Almost Christmas!!!
This week we had our advent Novena. It started last Thursday and ended this morning and each morning at 5:30 am we had Mass at our local parish. I want to say that it took a LOT of dedication to get up each morning but was well worth it. I got so many things done when I got home at 6:30 and was already wide awake. Since I leave the house at 6:45 on tuesday and thursday it was kind of a crunch time, but it was still alright.
One of my favorite homilies this week talked about how much time we put into our faith. I started to think about how some people get really frustrated when they don't understand their own religion and yet don't take the time to figure it out. I was thinking about sports and how to be good at a sport we must practice. If you wanted to be a good basketball player but only practiced once a week for one hour - you wouldn't accomplish anything. Even if you practiced for one hour every week of your life you still wouldn't be at the best of your ability. Even worse say you only practiced twice a year, now how could you expect to know much of anything about the sport rather than what you see. Our faith is exactly the same. If you don't understand the Catholic church or why it teaches what it does - and you don't put any other extra effort into it, its not going to magically appear.
This made me think to myself "How much effort do I put into my faith life?". If I put even 10% of the energy that I put into work into my faith, I know I would be improving my faith life from today. God's messages to us don't transfer into our minds by osmosis, we must study his word, listen to his pastors, and take time to talk with Him and listen to what He has to say to us. Next time I find something about the Church or the Bible I don't understand I realize maybe it's my own fault because my priorities aren't exactly in the right place. We have no one to blame but ourselves if we don't become NBA players when we only practice basketball once a week. :)
This week was the last week of school and all that I had left to do was clean up my room and attend the school party. I really enjoyed just being around the school and not having a lot of work to get done or accomplish! :) I met some of my parents students this week and one of them said to me: "Ohhh, you're miss Ashley, yes I hear a LOT about you, almost every time my son comes home from school he tells me something about you". I felt really awkward but at the same time i'm glad to know that my students enjoy my class somewhat. Now I just need to start working on my lesson plans for next term.
We had our staff party last night for the school and it was a lot of fun. I always enjoy dressing up in Guyana! We just had a dinner and then we got gifts from the school. I got a really beautiful weaved baskets!! Its nice to see everyone dressed up and talking about something other than school for once. My co-workers all really make me laugh and are very supportive of each other and I really appreciate that.
Yesterday we had the MOST CRAZY DAY EVER at the hospital. I walked in at 8am and was told that they needed someone in the ER immediately. My supervisor told me that the lady who is normally there isn't here yet, and that I would be much better than him at grief so he sent me down. We had a woman who had lost her husband and her seven children were on the way to see him. I just kept praying that the counselor who deals with grief would show up quickly and lead the team. Right as the children arrived she walked in to and I thanked God that she was able to take over. I obviously stayed and helped her, but it was a huge relief. Once all of that had happened we had to see all the patients for the day and then get ready for the childrens party. I face painted with another young woman and it was a really great time. The only thing was once I stopped face painting at the end of the party around 5:30, I realized that was the first time I had stopped moving since 8 that morning. I hadn't had time to even take lunch or think about eating. I was glad that there was Roti and curry there when we finished face paiting - nothing like you're favorite food to end a CRAZY day!! :)
Georgetown before Christmas is always chaos and I do not enjoy how long it takes to get home on the bus anymore. I have never been a huge fan of crowds and I am going to enjoy when all of the Christmas chaos is over... I still have to go and buy my christmas presents and I am not looking forward to the long lines. Mmmm i'm looking forward to all of the Christmas food :) It's still always hard to believe that it's Christmas without any snow. Not that I really miss the cold, rather I just miss the clean look and beauty that snow gives to a city.
I hope you all have a blessed last week of advent!! I will make sure to post a blog after Christmas sharing all of our Christmas Adventures!!
Merry Christmas!!!
Love,
Ashley Ann
Whatsoever you do to the least of My people, that you do unto Me.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Land of Many Changes*
Good Afternoon,
Since the last time that I wrote so many things have changed. November ended and December came, elections happened and results were delivered, the Mass as i've known it my whole life is now different and Advent began which always brings about a good change in the liturgical year.
On November 28th Guyana held its elections. I have to say that the city of Georgetown was very tense before the elections. Walking down the street the weekend before you could notice that there were less people out, and things seemed quiet. Monday was election day and it came and went very quietly. Tuesday morning I took a taxi to work and all my co-workers were sitting around talking about what was going to happen. Everyone kept commenting on how quiet it had been the past weekend and how on election day not a soul went out anywhere but to the polls. It took until thursday to receive the results. They were suppose to be released at 2pm, and when I got home at 4:05 Audrey told me how I was just in time to recieve the results. I remember walking from the end of our block where I was dropped off to our house just before I came in the house. I had been thinking about how still things can be in the moments before we know change is going to occur. We have hopes of what is going to happen, but because there is no control I find the stillness makes me realize how much is out of our control. The PPP/C won the elections and Donald Ramotar is the new president of Guyana. The PPP/C did not win Majority in the house, and for the FIRST time since Guyana became an independent nation has had a shared government.
On Sunday Nov 27th, the first sunday of Advent Sarah Audrey and I were walking into evening church. As we were walking in Sarah said: "And Mass as we know it has changed, I didn't even realize last weekend would be the last Mass as I have known it my whole life". We had already heard the new Mass at daily Mass at the Cathedral for the past couple of months so for us it wasn't a dramatic change. I personally don't think the changes are all that great to create any sort of major fuss. I feel like it was received well in Guyana and I heard very few complaints. I would also like to thank Father John as I feel he gave many homily's preparing us all. No one likes to change a routine that is so ingrained you know everything. It's like moving to a new house, or changing countries. It takes a while at first, and we are going to be a little uncomfortable, but eventually and soon enough Mass will once again become home.
This past weekend we went on retreat in New Amsterdam, Berbeice. It was our Advent retreat and it was very fruitful for me. We stayed behind the church in a building which is half a rec type center, and half a retreat house. When we first got there we all took naps as one of the most important parts of retreat is catching up on rest of course! After that it happened to be the first friday of the month so there was exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Benediction and Mass. For those of you who are not Catholic - exposition of Blessed Sacrament, or adoration is where we go to adore and pray before Christ. We believe the Eucharist or the communion host, is actually the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ. We put it in a device called a Monstrance which is basically a gold display case -
I always think about my Totus Tuus team member Drew Brawn and how he explained the effects of Adoration. Adoration is like sun tanning. Sometimes when we go tanning we can't see the effects right away, we can't tell what is happening. Yet eventually and gradually we start to see changes. So as tanning effects our outer body - being in front of the Son, the Son of God, is like tanning for your soul. You won't be able to see the effects right away but just being in the presence of the Lord changes you, slowly. We may not feel the effects, but faith is not about feelings. Just like how married couples may not always feel the love they have, that doesn't mean its not there. Its in those moments when we don't feel the love that both in marriage and in faith it is the most important to stay faithful and be perserverant.
"Advent is concerned with that very connection between memory and hope which is so necessary to man. Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope. The purpose of the Church’s year is continually to rehearse her great history of memories, to awaken the heart’s memory so that it can discern the star of hope.…
It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope."
Memory Awakens Hope. . . . . . . . . Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Seek That Which Is Above,1986
Since the last time that I wrote so many things have changed. November ended and December came, elections happened and results were delivered, the Mass as i've known it my whole life is now different and Advent began which always brings about a good change in the liturgical year.
On November 28th Guyana held its elections. I have to say that the city of Georgetown was very tense before the elections. Walking down the street the weekend before you could notice that there were less people out, and things seemed quiet. Monday was election day and it came and went very quietly. Tuesday morning I took a taxi to work and all my co-workers were sitting around talking about what was going to happen. Everyone kept commenting on how quiet it had been the past weekend and how on election day not a soul went out anywhere but to the polls. It took until thursday to receive the results. They were suppose to be released at 2pm, and when I got home at 4:05 Audrey told me how I was just in time to recieve the results. I remember walking from the end of our block where I was dropped off to our house just before I came in the house. I had been thinking about how still things can be in the moments before we know change is going to occur. We have hopes of what is going to happen, but because there is no control I find the stillness makes me realize how much is out of our control. The PPP/C won the elections and Donald Ramotar is the new president of Guyana. The PPP/C did not win Majority in the house, and for the FIRST time since Guyana became an independent nation has had a shared government.
On Sunday Nov 27th, the first sunday of Advent Sarah Audrey and I were walking into evening church. As we were walking in Sarah said: "And Mass as we know it has changed, I didn't even realize last weekend would be the last Mass as I have known it my whole life". We had already heard the new Mass at daily Mass at the Cathedral for the past couple of months so for us it wasn't a dramatic change. I personally don't think the changes are all that great to create any sort of major fuss. I feel like it was received well in Guyana and I heard very few complaints. I would also like to thank Father John as I feel he gave many homily's preparing us all. No one likes to change a routine that is so ingrained you know everything. It's like moving to a new house, or changing countries. It takes a while at first, and we are going to be a little uncomfortable, but eventually and soon enough Mass will once again become home.
This past weekend we went on retreat in New Amsterdam, Berbeice. It was our Advent retreat and it was very fruitful for me. We stayed behind the church in a building which is half a rec type center, and half a retreat house. When we first got there we all took naps as one of the most important parts of retreat is catching up on rest of course! After that it happened to be the first friday of the month so there was exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Benediction and Mass. For those of you who are not Catholic - exposition of Blessed Sacrament, or adoration is where we go to adore and pray before Christ. We believe the Eucharist or the communion host, is actually the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ. We put it in a device called a Monstrance which is basically a gold display case -
I always think about my Totus Tuus team member Drew Brawn and how he explained the effects of Adoration. Adoration is like sun tanning. Sometimes when we go tanning we can't see the effects right away, we can't tell what is happening. Yet eventually and gradually we start to see changes. So as tanning effects our outer body - being in front of the Son, the Son of God, is like tanning for your soul. You won't be able to see the effects right away but just being in the presence of the Lord changes you, slowly. We may not feel the effects, but faith is not about feelings. Just like how married couples may not always feel the love they have, that doesn't mean its not there. Its in those moments when we don't feel the love that both in marriage and in faith it is the most important to stay faithful and be perserverant.
I can firmly say that after a weekend from Georgetown I felt much more relaxed. I felt the results of it this week when I was able to be more patient with my students who have a tendency to push my buttons. I think one of my favorite memories of retreat was when I was laying on my bed and Audrey came to talk with me. At first she sat on the chair across the room and we were chatting and then she had to run to check if it was lunch time. When she came back all of a sudden I felt her jump on my bed and we laid there for about 45 minutes just talking about life. We kept talking about how much we have changed since last December and how Guyana has become a different country to us. God has shown himself to us in different ways and through it all we have committed to each other as support and nonjudgmental support. We were able to talk through a lot of different things that were going through our minds and at the end of it I felt relief. I would never be able to experience that without the feeling of support that I received from my friend.
This past week I wrapped up my class for the term by allowing my students to finish off their Microsoft PowerPoint assignment. During one of the classes about half finished early in the period and since it was the last class of the term I gave them free time. The slower girls were still working. Whenever one of them would raise their hand before I would get to them another girl would run over and help. I felt very proud that they were so self sufficent that they could function without my help. At the same time it was one of those moments where I felt sad that I was no longer needed. I am excited to start again in a new area next term! :)
The only other thing that happened this week was the Festival of Carols at the Cathedral and Mass for the Immaculate Conception. Our Cathedral is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception so we always have a huge Mass celebrating it. I enjoyed very much hearing from the Bishop. The festival of carols is just a collection of individuals and choirs preforming different christmas songs. It was a good night out to relax and begin to get into the Christmas Season.
I hope you are all enjoying your Advent. Before we know it Christmas will be here!!!
Love and prayers,
Ashley Ann
"Advent is concerned with that very connection between memory and hope which is so necessary to man. Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope. The purpose of the Church’s year is continually to rehearse her great history of memories, to awaken the heart’s memory so that it can discern the star of hope.…
It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope."
Memory Awakens Hope. . . . . . . . . Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Seek That Which Is Above,1986
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