan here in the hottest part of the year
*multilingual Masses
*trip to the Alhambra to see what beauty God can work through human hands, as well as the gorgeous gardens of the Generalife
*discussion and dialogue with Benjamin, a French Jew who is also a part of Coexister, and sharing a Shabbat dinner with him
*getting to know and love our fellow pilgrims both in our group and in the others
*mandatory siestas from 3 to 4
We are so grateful for the time we have been given here and the wonderful people that we have to share it with, despite the initial language barriers. But now, we should get back to our siesta! Love and prayers to you all.
Rose and Rebecca
A Journey Half Over
Greetings from Vigo!
I can´t believe that Magis is almost over- it simultaneously feels like we just got here and that we´ve been here for months. I am here in Vigo with Carol, Tom, Alexis, Casey, and John H. for a musical experience. Since this is my first update on the blog, I feel overwhelmed by the number of things I would love to share, but I´ll try to pick out some of my favorite moments.
Loyola was BEAUTIFUL! It was so humbling to be staying in the sanctuary at Loyola itself and thinking about how Ignatius had walked on the same ground hundreds of years ago. The energy and atmosphere created by the gathering of pilgrims from all over the world was intoxicating- there was no way to NOT be swept up in the spirit of love and communion.
Mass on Sunday was said by the Father General, and the Fordham group had great seats near the front. Since we were off to the side, we were quite surprised when Father General walked over to distribute the Eucharist to our section! I have to admit that receiving the Eucharist was a bit overwhelming, and I started to tear up as I realized just how special this once in a lifetime journey truly is.
After what turned out to be a 10 hour journey to Vigo on Monday, we began participating in numerous workshops about all aspects of music, including singing, dancing, and composition. Currently, each of the groups (American, Spanish, and Hungarian) are recording songs we have composed ourselves, so this is sure to be interesting...
One of my favorite moments here in Vigo was having mass on the beach. We waited until after the sun had gone down and all of the other beach goers had left and then gathered around in a circle on the sand. We created a makeshift altar with a blanket and a box, and Fr. Jim spoke about God providing what we need so long as we trust in Him. When it came time for the Kiss of Peace, everyone hugged and kissed, and it struck me how close you can grow to people in a few short days.
There´s so much more I´d love to share, bu this is getting a little long so I´ll end here. Love & Peace to everyone back home!
I can´t believe that Magis is almost over- it simultaneously feels like we just got here and that we´ve been here for months. I am here in Vigo with Carol, Tom, Alexis, Casey, and John H. for a musical experience. Since this is my first update on the blog, I feel overwhelmed by the number of things I would love to share, but I´ll try to pick out some of my favorite moments.
Loyola was BEAUTIFUL! It was so humbling to be staying in the sanctuary at Loyola itself and thinking about how Ignatius had walked on the same ground hundreds of years ago. The energy and atmosphere created by the gathering of pilgrims from all over the world was intoxicating- there was no way to NOT be swept up in the spirit of love and communion.
Mass on Sunday was said by the Father General, and the Fordham group had great seats near the front. Since we were off to the side, we were quite surprised when Father General walked over to distribute the Eucharist to our section! I have to admit that receiving the Eucharist was a bit overwhelming, and I started to tear up as I realized just how special this once in a lifetime journey truly is.
After what turned out to be a 10 hour journey to Vigo on Monday, we began participating in numerous workshops about all aspects of music, including singing, dancing, and composition. Currently, each of the groups (American, Spanish, and Hungarian) are recording songs we have composed ourselves, so this is sure to be interesting...
One of my favorite moments here in Vigo was having mass on the beach. We waited until after the sun had gone down and all of the other beach goers had left and then gathered around in a circle on the sand. We created a makeshift altar with a blanket and a box, and Fr. Jim spoke about God providing what we need so long as we trust in Him. When it came time for the Kiss of Peace, everyone hugged and kissed, and it struck me how close you can grow to people in a few short days.
There´s so much more I´d love to share, bu this is getting a little long so I´ll end here. Love & Peace to everyone back home!
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Alicanto
Time has been a fiend, it seems as if I have been here for months, in Spain, and that is has been only a few hours at once. The first few days we spent in Spain, at Loyola were lovely. The weather and scenery like that from a picture book. Rolling mountains and hills all the most brilliant green. Picturesque houses and sheep dotted the hills... Even the pine trees that grew on the mountains grow in the perfect rows of a regular orchard giving the appearance of cultivation and planning even in the "wild" parts of our surroundings. In our Magis circles many expressed the "Language of Love" that seemed to guide and lead us all, making up for the different cultures and languages so that we all understood each other. People spoke of our differences, how varied and lovely they are. I have been most struck by our similarities. We are all Catholics inspired by the Holy Spirit and our faith the happily leave all we know and come from to humble ourselves to service, disscomfort, and possible missunderstandings to search for more, deeper and better relationships with Our God and thus with ourselves. I loves looking out into a crowd and seeing three thousand others that are as stuck in this world of ours as I am, yet hopefull and eagerly awaiting the experiences to come.
The bus drive to Alicante was pleasantly short, just enough rests in between so that at a time we only drove two to three hours maximum. We were travleing in song, translations and assumed interpretaions, mounting expectations.
My experience group works in a public home for the elderly run by the Sisters of St. Vincent du Paul, the Sisters of Charity. The love they show those they care for, and the response of love that the elderly return to those who help them is astonishing; a constand beam of smiles, kisses, hugs and hand holding. The entire experience is nothing but simple expressions of love and affection, both humbling and wonderful. I do feel that our time with them is so short, yet everything happens for a reason, and i feel that the point of such short time is to give us each more time to reflect. There have been more comforts than I expected, but way more silence and reflection as well and to grow in our own spirituality and in our relationships with one another. The community here us beautiful, I feel that I am learning more about Love here in this short spaces of time than I thought possible, more than I feel I have learned before. It is a lesson long overdue.
I love and miss everyone greatly, and daily pray for you back home and on the other pilgrimages.
All my love,
<3<3<3
-e
The bus drive to Alicante was pleasantly short, just enough rests in between so that at a time we only drove two to three hours maximum. We were travleing in song, translations and assumed interpretaions, mounting expectations.
My experience group works in a public home for the elderly run by the Sisters of St. Vincent du Paul, the Sisters of Charity. The love they show those they care for, and the response of love that the elderly return to those who help them is astonishing; a constand beam of smiles, kisses, hugs and hand holding. The entire experience is nothing but simple expressions of love and affection, both humbling and wonderful. I do feel that our time with them is so short, yet everything happens for a reason, and i feel that the point of such short time is to give us each more time to reflect. There have been more comforts than I expected, but way more silence and reflection as well and to grow in our own spirituality and in our relationships with one another. The community here us beautiful, I feel that I am learning more about Love here in this short spaces of time than I thought possible, more than I feel I have learned before. It is a lesson long overdue.
I love and miss everyone greatly, and daily pray for you back home and on the other pilgrimages.
All my love,
<3<3<3
-e
Monday, August 8, 2011
Alicante, Vale
In from Lorenzo, Dana, and Anna - the three non- Spanish speaking pilgrims to Alicante:
Although disappointed to leave this beautiful place and not looking forward to our 10 hour bus ride, we're excited to begin our "experiment" leg of our Magis journey. We know very little about Alicante, it's community, and even what we're doing. Most of us will be working with the elderly while a small group is working with excluded children, who are either disabled or have AIDS. We know it will be difficult to communicate with the people we're serving because of our lack of Spanish skills. But, we hope our relationships and spiritual communion with them can transcend this spoken language barrier.
We look forward to further immersing ourselves in this culture. More importantly, we hope to experience and share God's love with those we encounter in Alicante.
We are fortunate to be traveling with a fun and fantastic group of Spainards and Italians, who we spent some time with yesterday. Dana even sang "Empire State of Mind" - representing New York, you know what it is (Mike Martinez).
Peace, love, and happiness. We'll be praying for you. Please continue to do the same for us.
Although disappointed to leave this beautiful place and not looking forward to our 10 hour bus ride, we're excited to begin our "experiment" leg of our Magis journey. We know very little about Alicante, it's community, and even what we're doing. Most of us will be working with the elderly while a small group is working with excluded children, who are either disabled or have AIDS. We know it will be difficult to communicate with the people we're serving because of our lack of Spanish skills. But, we hope our relationships and spiritual communion with them can transcend this spoken language barrier.
We look forward to further immersing ourselves in this culture. More importantly, we hope to experience and share God's love with those we encounter in Alicante.
We are fortunate to be traveling with a fun and fantastic group of Spainards and Italians, who we spent some time with yesterday. Dana even sang "Empire State of Mind" - representing New York, you know what it is (Mike Martinez).
Peace, love, and happiness. We'll be praying for you. Please continue to do the same for us.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Sent Forth! -- Our Experiment Assignments
Hello Family and Friends!
I don´t have much time to blog today, so I´ll make this a quick one... We´ve received our assignments for experiments this week, so this is where we´ll be going and what we´ll be doing:
Group 1: Roxanne, Mike Prescia, Mateusz, and Nicole
Pilgrimage from Loyola to Javier, the birthplaces of St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis Xavier
Group2: Shana, Mike Finucane, Mike Martinez, Kevin, Bea, Chrissy, Jackie, Jen
Pilgrimage from Javier to Loyola (Basque Country)
Group 3: Carol, Tom, John Huh, Alexis, Cait, Casey, Fr. Jim Hederman, SJ
Arts, Perfomance, and Faith in Vigo, Northwest Spain
Group 4: Shane, Lorenzo, Christopher, Anna, Shannon, Dana, Christian, Erika
Service Project with Youth and Elderly in Alicante (Southeast), Spain
Group 5: Fr. Paul Rourke, SJ, Peter, Andrew, Rose, Christina, Kristin, John Byrd, Rebecca
Dialogue with the Islam Faith through music, arts, architecture, and conversations Granada (Southern), Spain
We will try to update throughout the week, but we are unsure about the availabilities of computers and internet, so I won´t make any promises....but we´ll try our best!!! As always, please keep us in your prayers as we will most certainly keep you in ours!
Pax,
Roxanne
I don´t have much time to blog today, so I´ll make this a quick one... We´ve received our assignments for experiments this week, so this is where we´ll be going and what we´ll be doing:
Group 1: Roxanne, Mike Prescia, Mateusz, and Nicole
Pilgrimage from Loyola to Javier, the birthplaces of St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis Xavier
Group2: Shana, Mike Finucane, Mike Martinez, Kevin, Bea, Chrissy, Jackie, Jen
Pilgrimage from Javier to Loyola (Basque Country)
Group 3: Carol, Tom, John Huh, Alexis, Cait, Casey, Fr. Jim Hederman, SJ
Arts, Perfomance, and Faith in Vigo, Northwest Spain
Group 4: Shane, Lorenzo, Christopher, Anna, Shannon, Dana, Christian, Erika
Service Project with Youth and Elderly in Alicante (Southeast), Spain
Group 5: Fr. Paul Rourke, SJ, Peter, Andrew, Rose, Christina, Kristin, John Byrd, Rebecca
Dialogue with the Islam Faith through music, arts, architecture, and conversations Granada (Southern), Spain
We will try to update throughout the week, but we are unsure about the availabilities of computers and internet, so I won´t make any promises....but we´ll try our best!!! As always, please keep us in your prayers as we will most certainly keep you in ours!
Pax,
Roxanne
God´s language -- the language of love
I can´t believe it´s only been a day and a half in Loyola (plus about 20 hours of traveling from New York). So far, Magis has been overwhelming, joyous, intimidating, blessed, mind-blowing, chaotic, and wonderful all at the same time.
Yesterday, we started with a multi-lingual morning prayer in Ignatius´ backyard (for lack of a better word). The Bishop of San Sebastian said something that framed my experience thus far. He essentially said, ¨Ignatius studied all different languages. All of us here speak different languages. But there is one language that we all understand-- the language of love.¨ Throughout the day, I felt that love, God´s love, in the way that St. Paul describes it in 1 Corinthians 13. In one day, I danced with Kenyans; danced for Tanzanians; played games with people across the world; had an in-depth conversation with a man from Nairobi; learned more about my fellow Fordham pilgrims; had a very open breakfast conversation about my faith and politics with a student from South Carolina; and joked with Lebanese students and the Egyptian Lebanese priest chaperoning their trip. Every person with whom I´ve interacted has been welcoming and non-judgmental. Every person has been genuinely interested in who I am and I have been interested in every person who I have met. It may sound cliche, but --- every person has reminded me of how God sees me. He´s genuinely intrigued by and interested in me. The Bishop´s words seemed to permeate throughout the day as we all openly and beautifully welcomed each person for who they are.
One thing has blown my mind. We are all here for one reason. We all share this language of love for one reason. We all care for one reason. And that is our faith in God. This one thought has been with me since last night after reflecting on the day. I´m still grappling with this overwhelming, international, cross-cultural unity. It´s incredible.
I want to share one quote that I found and have been praying over. ¨In its essence, seeking has to do with our profoundest desires. If we let Him, God teaches us to desire whatever is better for our lives and those of others.¨
Much love from Spain,
Anna
Yesterday, we started with a multi-lingual morning prayer in Ignatius´ backyard (for lack of a better word). The Bishop of San Sebastian said something that framed my experience thus far. He essentially said, ¨Ignatius studied all different languages. All of us here speak different languages. But there is one language that we all understand-- the language of love.¨ Throughout the day, I felt that love, God´s love, in the way that St. Paul describes it in 1 Corinthians 13. In one day, I danced with Kenyans; danced for Tanzanians; played games with people across the world; had an in-depth conversation with a man from Nairobi; learned more about my fellow Fordham pilgrims; had a very open breakfast conversation about my faith and politics with a student from South Carolina; and joked with Lebanese students and the Egyptian Lebanese priest chaperoning their trip. Every person with whom I´ve interacted has been welcoming and non-judgmental. Every person has been genuinely interested in who I am and I have been interested in every person who I have met. It may sound cliche, but --- every person has reminded me of how God sees me. He´s genuinely intrigued by and interested in me. The Bishop´s words seemed to permeate throughout the day as we all openly and beautifully welcomed each person for who they are.
One thing has blown my mind. We are all here for one reason. We all share this language of love for one reason. We all care for one reason. And that is our faith in God. This one thought has been with me since last night after reflecting on the day. I´m still grappling with this overwhelming, international, cross-cultural unity. It´s incredible.
I want to share one quote that I found and have been praying over. ¨In its essence, seeking has to do with our profoundest desires. If we let Him, God teaches us to desire whatever is better for our lives and those of others.¨
Much love from Spain,
Anna
A Long 24 Hours
Saturday night we broke into our smaller experiment groups for a bit of reflection and look ahead at our next experience. It quickly became clear that everyone had one common experience of the previous 24 hours: those few hours felt more like several days or weeks than they did one day. Arriving here in Loyola has been the result of great anticipation. Particularly for me, as a Jesuit, St. Ignatius has been a fundamental part of my life and my vocation. Thus, arriving at Loyola and being with a few thousand animated, joyful people empassioned with love for Christ has been a very intense experience of great hope for the Church and Society of Jesus. That all culminated today with large Mass presided by Father General Adolfo Nicolas!
Shane Mulligan, SJ
Shane Mulligan, SJ
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