Greetings!
This post is for the sake of pictures. Having just returned from the Mission trip to Lima Peru with Bishop Rice Memorial High School, I am merely putting down a few highlights, and then posting pictures without much comment.
To really get the sense of the pilgrimage, the service, and the adventure of this mission trip, you can read my more extensive comments from the same trip a year ago.
Over seven full days spent in Peru (Feb. 22-28), our trip consisted of
- Daily Masses and daily Compline (Night Prayer),
- Visiting some churches in central Lima,
- Touring the Dominican Monastery where St. Martin de Porres lived,
- Attending Mass at the Cathedral,
- Visiting the CIMA home for boys in Cineguia, where sacraments and fellowship and manual service were all offered,
- Visiting the Soup Kitchen/Social Service center at the Shrine of St. Martin de Porres’s birthplace, where various other volunteer services were done by our students,
- Mixed all in, and rounded off with, a few small tourist-like and fun activities.
Without further comment I wish to offer just three descriptions of things that were highlights to me.
Firstly, Sunday Mass at the cathedral of Lima was no ordinary affair. We showed up early though we thought we were on time; without our knowing it, the Mass time had been delayed for the sake of having numerous bishops and priests arrive to concelebrate. The archdiocese had printed prayer cards for intercessions for the health of the Holy Father, and emphasized this theme for the whole Mass. Of the five bishops present, one was the Apostolic Nuncio to the Episcopal Conference of Peru. I was quite moved with the additional prayers added after Mass concluded. All the clergy – I was one of 10 priests – and servers passed out of the sanctuary, to the major side chapel of the blessed Virgin Mary. The prayers and songs that were offered there (while still vested) were quite simple and brief; but again it was a memorable and edifying experience.
The second reflection is more of an exultation in a grace that was evident at CIMA. I had been looking forward to the possibility of offering confessions to the boys who were Catholic. We looked for a place and time, as soon as our campus minister (Pam who was also our fearless leader and translator for the trip) got the OK to offer confessions. It worked out perfectly. Even before we pointed out where I might offer to hear confessions one of the little boys came up to me and said “father I want to make a confession” (or to translate the Spanish idiom literally “father I want to confess for myself”). Even while some of the boys continued on with their soccer games, a small group did actually form on one end of the bleachers, all in eager anticipation of coming over to where I was seated on the other end of the bleachers. Possibly half of the Catholic boys came to confession by the time we were done. They were all appreciative, and truly felt the difference from it.
Lastly, in our final group Mass, on the night before we returned, it just so happened we all had the energy and singing voices to end on a high note, or the sweet notes of actual melodies. (In some of our Masses on the more tiring days, none of us had the energy or the will to sing ANY notes!) I am certain that the prayers and singing (especially singing consistently with each night prayer) resonated with some of the fun and silly times that Rice students got to enjoy apart from our service projects.
That’s all I have time to recount for now. Dios te bendiga! God bless you!
Ubi Petrus VT 