This is the Best T-Shirt Design. Ever!

This comes from a seminarian pal of mine, Ray.

What can I say to this? Mmmmmmmmmm!!! Bacon!!!!

This is The Fourth

UPDATE!!!
While I thought what I ate was cake, what it was, actually, were BROWNIES. I stand corrected. Many thanks to Beatrice, who went nearly two weeks without being personally thanked-- while I thought the chefs of the house had put it together, it was Beatrice who put all of this together. Muchas gracias!!!
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Happy Fourth of July everyone! It is a little strange being out of the US on this day-- I'm appreciating the day more. I hope you all have a relaxing and safe Fourth. I'm off to rural Mexico for the weekend, so I will catch you on Monday!



This is the spread the cooks provided us. Wow!!!



I don't think I celebrate The Fourth this well in the States!




Mmmm! Cake for breakfast!!!

This is Visiting Guadalupe

Today is a red-letter day in the world of my blog. Today I have posted my first video (see below). How bout that!?!?! Ok, enough self-promoting....

Yesterday, me and the fellas went to Our Lady of Guadalupe for the second time on our Mexican Immersion. The trip was much different than the first and it brought with it many more thoughts. I haven't been able to post on either until today, so without further ado: This is Visiting Guadalupe.


We left the house at about 9:30-- not a bad start. But, soon thereafter, we hit traffic. Lots of traffic. Welcome to Mexico City.

We sat and sat and sat... and we arrived to the Basilica at about 11am. Pretty bad for an 18-mile drive.

We then toured the museum, which was something that we couldn't do the first time we visited (as last time it was closed). Admittedly, I wasn't very impressed with the museum. It is quite large and it does have a lot of 16th-18th century art (of particular note are its oil paintings), and it does have two pretty amazing altar reredos... es. But, all in all, I was disappointed. One, because I couldn't take any pictures, even without a flash. And two, there was a phenomenal lack of information about the apparitions, about everything surrounding them, and about the meaning of the tilma image itself. All we saw were artifacts from after the apparitions.

A fellow seminarian astutely pointed out as he drew a contrast: "The entirety of Lourdes is centered around what happened before and during the apparitions. The 'after' speaks for itself. Here, there seems as though someone feels there is something to prove..." Ironically, the method to do so concerns everything that happened afterward, and not what happened before and during. I want to learn more about Guadalupe. Again, I turn to Padre Eduardo Chavez... wishfully.

{This cross, which you can see in the new cathedral at Guadalupe, is, as you can tell, very bent. A while ago-- I do not remember when-- someone tried to blow up the image. At the time, the image was directly above the tabernacle on the high altar in the old cathedral-- and someone placed a stick of dynamite on the altar in an attempt to blow up the image. The dynamite exploded. The candlesticks were destroyed and the crucifix seen here was bent-- but the image was unscathed.}

After the museum, I climbed up the Tepeyac Hill.

It is in this area that the apparitions took place. The gardens here are beautiful and very peaceful when there are not thousands of pilgrims (which is good to have, nonetheless) and, accompanying them, the many vendors. Honestly, Tepeyac Hill, while beautiful, reminds me of a theme park. I hate to say that, as this is holy ground. But, it is just so busy and commercial when there are people out and about. I can see this place as being heavenly when few are around.

So, I climbed up the Hill, which is easily done by taking the steps. At the top is a beautiful view of the city.

(While it is within the limits of Mexico City, Guadalupe/Tepeyac are on the north end. The hill faces south toward downtown). At the top of the Hill is a beautiful church with scenes of the apparitions inside of it. Again, there are a lot of pilgrims here, so staying around for long is not the best thing to do.

Instead, I went back down the Hill and found the diamond in the rough: la capella pocito (the small chapel).

There, it is quiet and Jesus is there and the small size of the chapel provides an opportunity for great intimacy with the Lord. That, and it is the most beautiful part of the entire Guadalupe complex-- second only, of course, to the Tilma. A couple families visited this chapel while I was there. They brought their kids, who knew to kneel and pray-- which was very wonderful to see. Interestingly, they knelt right next to me... They were quiet and, just before they left, the parents took a picture of the kids praying. And since they were so close to me, guess who was in the portrait!

If I were a parent and had the money, I could see bring my kids here like that. And if I were a priest, I wish I could have heard confessions in that chapel. At that moment, I felt like I was both.

{This is the giant Square at the bottom of the Hill around which all of the buildings rest. I'm not sure what that cement structure in the background is}

After the small chapel, I visited a couple more chapels-- these from the earlier days of Guadalupe: the former indian parish church, the former basilica, etc.

{This is the "Old Parish of the Indians"-- and inside...}

These too are beautiful, but in a simple way. And they are beautiful in that there is so much history here. One could spend quite a bit of time pondering the history of the place-- what had gone on in this same space, hundreds of years ago.

{The old cathedral and, attached, the old monastery}

Eventually, I found my way to the new cathedral. Here, the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one display for all to see.

{The new cathedral, built in the 1970s...}

The image is directly behind the altar, so you can see it from any part of the church.

Here, you can see it directly at the foot of the cross.

If you want to see it up-close, you have to go to the lower-level of the cathedral and take a ride on a moving walkway and look up. (This is so that pilgrims keep moving. Otherwise, there would be a traffic jam reminiscent of those in the city).

Here's a video of what you would see if you visited...

The time the it takes to travel on the moving walkway is nearly equivalent to a Hail Mary. Here is a more up-close video of the image:



I prayed for a while here and in the pews, as you might expect. In my first visit, that's where I spent most of my time. During this second visit, though, we were short on time-- and I had yet to purchase from the gift shop what I had promised everyone back home that I would get.


So, I went to the gift shop. Ahem, crowded gift shop. I shouldn't have been surprised, considering. But, I was. And I was also confused by the way things are purchased there. You can't just grab things off the shelves. You must point your selection to one of the assistants. They then pull your product from the shelf or from a back room. You then go to pay at a side "window"... and then your items are finally placed in your hands. I was lost.

And my time was up. So I returned to the group. We climbed back into our van. And two hours. TWO HOURS! later, we arrived back home.

Perhaps Our Lady can do something about the traffic here. In the words of Billy Crystal (in the Princess Bride), "It would take a miracle."

Maybe there will be a miracle when I visit for the last time in a couple of weeks.....

This is John McCain...

... visiting Our Lady of Guadalupe. Today.



And at last, a picture of him that doesn't look like he is insanely happy. (That a lot of the main-stream media (MSM) shows only the I'm-smiling-really-large-and-laughing-really-loud John McCain easily give us the impression that he is never serious. Or, in other words, that he is a joke to be laughed at-- implied: can we take him seriously?)

Anyway, I found this buried in the news. AND he received a blessing. That's interesting...

In other recent news, December 12th, 2000, was the day the Supreme Court ended the Bush-Gore fiasco. For those unawares, that's the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Who knew?

This is Chalco

Once upon a time, Pope John Paul II wrote:

Our world is entering the new millennium burdened by the contradictions of an economic, cultural and technological progress which offers immense possibilities to a fortunate few, while leaving millions of others not only on the margins of progress but in living conditions far below the minimum demanded by human dignity… Now is the time for a new "creativity" in charity, not only by ensuring that help is effective but also by "getting close" to those who suffer, so that the hand that helps is seen not as a humiliating handout but as a sharing between brothers and sisters (Novo Millenio Ineunte, 50).


{Taken from this website. Do visit it!}

When I woke up this morning, little did I think that I would be living with those words staring me in the face via the eyes of those who live in such conditions.

Today, I went to a place called "Chalco"-- probably the poorest place in Mexico City and probably one of the most dense populations. It is a city through and through, bustling with a million people-- but it is a city which is simply and utterly poor. Until just recently, the roads had been simply mud (and even today as we traveled through, we drove through some muddy streets). And education, health, and simple necessities-- like food-- are hard to come by.

While in Chalco, I visited a school which is part of The Altius Foundation. This entire program is phenomenal. Basically, the school provides 100% scholarship to about 4/5ths of its students-- students which range from kindegarten through 12th grade. It teaches them the usual reading, writing, and arithmetic, but it also teaches them discipline and how to live with certain "human standards"-- like, for example, brushing one's teeth. It is a school in the heart of poverty, but it is thriving.

Now, you may expect me to say how the school was dirty and run down and pretty much out of a scene from anything pre-20th century. Fact is, though, that this school was clean, orderly, and well kept. It could have easily passed for a good American school in the US-- only, these kids were much more well behaved than what you would see in the US. I could talk your ear off about the school, but there is already someone who has written an article on it. I have pasted it in its entirety, below. Or you can click here. It is a good read.

The motivation for the school was realized shortly after a papal visit in 1990. Pope John Paul II visited Mexico City and its suburb, Chalco. There, he offered the Mass and gave an amazing homily which you can find here. (It is in Spanish.... I hope to be able to translate it fully by the time I am done with this program). Basically, what he said can be summarized in his one sentence:

"You cannot eat and sleep calmly, while surrounding you so much misery exists."


That's quite the contrast to the life I was living over the weekend....

When I visited the school, I learned that it was not only just a school that the Altius Foundation was providing, but also a medical center-- on the same campus as the school. This medical center provides very inexpensive medical care to the community; medcare such as basic family practice, orthodontics, ob-gyn, opthamalogist, etc. And whereas in the States a visit to the doc will cost you a $50 co-pay, here the medcenter only charges 35 pesos (that's $3.50 for those keeping score at home).

Ultimately, what is envisioned in this program (school for kids, medcenter-- and, as well, an adult formation school) is that the community is built up from the inside-out; that those who go to the school can get out of the cyclical poverty, acheive, and then give back to the community, lifting the community out of its squalor. It's amazing. It's empowering. And, really, it is an exercise in living authentic human dignity.

I was deeply touched by witnessing all of this. And I haven't even begun to tell you how all of us seminarians were welcomed by the students of the school. I quote one of my brothers when I say that "we were treated like dignitaries." We arrived, we got a tour, and then we were brought into the gym where we were led to chairs on a platform on one side of the gym. The whole gradeschool was gathered there; on the platform sat the principal, a few teachers, and us seminarians. The students then proceeded to perform numerous dances-- some traditional mexican pieces. It was the end of the school year for them-- but it seemed like all the performances and celebration was for us.....

I didn't take my camera with me, but the images I have in my mind will last forever. I'm supposed to do something with all of what has been given to me today (like all days)-- but especially today.

And if I should find some photos from one of my seminarian brothers, I'll be sure to post them here soon.


Wednesday, I'm going to Our Lady of Guadalupe again. I'll post when I return from there. See you Thursday!






Mano Amiga Achieves Education Success in Latin America´s Poorest Communities

By David Agren, in Valle de Chalco Solidaridad, Mexico

Luis Vergara Velazquez, 16, lives in Valle de Chalco Solidaridad, Mexico, a sprawling municipality on the southeastern outskirts of Mexico City founded by squatters. Most Chalco residents either eke out modest livings by running small mom-and-pop businesses, hawking everything from stationery to sodas, or commuting several hours on uncomfortable buses to low-paying jobs in the capital. Luis plans on enduring the same daily grind too after finishing high school, but only for a few years and for completely different reasons. He dreams of studying law at a prestigious university and becoming “independent” – goals few teenagers in his hometown achieve or even aspire to. But thanks to an assist from the local Mano Amiga school, the ambitious grade eleven student just might get there.

Mano Amiga (Helping Hand) provides thousands of children across Latin America with a quality Catholic education that enables them to pursue advanced studies. Run by the Altius Foundation, a charitable organization founded by the Legionaries of Christ, and supported by Catholic World Mission – among others – Mano Amiga sends an astounding 85 percent of its graduates to university, including private institutions, where they receive full scholarships. The drop-out rate is virtually zero. Perhaps more importantly, Mano Amiga works closely with entire families to break the vicious circles of poverty in the areas it operates in.

“If you show up in Chalco ... and you say to a child, ´What do you hope to be when you´re older, he´ll probably say a gang member or a narco ... or maybe do the same thing as his father,” said Rene Lankenau, President of the Altius Foundation.

“If you ask the same child, ´Why not go to university?´, it would be same for him as going to the
moon.”

The idea of sending children from impoverished barrios to university might seem “far fetched,” Lankenau acknowledged, but Mano Amiga has been making it happen since 1963, when families from Instituto Cumbres, a private Legionaries of Christ school, lent a helping hand – hence the name Mano Amiga – to the residents of San Antonio Zomeyucan, a poor community about 30 minutes away. Although the first school started with just 15 preschool students, close to 30 Mano Amiga schools now operate in seven Latin American countries. Lankenau attributed the success to Mano Amiga´s approach, which demands that families not only contribute financially towards their children´s education – usually $5 - $40 per month, depending on location – but that parents also participate in personal and economic development programs sponsored by the schools.

“What we have seen is that having a child in the morning, teaching him, having him do well, etc. ... doesn´t work if when he returns home there´s a disaster,” Lankenau explained, adding that family development is an important part of the Mano Amiga mission.

“The Mano Amiga model is a system for radically transforming the life of a family in poverty.”
According to Elena Barrero, promotions director for the Altius Foundation, Mano Amiga only works with “the parents that are willing to make a 14-year investment.”

“(Finishing high school) is an enormous accomplishment in the society where we work and for that to happen a commitment from the parents is necessary – that they also believe in this sacrifice.”

Few of the children attending the Mano Amiga school in Chalco come from homes where at least one of the parents graduated from high school; principal Lilia M.Q. de Garelli put the figure at perhaps two percent.

Her Mano Amiga school stands next to a graveyard for people lacking the funds for a proper burial. On the other side of the fence from the cemetery, children on their lunch break kick soccer balls and play on swing sets. A short, but steady line of parents also come by to inquire about enrollment. Most of their applications won´t be successful.

“If we built another school here, it would fill up,” de Garelli said.

For preschoolers, the admissions process is fairly straightforward, but for students attempting to enter at the junior-high school level – a time when Mano Amiga accepts transfers – it´s more difficult.

“When a child arrives from another school and isn´t used to having discipline, the type of training that we have here, it´s very difficult to enter that environment,” she explained, pointing to a random entrance application to make her point.

Academically, the child brought public school marks averaging 9.2 on a 10-point scale, but when tested by Mano Amiga, he only received a six. A psychological exam also detected problems with “aggression.” He wasn´t accepted. Principal de Garelli said only about two children enter at the junior-high school level each year.

The low figure reflects shortcomings in the Mexican public education system, which provides most children with access to schooling, but often delivers poor results.
“I´ve worked in both systems and the level of the public system is far below here,” said first grade teacher Conchita Molina.

“What we teach is much more in-depth.”

Discipline is also usually lacking in public schools. As de Garelli provides a tour of her school, which was founded shortly after Pope John Paul II visited Chalco in 1990, the students in clean uniforms politely greet her and always stand up when she enters a classroom. Most of the Mano Amiga students, like Luis Vergara Velazquez, speak articulately – even in English.

“When I see the other non-Mano Amiga kids, they´re so grosero (badly-mannered),” he commented.

“There are people here with no education laughing at you.”

Laughing aside, Luis plans on pursuing his dream and heeding the advice of his parents, who told him, “There´s you´re opportunity. Don´t lose it.”

By doing so he would achieve Mano Amiga´s prime objective of “breaking the circle of poverty,” according to Rene Lankenau, who proudly added, “The children of Mano Amiga alumni no longer need Mano Amiga schools.”

This is Weekend Vacation.

So here we are on Friday afternoon. It was beautiful outside, but we're inside. This is what we do every afternoon: listen to spanish music and other spanish speaking programs, all the while trying to figure out what is being said or sung. Yet, while we are inside....


... what we're really dreaming about is this:


Thanks be to God: Dreams do come true. So on Saturday morning, we all gathered a day-pack and headed south. We had been invited to the "summer home" of a friend of the program-- a summer home nestled in a valley among mountains; a summer home with a pool, a tennis court, and enough greenery and palm trees to make Adam and Eve wonder whether they are at home.

Problem is, though, getting there.


You see, in Mexico, the police are a very corrupt bunch. And, well, when driving in Mexico, you must be prepared to be pulled over at any time. Because, well.... we were.

Here's how the story goes: We're driving to a rural spot in south central Mexico. All ten of us seminarians and father are in a rental van. The rental is being driven by a friendly Mexican rental van driver. We're minding our own business, enjoying the passing mountains and rolling hills and all the little villages speckling the landscape. Then, "Rrreeeerrrr." A police pickup truck is in the rearview mirror, flashing his lights and tweeting his siren.

I've been in this situation before. And it never ends up good. My stomach churns: this is Mexico. Not only is this not going to end up good. We're all going to go to jail.

So we're pulled over on the side of a highway (which, by the way, is paved and pretty well maintained. I was surprised....). And the Federal Policia patrolman walks up (in that condescending way which only police officers can do when they're walking up alongside your pulled-over vehicle) and he talks to our driver in a language which might have been spanish. His mouth should have been pulled over for speeding.

Anyway... the policeman takes our driver's license and tells him to drive the van to the police station up the road. (Yep, we're all going to jail. I don't want to die. Please, God, no death today, please?).

We start making a top ten list: Top Ten Things NOT to Say to a Mexican Cop. Number Ten: "Yes, officer, I knew that my brake light was out. That's because I have stuffed it with cocaine."

Up the road, we pull to a make-shift police station. Basically, it is where the shoulder is wide enough to comfortably hold the police officer's victims. I feel like a fish in a barrel. He asks our driver to get out of the car. They talk. The police man asks Father to step out of the vehicle. (No, you can't take him. If you take him, I'm gonna... I'm gonna.... I'm just gonna sit here for a while, ok.)

This is in serious jeopardy.


They talk for about fifteen minutes. During this time, a couple of stray dogs start playing in the highway. In my mind, I'm placing bets with myself: How many minutes until one of them gets run over. I'm saying four. All of us in the van are glued to this temporary attention diversion. We don't want to watch, but we are mesmerized. A car comes within inches of hitting one of them (using the plural in that case may be an exaggeration). The dog yelps and runs away from the street with its tail between its legs.

Craig is certain that this dog does this every day. I wouldn't be surprised.

So we go back to wondering what is happening with our father and our driver. They're still alive and un-handcuffed. That's good. Maybe we should pray a Rosary. We start praying. Father comes back. Then the driver. He reaches into his wallet and then goes back outside to the police. And, just as quickly, he returns to the van. And we're off!

NO JAIL TIME!!! WE'RE ALIVE!!! HAH HAH, COPPERS! DON'T MESS WITH THE ESTADOS UNIDOS!!!!


Well, as we drive for a while, we learn that-- as is common practice here, apparently-- the driver was pulled over for no reason, other than that he was driving a van full of people. And, well, in Mexico, a van full of people means a van full of people with pockets-- pockets that have pesos in them. So, we were pulled over for no reason-- that is, until the police officer made a reason: "umm, you're driving a rental vehicle without such and such a (made-up) license. This is a fine-able crime that will cost you 25,000 pesos"-- the equivalent of 2500 dollars.

Yes, that's right. The cop wanted $2,500 from us.

But that's how it goes here in Mexico. The cops can do whatever they want. Yet, you see, they don't expect to get that much money from us. What they are expecting is for us to pay them off. Yes, to bribe them. So the driver gives him 500 pesos (that's $50 American) and we're on our way. That's how it works: you're pulled over for no reason, the cop makes up a charge, he then comes up with an exuberant number for the amount of money required to pay the fine, and then you slyly pay a bribe. He pockets the cash. You avoid a Mexican jail.

Case in point: on the way to pick us up, our same driver driving the same van (sans seminarians) was pulled over again. Not for speeding, not for having a bad license or brake light, but because he drove a van that could have had many people in it (again with cash in their pockets). This time, though, the police realized the empty van (and thus the lack of money) and sent our poor driver on his way. Apparently, he wasn't worth the effort.

Maybe we should have just gone by goat.


Well, eventually we made it: vacation time! Here's Craig in a hammock:


And me on a bed, outside, among palm trees, a pool, and a hot tub. Now all I need is a drink with an umbrella in it. Excuse me, Garcón...


Here's Craig and Tony after lunch (which is really dinner). Food comas are fantastic.


And here's Joe playing with the dog-that-never-let's-go-of-the-tennis-ball. How do you say "Give me that ball, you flea-infested canine?" in español?


And, of course, no vacation home would be complete without it's own swim-up bar. Something tells me this is not your standard Mexican home....


Mmmmm.... what a weekend. Simple relaxation under the sun with suds, buds, and a pool. Learning spanish has never been so.... educational.

And now it's late, so I'm going to bed. Tomorrow brings classes! Ay carumba!!!