Guatemala
“¡Gano, Gano!”
“I win, I win!” These words most often associated with sports games recently became the anthem of my second grade classroom. When I first started teaching I blogged about the challenges I was facing as a brand new teacher with no teaching background and a simple desire to give my best to my students. There…
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Throwback Thursday: “A ‘Gringa’ makes Tortillas—Cross Cultural Cooking”
Editor’s Note: In celebration of our 25th year of preparing and supporting lay missioners, we look back to our archives at a World Care newsletter from 1993 with an article from returned missioner Jodie Abbatagelo from Class Three serving in Guatemala from 1992-1993. To the rat tat tat of tin, I opened my door that first…
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An Unsettling Reality
I often forget where the students at Valley of the Angels come from. I forget the lifestyles they face at home. I forget that they are at Valley for a reason. I forget this because, more often than not, the kids are full of love and smiles. I see them laughing, studying, and playing games.…
Read MoreDave El Pulpo
For many people, my name is difficult to pronounce. It doesn’t matter where I am in the world, someone will manage to mispronounce it. I became used to this at a young age and I don’t mind gently correcting people. Many of the kids in Guatemala find my name especially difficult to say due to…
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Art from the Angels
Not only did the guests of our World Care Benefit and Celebration come away with hearing some amazing and inspirational speeches, but they were also lucky enough to go home with Guatemalan art work. We were blessed to have received drawings for each of our guests from the students at Valley of the Angels school…
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Make Noise
Every government has its share of problems. Google “government scandals” are you can learn about Indonesia’s death penalty programs, Italy’s nepotism, or misused aid funds in Greece. Mention the U.S. and the names Nixon, Grant, and Clinton come to mind. Government corruption is nothing new in Guatemala. The country is still recovering from a 36-year civil…
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Clarity through sleepy eyes
As a new Spanish speaker, I often find myself asking for people to repeat themselves in order to understand them. Needless to say, things get lost in translation. Sometimes I can’t tell if I’ve heard the speaker incorrectly, or if he’s actually saying something strange. Most recently, this happened during the week before Holy Week,…
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“I thirst…”
As Jesus hung on the cross, he proclaimed the words “I thirst.” Jesus called out in need of something to drink, but these two words encompassed more than the desire for a drink of water. Jesus was thirsting for a world filled with peace, joy, hope, and most of all a world filled with love.…
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All that glitters
“Do not adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair, and by wearing gold ornaments or fine clothing; rather, let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God’s sight.”— 1 Peter 3:3-4 I have always loved the world of fashion. Some of…
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Embracing God’s Plan
I have been a planner my whole life. I rely on my color-coded calendar, countless to-do lists, and multiple email tabs everyday to keep myself organized and structured. I generally don’t enjoy being spontaneous or going with the flow. When I committed to FMS I liked knowing that I had a plan and a goal…
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Millennial Lenten Reflections: Offer your Gifts
Editor’s Note: The following is part of Millennial Lenten Reflections, a blog series in collaboration with Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Short reflections on the day’s readings, written by young adults from FMS and other organizations, will be posted everyday throughout Lent. I’ve always been my own harshest critic. My perfectionism has waned as I’ve…
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Millennial Lenten Reflections: Sharing the Grace of God
Editor’s Note: The following is part of Millennial Lenten Reflections, a blog series in collaboration with Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Short reflections on the day’s readings, written by young adults from FMS and other organizations, will be posted everyday throughout Lent. “For everyone who asks, receives.” I can’t remember when I realized I wanted…
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Lessons in the Loom
A few weeks ago, the language school my fellow missioner, Amanda, and I attend invited students to go on a tour of a nearby weaving co-op. Guatemala is an incredibly colorful country, and the city of Xela is filled with women going about their daily routines while wearing traditional huipils (blouses) and faldas (skirts). These…
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Making the Comfortable Uncomfortable
In July, 2009 I attended a social justice immersion summer camp with the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The week long camp challenged high school students from different parts of Maryland to learn about the injustices that were affecting Baltimore City and how we could be advocates for justice and change. During the week we visited many…
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Missioners begin language school
As we celebrated the Baptism of the Lord this past Sunday, signifying Christ beginning his ministry, several of our 30th class of missioners have left for their respective countries this weekend to begin their own ministries. While Jesus went to the desert for 40 days and 40 nights to reflect and pray in preparation for…
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What Does it Mean to be Sent?
After 13 weeks of formation filled with classes, early mornings at service sites, and plenty of community time, the 30th mission class of Franciscan Mission Service walked into the Blessed Sacrament Chapel at the Franciscan Monastery filled with our family and friends for our Commissioning Mass to celebrate our being sent out on mission. During…
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A Special Connection
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” Fr. Michael Della Penna, OFM, is the Director at Valley of the Angels school in Guatemala. I am sharing one of the most touching letters I have ever received here at Valley and perhaps in my 15 years as a priest.…
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Report from Guatemala: Potential New Service Site!
Thirty minutes east of Guatemala City, a Franciscan boarding school called Valley of the Angels lives its motto: “Give the best to the poor.” Their emphasis on restoring dignity through service resonates with Franciscan Mission Service Executive Director Kim Smolik. Executive Director Kim Smolik with girls from Livingstone, Guatemala. The girls are friends of board member,…
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Franciscan Friday: 5 Questions about Marriage as Mission
Continuing our series Sacraments and Social Mission: Living the Gospel, Being Disciples, returned missioners Lorenz and Patty Sollmann write today about their faith’s relationship to the Sacrament of Marriage and their call to mission as a married couple. Patty and Lorenz Sollmann were married in September 1989, and were the first married couple to enter FMS in…
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Mission Monday: Back to School in Guatemala
Kathy Snider, who served with Franciscan Mission Service from 1998-2000, was so moved by her experience that she decided to return to Guatemala. She continues to live in and serve the remote jungle community in Santaigo Ixcan through her own non-profit, Ixcan Ministries. As students in the U.S. begin the “back to school” season, Kathy…
Read MoreEncountering God in the Innocents
On this Feast of the Holy Innocents, we remember the small children killed by Herod after the birth of Jesus. In more recent years, there are been so many innocent lives that have been lost through violence, from the recent 26 victims of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., to the 200,000 victims of…
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Mission and Motherhood: Growing in God
Patty Sollmann, returned missioner and mother of three “I compare my mission experience to motherhood, and the impact that motherhood has on one’s life,” says Patty Sollmann, who served in Guatemala from 1992 to 1994 as part of FMS’ second lay mission class. “Both have stretched me and challenged me to embrace God’s plan of…
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National Volunteer Month Profile: Daena in DC
Today we profile Daena Padilla who, along with her husband Eduardo, runs Casa San Salvador, our office and hospitality house in Washington DC. They actually met while volunteering with the Claretians in Chicago, and in September they are expecting a baby girl. As house managers, Daena and Eduardo welcome our guests and keep the house clean…
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“…born to eternal life” – The Journey Home
We’ve made it. We’ve reached the end of peace prayer petitions and the end of the Lenten season. But while Lent may be over, our work for peace is not. For our missioners, the end of their time abroad does not end their time of service. Like all of us, they are called to lifelong mission and…
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“Pardoning that we are pardoned” – A Guatemalan Healing Ritual
In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells us, “Forgive and you will be forgiven.” We know that forgiving others begets forgiveness from God, but sometimes we are challenged to forgive ourselves. Or, perhaps our challenge comes not in forgiving but in forgetting or moving on. Rather than foster anger, resentment or sadness, our journey for Easter peace calls…
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“To be loved as to love” – Saying Goodbye
Part of the journey toward Easter peace is moving away from “me” and toward “thee,” thinking less of myself and more of others — we are trying becoming “Little Christs.” Like Christ, we are called to love. We are to open our hearts with abandon. Our missioners travel abroad to serve with open hearts. Years later,…
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“To be understood, as to understand” – Teacher learns a lesson in Guatemala
Today’s mission story about David LaDuca teaching in Guatemala (2004-2007) illustrates two important characteristics of FMS. The first is that we ask the community what they need — we do not try to force help on them, and we do not want to take their jobs away. The local community knows their needs better than…
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World Water Day 2012 – Water and Food Security
Did you know that it takes 3,000 liters of water to satisfy your daily needs? When you add up the liquids you consume and what goes into making the food you eat, the products you use, the clothes you wear, and the water you use in the bathroom, kitchen or laundry room, that’s about 12,680…
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Prayers for Christmas: Life and Health
“A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.” – Matthew 2:18/Jeremiah 31:15 Massacre of the Innocents On this Feast of the Holy Innocents, the Church remembers the boys under the age of two near Bethlehem who were killed in Herod’s fury. Two…
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Prayers for Christmas: Comfort and Hope
Kathy Snider on mission in Guatemala, 1998 to 2000. Today’s prayer for Christmas comes from returned missioner Kathy Snider: “My prayer for Christmas is for those who have experienced loss of a loved one due to death or separation, of home due to natural disasters or foreclosure, of food and due to drought and poverty,…
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