The last weeks were filled with dozens of visits to friends, some as close as the house next door and others as far away as Ephie’s village, to honor them and give thanks, knowing that when I was gone, others would be there to receive my friends as their own...
It was a big gift to spend one week outside the bustle of life in Arafat, in a place where time moves along at the pace of a donkey, not the pace of a motorcycle. I was touched again by how close to the land everyone lives, how much life follows the weather. They are...
Last Sunday, after flying paper airplanes with Xadim and his brothers and praying the rosary on the rooftop, we decided to go visit our neighbors in the apartments across the road, to deliver Easter cards and a bit of joy. We put on our masks (which have become mandatory in the streets), I grabbed the guitar and...
Beth shares her experience of visiting her daughter, Justine, on mission in Senegal. On a sandy side street of a densely populated area, the mission home in Dakar, Senegal beats with the presence of the Holy Sacrament in the chapel of a corner room. I witnessed the disciplined life of prayer that my daughter, Justine (USA),...
Justine is on mission in Senegal. “Tanga na trop!” is one of the first things I learned to say in wolof: “It’s too hot!” I hear other people saying it too, as they pile—quite literally—into buses. During Mass, the church is so packed that we sit shoulder to shoulder. I can feel the sweat dripping down...