The higher we go, the better we shall hear the voice of Christ

Verso l´alto!

Greetings in Christ!

Thank you so much Dad for keeping things up to date! Thank you everyone for all of your prayers and support in these past few days. The past week has been extremely peaceful, I think, in a large part thanks to all of you! 

If there are any grave spelling errors, I apologize in advance. This computer I am using is geared for Spanish and thus is redmarking literally every single word. Feel free to leave acoom ent eef u find eny. 

I have to remind myself that it has really only been a week. Time moves much differently down here. I am currently writing in the same room where I will (hopefully) be improving in my Spanish for the next two weeks. Myself and a fellow missioner in training, Isaiah, are staying with a family in the town of Cabañas, located somwhere in the mountains of Honduras, in the province of La Paz (bonus points if you can find it on a map...good luck). The family are good friends of the Missioners of Christ, and the mother is a Primary School teacher/consultant who has agreed to teach us. 

But let's go back a bit. I landed safely in Honduras on Monday, along with two other seminarians from Phoenix, and from the Palmarola airport in Comayagua we took a truck to the Casa Guadalupe (computer didn't mark those in red!), a house owned by the CFR's and rented by the Missioners. 

We met up with some other seminarians from Texas who were also there for emersion. We found out later that night that we would all be going up to the Mountain of Hope retreat Center, which is actually quite close to where I am now, for a few days of orientation in the Mountains. 

It was beautiful, but I was sick. 

My throat had unfortunatley gotten worse since we landed, and I would have to wait for several days to be able to talk normaly again. Thank you for your prayers! I feel much better now, and only have abit of a lingering cough that I hope will quietly die within the next few days. 

After that time in the mountains, we came back to Comayagua on Thursday. We were told a mission group would be coming in in stages from Saturday to Monday (today). Thankfully, Friday was a day of prayer, very much like a day reatreat, as it always is for the Missioners, so we all had some time to recharge. More on that later. 

On Saturday, the large group of seminarians left for Tegucigalpa, where they will be doing language studies. Some of the mission team started to trickle in as well: a few from Dallas, a few from Phoenix (my old Spirtual Director was one of them, praise God). 

The next day, Isaiah and I left for Cabañas after breakfast and a healthy dose of group intercessory prayer by everyone that could be mustered. We left by truck, and arrived a few hours later. 

"Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch"-Luke 5:4

The Father has been doing alot in my heart through what, on paper, might seem like a lot (probabbly because it was alot)in this past week. Starting the mission sick was the best way I could have begun. It was very humbling not to be able to do something that I love to do so very much: talk. I am extraverted through and through, which has benefits and pitfalls. I had to be more particular with what I said, and I noticed much more the times that I wanted to draw attention to myself. It was awesome. So no worries Dad! It all worked out for the Glory of God! 

In addition, I was able to focus more on others and what they needed, but I was also forced to let others take care of me, and, even worse, I was forced to rest. Rest is difficult for me. Innactivity tends to make me very anxious, as does napping. But I was exhausted, and so had to nap and had to rest. The result was that I ended up going outside very little. Mark that. It'll come up again in a seccond. That mindset of focusing on others set me up really well for when we returned to the Mission house. I was much more outward focused. I was also already focused interiorly in a healthy way, so when Friday rolled around I was predesposed to give to the Father any feelings of loneliness or anxiety that came up. 

Ok, now to the outdoor thing. 

We drove to mass on the last day in the mountains, and I road in the bed of the truck. 

Moms, don't freak out. Your instinct is correct: it is entirely unsafe. 

Anyways, that was the first time in two days I had felt such an invigorating breaze. I felt alive again. It was amazing. I was remineded of how much I thrive being outdoors.

While here in Cabañas, especially today, going outside has been difficult, and we spent a lot of time inside. After a three hour lesson in doors, I thought I would explode, flinging masculine pronouns and indirect objects in every which way. When I did go outside, it was foggier than that time in Harry Potter when the Dementors were roaming free throughout the streets of London. For a desert dweller like me, it was draining, to say the least. 

I started feeling almost trapped, chained by unhealthy expectations. I wanted to go hide and drown my problems in a book...thankfuly said book was the collected letters of Pier Giorgio Frassati, the patron of this blog and one of the patrons of my mission.

I was reminded of his boundless hospitality, his unconditional love that led to everyone, and I mean everyone, in his town knowing who he was. First I thought that this was expected of me: that I do what he did. I shied away. How I could do that here?! But then I realized that no one expects that of me. His actions were great because they went above and beyond. 

I suddenly wanted to go outside, explore more of the house. Lucky for me, I found access to the roof. 

Praise God for that. 

From there, I could see almost the whole town. Better yet, I could feel the sun! I was reminded of the feeling one gets when reaching ths summit of a mountain. I sat and just looked around. I prayed a bit. I thanked God. I felt more open to visiting random people I don't know yet (a custom very common in Honduras, I should add). I remembered a quote as well from Bl. Pier Giorgio:

"The higher we go, the better we shall hear the voice of Christ." When I could see everything from up high, when I surrendered my fears to Christ, everything looked much easier. Christ gave me life through the breeze one only feels higher up. I was anything but trapped. I was free to move at my own pase, make plans for the upcoming days, and prepare for said plans to change catestrophically (the mission is happning very close to where we are, and we will probably be doing some house visits at some point) like I love to do: the world became my oister. 

I came down much happier, I must say. 

Well, that's all for now. Please pray for the mission going on right now! I think they leave tomorrow!  

I am going to try and make a google photo link that I can update periodically. Feel free to share it when it comes out!

Please also keep the Missioners in your prayers! If you haven't already, I invite you to discern supporting their mission in some way (the links I provided last time should help), if you are able. This is not a guilt trip. If you can't, don't. If you can, discern if the Lord is calling you to it. 

Know of my prayers for all of you. 

In Christ,

David Wilmowski