Newsletter August 2005
Welcome
Hi once again from sunny Ecuador where my work on the Missions continues to throw up daily challenges and many, unexpected surprises. Actually when I say ‘sunny’, I have to temper that by saying also that it has been rather ‘chilly’ – several weeks over the past few months in Guayaquil it has been overcast and the temperature even dipped to about 28 degrees!In any case, during July, I was in Scotland to visit my family and friends, and also to make Church appeals for the St. James’ Society, but now I have returned to Ecuador for my second missionary year with renewed vigour to be your missionary contact amongst God’s poor in Guayaquil, Ecuador. This Newsletter will bring you up-to-date with all that has been going on since Easter – when I last wrote to you all – in my Parish of the ‘Most Precious Blood of Christ’ in Nueva Prosperina, Guayaquil.
In this Newsletter:
Welcome.
Holy Week & Easter.
Our Parish School.
Building all over the Place.
My Temporary Flat.
The Life of a Priest.
Your Generosity.
My Summer Holiday in Scotland.
And Finally.
Holy Week and Easter
Although it seems such a long way back, I think it is worth reporting what went on in our Parish during my first Holy Week in South America. I had prepared myself and the various chapels of the Parish, for the celebrations in the best way I could. And I knew that they are well capable of putting their own touch on the celebrations. This they did right from the start. For when I turned up on Palm Sunday at the San Ignacio chapel, the youth group presented me with a donkey to use on the procession. Although I am a shy and retiring kind of person (aye right!), I got over my embarrassment and went by donkey through the streets of the town. Actually, after I got over the shock of being on the donkey, it turned out to be a real faith-filled experience, for we sang hymns all along the way and stopped every so often to pray for the people of our town – the poor, the lonely and those suffering from alcohol and drugs. The rest of Holy Week continued in the same faith-filled vein. During Holy Thursday Mass, I washed loads of feet: I had taken the usual twelve volunteers for the Washing of the Feet, but, as I started, many more feet were thrust into the bowl and we ended up washing the feet of people from every section of the community – a real sense of service!
On Good Friday, as well as the Commemoration of the Passion, another of our youth groups acted out the Stations of the Cross – right up the main street of Nueva Prosperina. The procession lasted about three hours with a crowd of several hundred and the young people throwing themselves into acting out the Stations. By the time we were ready to celebrate the Easter Vigil in the main chapel of the Parish, we had celebrated the Triduum holy days throughout the whole Parish, and for me, the most impressive fact was that people were willing to travel to different chapels to attend each of the services. As you know, the Easter Vigil begins in darkness, but God was obviously in good humour that night, for just as we were about to begin, there was a power cut in the whole area. We began in darkness, but spent the whole Mass with some keen electricians hanging from the rafters trying to get
the electricity going again. Actually power returned just as were moving to the end of the celebration. Let there be light!
The Life of a Priest
With all these various activities going on, it would be wrong to think that most of my life here on the Missions is any different from the lives of priests the world over. Every weekend I have six chapels to get around – Mass on Friday night, one on Saturday, and four on Sunday. As well as that, I have two weekday Masses at the larger Mass centres as well as a school Mass each Thursday. And, of course, I have a monthly Mass at our ‘Divino Nino’ chapel (something like he devotion to the Child of Prague’). On top of that, much of my time is taken up with running the First Communion and Confirmation programmes as well as an adult faith programme. We also have two lively youth groups and a Legion of Mary group. In all of these faith activities I am constantly impressed with the deep faith the people have in the face of great difficulties and poverty.
