When I said “yes” to my short, spontaneous five week mission to Latin America I had no idea what country I was going to; I had never held a conversation in Spanish, and I had been grappling with my faith after my first year away from my Catholic upbringing. I knew though, that this mission,...
Our friendship with Katy is one we really have to fight for. At the age of adolescence and without many good influences in her life, she has started hanging out with crowds that are harmful to her in many ways. We have also had problems...
One thing that I can say has definitely changed during my time on mission is my definition of love. The friends here have taught me so much of what pure love is, and I have been lucky enough to be so very loved for the 10 months that I have been here. Among all the...
Maria and Pedro are some of our good friends who have three sons. One left to go to the US, when he was a teenager, and the other two live with their parents, but have many medical problems. Their middle son, who is 12, has brain tumors, epilepsy and a mild form of lupus. ...
Many missionaries refer to mission with Con-solatio as a “Kindergarten of Love”, and for me, these first few months have definitely been like a kindergarten. I have had to learn about a new culture, a new language, new food, but most importantly I’ve had to learn how to be more like a kid....
My first week of mission was challenging. I was in a new place with a very different culture, everyone here was a stranger, and my Spanish was still a bit rough. I felt overwhelmed and out of place, totally dependent on others for simple things...
Far from home, our missionaries discover their American roots with new eyes as they dive into their country of mission and share life with a culturally diverse team. Thanksgiving is one beautiful tradition that our missionaries enjoy sharing...
My orientation with Con-solatio got me fired up to go on mission. Of course, I had already committed to leaving for Romania this fall: I had begun my fundraising, been learning Romanian, and had a decent sense of the beauty and purpose of this mission...
In a life this filled, sometimes a little chaotic, and almost always “noisy,” I have been reflecting a lot on how my contemplative life and active life here on mission can coexist. The silence I’ve found here is more a stillness of heart than an absence of noise. This stillness comes in the moments when the...
One evening shortly before I left El Salvador, we happened to meet Nina Maria as we were returning to our Colonia. She was standing on the side of the street alone and looked as if she was waiting for someone. I asked her who she was waiting for, and she replied that she wasn’t waiting...