Saturday, July 30, 2011

Growing to the side and not straight

This past Thursday I went with father Kevin to the Local Prison. We went there to celebrate mass for them and I noticed how all of them attended mass even though not all of them were catholic.  The reason is because the prison is so far and they do not see new faces every day.  It made me think of how, at times we are free in the world but we take this freedom to do as we wish without caring about our bodies and our souls.  Society has adjusted the norms and morals, now it is okay to do what we want with our bodies and even with the bodies of others that do not belong to us.  We are imprisoned in a world of liberalism and libertinism and we do not realize it.  The people there in the prison cannot do anything because to hire a lawyer is too expensive here, the prisoners can only wait for their term to be over then they can be set free.  But, we people who live outside and take liberty for granted. Are we really free? Do we appreciate our gift from God to be free or do we waste our time doing things that enslave us? God wants us to be happy being ourselves and sharing with others the best of us.  Let’s not wait until we are old and imprisoned to our deficiencies, let’s give God the best of us now. It is so easy to follow our natural instinct, and as we grow older like this tree its harder to change bad habits, it’s harder to grow straight.  Ask God for the grace and look for it attending daily mass.  Don't grow like this tree which is confused and has grown sideways.  It is by doing what is in front of us that we are really free and keep ourselves healthy, busy and serving others. 

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Where does the treasure lie?



 We spend our lifes looking for this treasure that will make us happy.  Unfortunately, many times we take the meaning of this treasure literally and fall into materialism, because we want to keep ourselves up to date.  But, instead of filling that gap we make it wider and now we look for something else in the attempt to fill the gap that is bigger.  Others might try to paint the hair, buy such dress or jeans to meet the expectations of our friends.  In some cases we even try drugs because our "friends" tell us that we should try them at least once.  We fill so empty even when we have a college degree and do not find a job, the purpose of life is lost, we are confused by all the things we try and the places we look for happiness. We the young and the adults alike live the life so fast without thinking about what we do. By this point we have forgotten that our bodies are the field where the treasure is found.  What is that treasure? The treasure is being ourselves, without the influence of others.  Wearing what we like to wear as long as we feel comfortable, accepting what we are regardless of what others might say.  Whenever we have accepted that we are mere images of God, and we stop comparing ourselves to others appearance, success, economic status, etc then we will reach happiness.  God mades us and we are perfect and when we do not accept ourselves like we are physically, academically, economically, then we will not reach happiness.  If we are confident and believe in ourselves then others will believe in us.  Lets stop selling ourselves to the expectations of others, lets stop looking for happiness in the wrong places, because the more we do that the farther we are from being ourselves.  The more we sell to this superficial appearances and looks the more we are abused by the social expectations.  Lets sell all this superficial things and get the treasure.  Lets dig within ourselves and find the treasure that lies in there like in the Parable of Todays Gospel.


"the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
--Mt 13

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Welcoming Kenya to anybody who comes in!

Some visitors came some days ago and the Sister welcomed them as if they knew them.  The second picture has the visitors from Italy who have come to visit the mission. This community of salesians really have a spirit of accompaniment with everybody that they meet.  The priests welcomed me with a heart of brothers and sisters.  As I reach the end of my mission I realized that we are supposed to treat people without making differences or favoritisms.  Everybody that comes in to the Salesians of Don Bosco in Makuyu realizes that home is not far because of all the love received here.  I thank all the people that have made this mission possible.  Father Jayme Mathias and Sister MaryGloria have been an special blessing to me.  I Thank God for meeting people like them.  I send my greetings and prayers to all the community of Cristo Rey Parish specially Michelle and all the people that came with me to mission.  You all have come with me to Mission and I appreciate it very much.  This has definitely being a life transforming experience that I will never forget.  I have been filled with blessings from everybody here and I do not find words to thank them all.  God bless you all in the states as well, nothing would have been possible without your support. 

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Forcing our destiny

 Many times we follow certain things, we struggle to do something that although it may be good it is not God's will at the moment.  We fight against all odds to accomplish what we desire regardless of who, what, "gets in our way". It is necessary to stop for a moment and think, reflect what it is that God really wants for us at that particular moment.  God makes us humble by showing us that even when we are qualified or overqualified it is still not our time.  One time I was playing football and played on the striking position and even when we won the games I was disappointed because I did not score.  After a while I understood that I was not the player who scored the goals, but rather the one who helped to score them.  One day without  wishing or thinking about it I scored and that day I understood that whether I could score or not I should just enjoy the game and forget about being the star.  Forcing circumstances in some cases instead of having some positive outcome make us depressed and disappointed with ourselves.  It is better to let things happen naturally and not force them to happen according to our will, but let God take the steering wheel of our lives.