5 Funerals in 8 Days

We have just had 2 funerals today - we had one on Monday, and will have two more - Thursday and next Tuesday - so a total of 5 Funerals in 8 days.  The two funerals today were very difficult... A 54 year old woman, who had Cancer, and a 2 week old Baby.   As far as funerals go - they don't get much harder - for very different reasons.  

When you celebrate the funeral of one who is so close to your own age - it causes you to stop and think about your own mortality...
When you celebrate the funeral of a Baby - you ask all kinds of questions, and cry out to God - Why? How is this right? what is hoing on? It is just not fair!

When we bury a child - we realise that this is not the way it normally is,  a parent is not supposed to bury a child, flesh of your flesh, and bone from your bone.  There are words we have developed to describe "us" after the death of a loved one: 

• When a spouse dies - we are a widow or a widower, 
• When a parent dies - we are an orphan

Yet when a child dies - we have no word to associate with that situation. It is almost as if we cannot think of such a case. It is unthinkably hard to bury a child - so we have no word for it!

There is little to say - except perhaps acknowledging just that - one just lacks words to say.   My hope is that those who have lost a child, or a paren, or a brother / sister -  will remember also the bond of love that lies behind the pain they feel, the sorrow that comes with death.

Peace

New Cardinals - Song Translation

In my last post - I put up a link to the YouTube video of the Archbishop of Managua in Nicaragua leaving to Rome for the consistory this past Saturday.  I heard about this video from one of my Chicago 6 colleagues (Rita Ferrone).  She was wondering what the music was in the background of the video - well I asked our Spanish Prayer group ladies about it - and here is the translation of the Song that they were able to come up with!

TAKE MY NEW LIFE

My Lord, take my new life,Before the expected ageWares down my years.I ‘m  ready to goNo  matter where you send me You, call me to serve!

   Refrain   Lead me to the places    where people need your words,   Where they need a reason to leave.   Where there is no hope,   And despair surrounds all,   Just because,    They don’t know you.

I give you, a sincere heart,To shout without fearThe wonder of Your Love!My Lord, I have a missionary soulConduct me to the land That desperately thirsts for you.

   And so, along the way, I’ll sing   I’ll preach by Towns   Your Grandeur my Lord,   I’ll have my arms without tiredness   Your story on my lips,   Your strength on my prayer.

What wonderful words eh?!

New Cardinals

Each year, February 22 is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, and yesterday Pope Francis created 19 new Cardinals for the Church in service to the world.
This was the first Consistory held in the presence of 2 Popes! Benedict XVI - as Pope Emeritus - was at the Consistory along with Pope Francis! The Mass with the New Cardinals and Pope Francis was celebrated this morning in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

One of the new Cardinals is Gerald Lacroix, the Archbishop of Quebec City which is the primal see (the first diocese) in Canada. Gerald Lacroix was born in Saint-Hilaire de Dorset, Quebec, July 27, 1957, the eldest son in a family of seven children. At the age of 8, his family settled in Manchester, N.H., where he attended the parochial elementary school of St. Anthony of Padua and Trinity High School. He studied one year at St. Anselm College in Manchester.
He joined the Pius X Secular Institute as a consecrated lay member in 1975, and made perpetual vows in 1982. The same year, he was named secretary-general of the institute. He earned a master’s degree in pastoral theology at Laval University, and from 1985 to 1987 directed the La Maison du Renouveau, a formation and Christian renewal center.
He was ordained to the priesthood in 1988. From 1990 to 2000, he served as a missionary in Colombia, where he established several houses for the institute. After his return to Canada, he became director general of the institute in 2001.
In 2009, he was named a bishop and served as auxiliary bishop of Quebec until his promotion to archbishop in 2011.

Many of the Cardinals appointed by Francis are from the "Global South" - the developing world. The Archbishop of Port au Prince was named the first Cardinal ever from  Haiti.  Archbishop Leopoldo Brenes is from Managua, Nicaragua. 

Here is an interesting video from the Diocese depicting his departure for Rome. Neat Video! There is hope!
As we sign cards for the Development and Peace action campaign - a Voice for Justice, I keep these apointments to the College of Cardinals in mind.

Peace

Venezuela

I know it may seem odd - but I am posting a video of what is happening these days in Venezuela - where many of our spanish speaking parishioners come from

This is very disturbing - and so my thoughts and prayers are with the young people in Venezuela these days.

Peace

Africa - Baby Animals

Here are some photos of the Adult and Child Animals that we saw - almost always together...

Baby Elephant & Mommy

A Close-up of the Baby - about 6-8 weeks old the guide figured!

Anothe 4-6 week old Baby Elephant - after going for a mud bath! 

Mama Lion with cubs.

Hippo and Baby - in the water

Striped Back Mongoose - litter with parents

Baboons with newborns

Wart Hog

Mom and Baby Zebra

These young Impalas are obout 2 months old

Young Puku - with larger hind legs to jump through swampy water / land

These Chickens were in the Namibian Village we visited!

Peace

Africa - Oudtshorn

This area of South Africa is almost desert - like. It is the home to Ostrich farms where there were many millionaires made in the early part of the 1900's as the Ostrich feather became a coveted item in ladies fashion throughout the world.

Baby Ostrich - 2 weeks old

Making Feather Dusters

Grown up Adults 

Tom feeding the Ostriches

Carol sitting on an Ostrich

Jockeys racing the birds!

Peace

Africa - Cape Town

I had dinner last night with my friend Maureen who had been to South Africa last year when she and her husband went - he was the president of the Canadian Orthopedic Association.  I said to her - "You were right!" she looked at me sort of strange - I said: "You were right - all the animals in Africa - were simply incredible!" 

Here are some images of Cape Town - the first place we visited.

A View of Table Mountain - which you can see from most of Cape Town

An impressive statue - in the beautiful Victoria and Alfred Waterfront

Our Lady of the Flight into Egypt - Catholic Cathedral of Cape Town

An engraving depicting the original European Immigrants to South Africa

View of Cape Town from the top of Table Mountain
The stadium in the top left is from the World Cup in 2010

District 6 in Cape Town - there has been very little redevelopment

District Six  is the name of a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town, South Africa. Over 60,000 of its inhabitants were forcibly removed during the 1970s by the apartheid regime.

Peace