Friday Afternoon & Evening
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We wrapped up our worksites today!! Be sure to check out all the Team folders for pictures of projects. It’s really impressive how much we can get done! Ten years ago, the most we could do was paint or pour concrete. Now, we are constructing pavilions and ADA-compliant ramps, building roofs and finishing them out, and so much more.
Thank you. To all of you who have contributed to this mission by donating money, praying for us, sending your teens (or wives or husbands), and attending our fundraiser events… thank you. We truly could not do this without you or without the love and support of our parish behind us.
We were really blessed to have our pastor, Father Edwin Leonard, with us for a few days this week. For a parish of our size, it really is a sacrifice and a miracle that he is able to be away from a church that never seems to slow down! Not only did he hear confessions and say Mass for us, he prepared talks, taught teens how to make rope rosaries, and visited worksites. Here’s a glimpse of how much fun we have had with him this week:
We celebrated Mass at 4 pm today, and it happens to be the Memorial of Saint Bonaventure. Father Edwin shared the story of St. Bonaventure: he was brilliant, and his superiors wanted him to be a bishop so he could teach, write, and lead. He desired a life of service, so he left the community and disappeared into the countryside. When they finally found him, he was washing the dishes in a small house in a small town.
Something we can learn from St. Bonaventure: “The best perfection of a religious man is to do common things in a perfect manner. A constant fidelity in small things is a great and heroic virtue." Fr. Edwin summarized this as, “Be attentive to the SMALL things.” He said that the most important things we can do as we go home is to make space and time for God and to prioritize the Sabbath. In doing small things consistently, like spending time in prayer every day, that we build great virtue.
“The Lord will magnify and multiply all that you do.”
He concluded Mass with a special blessing and a sincere sendoff: “I want you to know how much I love you (even the group at La Frontera, who ambushed me with water guns today.) We are stronger as a community when you have experiences like this and return to live out your faith. Your zeal is contagious.”
After our last dinner together here in Laredo, we met in small groups to share stories and look at what has happened for us this week. Groups took time to pray with and for each other before we head back home tomorrow.
We are in awe of what we were able to accomplish this week with the strength of God’s grace: we ministered to people in need, He used us to show His love, and we restored and built up these communities. In our own lives, he taught us humility, community, reliance, and trust. We made more eye contact this week than we maybe have in the last six months! We entered into prayer in song and silence, opened up to the idea of choosing to belong to Christ, and in some cases, have surrendered our lives to Him.
It has been an incredible week, and we are so thankful.
And what better way to celebrate than a Mission Laredo fiesta?
We are headed home in the morning! See you soon!