REFLECTION

TO BE THANKFUL!

Thanking is what the old person does for the years of life that God has given him; giving thanks for who he has loved and how much he has suffered. 

Thanking is what the poor person does when he understands that his life depends on God and God´s providence.  Thanking is what the young person does, conscious of his possibilities and his future: for all there is to do, to love, and to enjoy. Thanking is what the rich person does for his goods and his prosperity. We all have reasons to give thanks: to God, to family and to friends who are always there, to acquaintances and strangers who enter, pass through, and leave our lives every day. Let us end the year closing our eyes in a moment of gratitude and say a profound “Thank you!”

Surgery for a Dominican Child in Barcelona

Little José Mario Ramírez from Sabana Yegua (Dominican Republic) was born with a problem with his legs, amyoplasia congenita, which is a severe deformity resulting from restricted fetal movement in the womb.  He has never been able to walk.  He is now seven years old and in spite of the fact that he is able to move around aided by his hands and feet, his situation is still very sad.  A little more than a year ago, through a volunteer from Barcelona who visited the Dominican Republic, we contacted the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, a wonderful teaching pediatric hospital in Barcelona, owned by the Hospital Order of the Brothers of St. John of God. Their CUIDAM program (http://www.cuidam.org/en/about_us/) is dedicated to making it easier for children with serious problems, from all over the world, to be brought to the hospital in Barcelona for world class treatment.

We were fortunate and blessed that just a few months ago a doctor from that hospital traveled to the Dominican Republic to conduct an orthopedic surgery workshop and was able to evaluate José Mario, who was then designated for a future intervention.  Finally, the child and his mother traveled to Barcelona in October 2014.  He was evaluated by doctors who are presently correcting the position of his foot with casts for seven weeks.  When this process is finished, they will operate on his foot and hips.  We hope and pray that when all of his treatment finishes, he will be able to walk.  

We thank everyone who has been part of this accomplishment; our collaborators at the hospital and CUIDAM as well as all the friends and volunteers who are accompanying and helping this child and his mother during his stay in Spain. We are also thankful to all who have prayed for the success of this endeavor. One of the joys of our work is that, although we are small in number and scattered geographically, through our network of caring and generous friends and volunteers, with their relationships and resources, we are able to achieve miraculous stories like this one with José Mario.

REFLECTION

Christmas: The Feast of God's Empathy

Ricardo Martín 

At Christmas God becomes human. God deeply wishes to embrace the human experience and becomes one like us. In modern terms, Christmas could be called the celebration of God’s empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand reality the way another person experiences it. To exercise the gift of empathy means to be able to walk in the other person’s shoes and understand and share that person’s view, and feelings, without judging. Empathy requires our own ability to be open to our own emotions. I believe it is a wonderful way to reflect about Christmas: God deeply desires to share the great human adventure with us. God becomes human in radical openness to us and to our emotions, struggles and joys. God shows absolute empathy towards us.

Any liturgical celebration comes with a call, a mission attached to it. We contemplate and celebrate mystery of the Nativity, at the same time that we embrace the call to empathy. If God has become human as an act of absolute empathy towards us, we are also called to become more human. We become more human as long as we are able to show empathy to others. We are called to understand, rather than to judge; we are called to share in joys and anxieties, rather than undermine other’s experiences; we are called to listen and communicate, the way God listens and communicates with us.

Christmas shows us the passion with which God exercises empathy towards us. At the Christmas Midnight Mass we will read Paul’s letter to Titus, where it says that God seeks a people passionate for doing what is right. We are invited to be people of empathy with the same passion God shows empathy in the mystery of the Nativity—which is the same passion with which Jesus—the God made human—will live the rest of his life.

From this blog we want to wish a Blessed Christmas to all the benefactors and friends of the Community of Saint Paul. May it be an opportunity for all of us to become more human, sharing in God’s empathy towards us.    

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

BISHOP DON HYING VISITS LA SAGRADA FAMILIA PARISH IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

During the first week of December, Auxiliary Bishop Donald Hying of Milwaukee was able to visit La Sagrada Familia in the Dominican Republic for a few days. Bishop Hying served as a priest in the parish from 1994 to 1997, and had not yet been back to visit since his episcopal ordination. He was delighted to return to his old parish, to see many friends and to visit the Community of Saint Paul and the new ministries and programs that now take place there. It was a very joyful visit.

Just ten days before traveling to the Dominican Republic, Bishop Hying learned that the Holy Father has appointed him as the new Bishop of Gary, Indiana. From here we would like to extend our congratulations and assurance of prayers as he moves into this new ministry in the Church.