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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