Taka Chichinga!

Every day in Honduras is a new day to create something--whether it is a bridge made from a school bus that is suspended 20 ft high, a car wash converted into a snack shop drive thru, ice cream in a bag (cremitas...yum!) or even a word like Taka Chichinga. Taka Chichinga is a universal word...no a language used in our house to help break all communication barriers. Where's the bathroom?? (Taka Chichinga??) What...beans and rice for supper again?! (Taka Chichinga?!) Did you hear what happened in the market today!?! (Taka Chichinga!?!) We play alot of bilingual SCRABBLE here. If I made up the rules to the game--it would be alot more interesting and would give birth to new and exciting words. When did people ever stop creating words anyway?


To create is to live! I remember a priest not long ago that gave a homily about vocations. He said, our first calling or vocation as christians is to life! We are called to live and be life to others so that life can be constantly recreated through God within us. This means fighting our feelings or tendencies to become discouraged or anxious about tommorrow when we only have today. This doesn´t mean to suppress these feeling as if they don´t exist but to rise above them and first make a conscious decision to choose life and realize that we have to change the path of our mind because we can´t change the attitudes of others or even the fact that there is evil in the world, but we can change ourselves. Our 2nd vocation is one in the same, the call to eternal life. How often do we think about the reality of eternal life? It is a word of immeasurable significance and without limits; yet my temporal mind only thinks of the word and it is forgotten.


Without first getting to know yourself now and where you are going ultimately, it will be difficult and unfair to commit to something you cannot fullfill...to make a promise you cannot keep. To have a vocation is to be a guardian of life. When one chooses a vocation of marriage he is responsible for the souls of his spouse and children. In religious life; priests, ministers, and rabbi´s are all responsible for the souls of their parishoners and a person called to the single life is responsible for the souls entrusted to him by the providential encounters of those he meets along the way.


I had to leave the country recently because my 90 day visa ran out, so I went to visit my brother. He is studying in a catholic seminary in CT called the Legionnaries of Christ. We spent a day in NYC and I have to admit I was a little nervous for my brother walking around in a collar. Although he is only in his 3rd year in seminary, he wears the collar. He´s explained to me before that this signifies his priesthood, as a reminder to him and others, that he is a representation of Christ to others and that´s why he always wears it as often as he can (even if it´s 90 degrees outside.) In the city, there were gangster guys calling out to him saying "Hey priest!" from 10 ft away--my first thought was "cover it up!!!" (Like it was a disease of some kind) but then the guy said "Im Petey and this is my little brother Pablo. Put in a prayer for us Father." I thought it was very sincere that they would entrust their names to someone they didn´t even know. I realized that these young men had been helped before by a good priest who has represented the priesthood so well that now these men truly believes in prayer and salvation because they have experienced it and recognize it in my brother. I was very moved and proud to be his sister at that momemt..and of course always! It was the ordinary and poor that recognized my brother and genuinely reached out to him by a wave or a smile or a free ride on the subway! Please take a minute to say a prayer for our priests; for their faithfulness and holiness.