tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65066930832223093182024-03-12T17:20:45.348-06:00PARTNERS IN MISSION NICARAGUAPat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-80474273919963430872012-04-15T13:01:00.003-06:002012-04-15T13:01:19.298-06:00Peace and greetings to all!<br />
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<br />Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-58204847303633492482011-11-18T04:01:00.001-06:002011-11-18T04:01:11.266-06:00Advent Conspiracy<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Maiandra GD","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b><i>PAT DUFFY AND FAMILY JOIN A CONSPIRACY</i></b> </span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Maiandra GD","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZFIQy1l6JO4/TsYr-9rII-I/AAAAAAAAHHI/nET41F2YC40/s1600/DSCN9960.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZFIQy1l6JO4/TsYr-9rII-I/AAAAAAAAHHI/nET41F2YC40/s320/DSCN9960.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="color: red; font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">11/12/2011 – JINOTEPE, NICARAGUA Partners In Mission Nicaragua </span><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">believes that Christmas can [still] change the world and has partnered with </span><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">(</span><span lang="ES" style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.adventconspiracy.org/"><span lang="EN-US">www.AdventConspiracy.org</span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">)</span><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;"> to celebrate Christmas by spending less, giving more, worshiping fully and loving all this season.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">Partners In Mission Nicaragua has partnered with Advent Conspiracy to raise $12,000.00 for the: <b><i>Re-building the Village project</i></b>. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">We are conspiring in order to better serve Christ and put the Gospel in action by helping one family, one home, one house at a time. (See Our Video at: </span><span lang="ES" style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tMv0GZdtBI"><span lang="EN-US">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tMv0GZdtBI</span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">The Advent Conspiracy is a grassroots movement with more than 1,000 churches in 17 countries participating as co-conspirators- with projects as varied as drilling a water well for those who lack access to clean water, building homes, providing medical attention or simply encouraging parishes and congregations to think of <b><i><u>meaningful acts of kindness as meaningful gift options</u></i></b> to replace traditional gifts.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">Last year, through Advent Conspiracy, $3 Million was raised for relief projects. This year, Advent Conspiracy anticipates that individuals and churches will match last year’s commitment to charitable gifts and will make a lasting impact in communities around the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">On a personal level, I have been dreaming of being a part of such a conspiracy for over 25 years and now I have now found it and invite you to join! Why join a conspiracy like this one?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">One reason is to help bring the baby Jesus back to the center of Christmas and to begin to reject the endless consumerism we are bombarded with at Christmas time for a higher cause. Our Scriptures have revealed to us that Jesus came to Nazareth: which means he physically was born amid the littlest ones of this earth, he first came to the insignificant and unimportant ones in the eyes of this world. God has not changed; so too we must seek to serve him amongst the poor and the little ones of this earth. God comes at Christmas time to give us gifts of life, hope and meaning in our lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">This year we would like to invite you to join us in a <b><i><u>life giving conspiracy</u></i></b> . We want to ask you to help us to <b><i><u>restore the </u></i></b></span><b><i><u><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">scandal of Christmas</span></u></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;"> by joining our efforts here in Nicaragua. There are so many ways you can help. You can pray for us. You can come visit us. You can help us to build a home and you can make a contribution. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">OR, you can request your family this year to make a donation to this project, in place of one more present this year. Whatever way you feel called, we thank you ahead of time and we wish you the truest Christ-filled Christmas possible. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">Pat, Damarys, Chris and Raquel. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">For more information about Advent Conspiracy, please visit: www.adventconspiracy.org<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: 'Maiandra GD', sans-serif;">To donate go to: <a href="http://www.patduffyjr.com/how-to-donate.html" target="_blank">http://www.patduffyjr.com/how-to-donate.html</a></span></i></div>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-31407283780281213482010-08-20T19:42:00.000-06:002010-08-20T19:42:28.939-06:00H20 Project<a href='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/TG8vA2A8B_I/AAAAAAAAGqI/v7HOOxswSVs/s1600/St.jpg'><img src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/TG8vA2A8B_I/AAAAAAAAGqI/v7HOOxswSVs/s400/St.jpg' border='0' alt=''style='clear:both;float:left; margin:0px 10px 10px 0;' /></a> <br /><br /><br />Peace and greetings to all!<div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-51215189775287320642010-05-20T10:39:00.000-06:002010-05-20T10:39:41.671-06:00Donna CristinaEmail not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.<br />
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The kind of feet that Jesus washed <br />
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We walked into her home. There sat Dona Christina with her head tilted to the right, at a 45-degree angle. There were few chairs, so I asked if I could sit down on the five gallon bucket next to her. She nodded, yes. I sat and looked down at her feet. They were swollen, callous and purple. Her shoes sat next to her bare feet. They were worn, second hand, old shoes. No shoe strings. Her aged feet sat naked upon a neatly swept dirt floor. Her toenails were curled, broken and dried. I imagined to myself, “These were the kind of feet Jesus washed.”<br />
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Dona Christina is an elderly lady. In her youth, and adult life, she was a street vender. She sold tortillas in the small village of Esquipulas, Nicaragua. Her grown children live in Managua an hour away. They would have to spend at least a day’s wage to visit her, which would mean choosing between feeding their children or visiting their Mother. The youth group was there to visit Dona Cristina for the action part of our Scripture Course. Each course consists of twenty hours of Scripture reflection and twenty hours of practicing the Works of Mercy. Why? Because we believe, in the words of Dorothy Day: “Food for the body is not enough. There must be food for the soul.” Both are needed.<br />
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I continued to survey the room and the situation. Our youth group was a little uncomfortable even though Dona Cristina knew most of them since they were kids. The small room had a dirt floor. Old bamboo strips were nailed together for walls. There was an indoor wood burning stove that I was sitting next to. I looked up; there was a straw thatch roof, covered with years of black smut from the smoke. I thought to myself, “My God, one accident with fire and this place would go up in a blaze.” <br />
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In Nicaragua, the rainy season is about to begin. I imagined, “This place must leak a lot water in the heavy downpours.” Then I realized: “My God, this elderly lady is completely in the hands of God. She is at risk in so many ways. Anyone could walk in here at night and take or do whatever they wanted to this poor old lady…..what in the world am I going to say to her?” <br />
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This was our second visit to Dona Cristina. Our plan was to cheer her up with a small celebration and a scripture reading. The youth group, each one giving from their own poverty, brought all the ingredients to make a fresh juice drink to share with Dona Christina. I brought the Oreo Cookies. One girl brought a blender from her house, but since there was no electricity in her shack they went to a neighbor’s house to blend the juice drink. Lionel, one of the youth leaders, and I prepared a celebration of the Word with a few songs and chose the scripture reading. The younger girls carried on like normal teenagers. The leaders in the group prepared the long awaited juice drink. <br />
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When all was ready, we stood up in a circle. I asked Dona Christina if she would like to hear a passage from Scripture. She responded, “Who are you all and what do you want? I am an evangelical!” She took me off guard. The last thing I wanted to do was to impose on her anything she did not want. But Lionel responded and comforted her by saying, “Dona Christi, don’t you worry! We are simply here to visit the sick. There is only one God. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ. We just want to visit you and that is all.” She nodded in agreement and approved for our work of Mercy to continue. <br />
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One of the young women leaders opened the Bible, as we sung. She read the selected passage we chose in which Jesus heals a woman who had suffered a hemorrhage for twelve years. <br />
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Then the miracle happened. <br />
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During that reading it was as if everything in the room changed. Dona Christina’s face lit up. As we shared our insights about the passage, we all felt a deep peace in the room. At the end of the celebration, we prayed over Dona Christina. We asked the Lord to heal her of all that is draining her life, energy and happiness. She seemed to understand. She smiled, and began to speak with a new energy. After we finished our prayer, the youth group served the cookies and juice. Dona Christina began to laugh and I saw that she had no teeth… “Oh, that is why she is not eating the Oreo cookies,” I thought. She drank her fruit juice and thanked us for our visit. There was a storm brewing and the group said, “Pat, it is time to go.” I went outside and looked up at the darkening sky and felt the dampness in the air. <br />
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We said, “Goodbye” and made our way home before the rain began. <br />
May 2010<br />
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Images from Nicaragua<br />
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Update your profilePat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-70540737280812813872010-03-17T10:32:00.000-06:002010-03-17T10:32:03.202-06:00Article in remembrance of Archbishop Oscar Romero by Fr. John Dear, SJPeace and greetings to all!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xwbMNak2Cy8/RgV9vaSut0I/AAAAAAAAAwY/dAiRIN1jY4g/s1600/Romero%2B9LR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xwbMNak2Cy8/RgV9vaSut0I/AAAAAAAAAwY/dAiRIN1jY4g/s320/Romero%2B9LR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 16px;">I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news (March 24, 1980) -- in my fraternity room at Duke University. I had just turned on the TV to watch the evening news. Only the month before, I had decided to apply to the Jesuits, to try to spend my life following Jesus. The shocking report of the death of this brave archbishop stunned me, inspired me and encouraged me to go through with my decision. Later that night, a peace vigil and prayer service was held on campus. My friend <strong>Paul Farmer</strong>, living next door to me, marks his conversion from that event. (Farmer would become a doctor and teacher at Harvard University and founder of Partners In Health, an international health and social justice organization.) Both of us were touched and changed by Romero's gift.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 16px;">During one of the first anniversaries of Romero's death, Salvadorans distributed posters with a black and white photo of Romero and a caption that read, "We Want More Bishops Like Romero!" I sure wish we had more bishops and priests like Romero today. We certainly have one -- our own hero, <strong>Bishop Thomas Gumbleton.</strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 16px;"><strong>Romero spent his years up</strong> until 1977 as a typical quiet, pious, conservative cleric. Indeed, as bishop, he sided with the greedy landlords, important power brokers, and violent death squads. When he became archbishop, the Jesuits at the Univeristy of Central America in San Salvador were crushed. They immediately wrote him off -- all but one, Rutilio Grande, who reached out to Romero in the weeks after his installation and urged him to learn from the poor and speak on their behalf.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 16px;">Grande himself was a giant for social justice. He organized the rural poor in Aguilares, and paid for it with his life on March 12, 1977. Standing over Grande's dead body that night, Romero was transformed into one of the world's great champions for the poor and oppressed. From then on, he stood with the poor, and denounced every act of violence, injustice and war. He became a fiery prophet of justice and peace, "the voice of the voiceless," and in Jon Sobrino's words, "a new Jeremiah." For me, Romero was a stunning sign of God's active presence in the world, a living symbol of the struggle for justice and what the church could be.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 16px;">The day after Grande's death, Romero preached a sermon that stunned El Salvador. With the force of Martin Luther King, Jr., Romero defended Grande, demanded social and economic justice for the poor, and called everyone to take up Grande's prophetic work. To protest the government's participation in the murders, Romero closed the parish school for three days and cancelled all Masses in the country the following week, except for one special Mass in the cathedral. That act alone would have put Romero in the annals of history. Imagine if every Mass in the United States but one had been canceled in protest after the death of Dr. King! Over a hundred thousand people attended the cathedral Mass that Sunday and heard Romero's bold call for justice, disarmament and peace.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 16px;">On Easter Monday 1978, he opened the seminary in downtown San Salvador to welcome any and all displaced victims of violence. Hundreds of homeless, hungry and brutalized people moved into the seminary, transforming the quiet religious retreat into a crowded, noisy shelter, make-shift hospital, and playground.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 16px;">Next, he halted construction on the new cathedral in San Salvador. When the war is over, the hungry are fed, and the children are educated, then we can resume building our cathedral, he said. Both historic moves stunned the other bishops, cast judgment on the Salvadoran government, and lifted the peoples' spirits.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 16px;"><span> </span>During his March 23, 1980, Sunday sermon, Romero let loose and issued one of the greatest appeals for peace and disarmament in church history:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 16px;">"I would like to make an appeal in a special way to the men of the army, to the police, to those in the barracks. Brothers, you are part of our own people. You kill your own campesino brothers and sisters. And before an order to kill that a man may give, the law of God must prevail that says: Thou shalt not kill! No soldier is obliged to obey an order against the law of God. No one has to fulfill an immoral law. It is time to recover your consciences and to obey your consciences rather than the orders of sin. The church, defender of the rights of God, of the law of God, of human dignity, the dignity of the person, cannot remain silent before such abomination. We want the government to take seriously that reforms are worth nothing when they come about stained with so much blood. In the name of God, and in the name of this suffering people whose laments rise to heaven each day more tumultuously, I beg you, I ask you, I order you in the name of God: Stop the repression!"</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 16px;">The next day, March 24, 1980, Romero presided over a small evening Mass in the chapel of the hospital compound where he lived, in honor of a beloved woman who had died a year before. He read from John's Gospel: "Unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains only a grain. But if it dies, it bears much fruit "(12:23-26). Then he preached about the need to give our lives for others as Christ did. Just as he concluded, he was shot in the heart by a man standing in the back of the church. He fell behind the altar and collapsed at the foot of a huge crucifix depicting a bloody and bruised Christ. Romero's vestments, and the floor around him, were covered in blood. He gasped for breath and died in minutes.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 16px;">Romero's funeral became the largest demonstration in Salvadoran history, some say in the history of Latin America. The government was so afraid of the grieving people that they threw bombs into the crowd and opened fire, killing some 30 people and injuring hundreds more. The Mass of Resurrection was never completed and Romero was hastily buried.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 16px;">Just recently, I learned from one of his biographies that Pope John Paul II had decided to remove Romero as Archbishop of San Salvador. In fact, he signed the removal order on the morning of March 24. In some ways, I'm grateful that Romero never lived to hear that dreadful news. His martyrdom became a spiritual explosion that continues to transform the church and the world.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 16px;">Today, we remember Oscar Romero as a saint and a martyr, as a champion of the poor and prophet of justice. He calls us to live in solidarity with the poor and oppressed, to think with them, feel with them, walk with them, listen to them, serve them, stand with them, become one with them, and even die with them. In that preferential solidarity, he summons us to carry on his prophetic pursuit of justice and disarmament.</span></div>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-14551398542221095902010-03-16T21:06:00.000-06:002010-03-16T21:06:30.670-06:00The Nazareth Home Improvement ProjectThanks to an anonymous donor we were able to work for the common good by building two contention walls. This will enable a hard working family to have a stable lot to build on in the future.<div><br />
</div><div>God bless you and thank you for your help.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Pat. <br />
<br />
<embed flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fpatduffyjr%2Falbumid%2F5449385077555517729%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26hl%3Den_US" height="192" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="288"></embed></div>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-84191762695327724072010-02-12T17:16:00.000-06:002010-02-12T17:16:00.979-06:00Monday Night on the streets of Managua<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/S3XhGQ8MQoI/AAAAAAAAGJc/vdXIhaP-vk8/s1600-h/Cross.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/S3XhGQ8MQoI/AAAAAAAAGJc/vdXIhaP-vk8/s320/Cross.JPG" /></a></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Peace and greetings to all!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Monday night on the way home, after visiting a construction worker friend of Damarys (who led a community service - Nazareth Home Project - which I will share at a later date) we came to a stop light.</span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There was a young guy who was working on the street corners at a traffic light selling water, with a group of others.</span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This kid signaled for us to pull over. I was cautious, as you have to be in a city like Managua, but I saw a concerned, desperate look on this kids face and a crowd beginning to gather around a Taxi and he was yelling "he's been shot!...he's been shot!....."</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Taxi driver looked as if he was hurting and in lots of pain. I really didn't know if he was dying or not. I parked Fabiolla (my truck and blocked all the traffic at the Intersection, so we could stop some of the traffic confusion). I got out of the Truck to see what had happened and what I could do, along with the crowd. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Apparently, a crazy nut on a motorcycle had side swiped into the Taxi. After the Taxi driver yelled at him at the stop light, the man or teenager, on the Motorcycle pulled out a gun shot the him in or near the heart. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Everybody was yelling to do some thing different. Damarys called her house on her cel. and told her niece to call an Ambulance. A guy who looked like he knew what he was doing said we could not move the guy. That made sense to me. But I was not sure if the guy was going to bleed to death. My idea was to put him in my truck and take him to the Hospital, but the best thing appeared to wait for the Ambulance.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So, I moved my truck and then we just waited...... and ......waited....... and in true Nicaragua style...... the group decided to start pushing the Taxi (without moving the guy from the driver seat) to a Hospital that was a few blocks away. After they got through the light and a block away from the Hospital, an ambulance came and took the guy to a Hospital........</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What I saw in the Nicaraguan people was true solidarity to a man in need. </span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We then went home (hour trip) ...... and prayed for this man and his family. </span></span></span>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-4015561828434669602010-02-10T14:41:00.001-06:002010-02-10T14:45:41.584-06:00Nazareth Homes ProjectPeace and greetings to all!<div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; "><table width="600" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td align="left" valign="middle" class="headerBar" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-top-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-bottom-width: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; "><div class="headerBarText" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 30px; font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; "><div style="text-align: left; "><img src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/ef45f4ebf1f6a24b11ec49464/images/email_header.1.gif" alt="Partners in Mission Nicaragua" border="0" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; " /></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table><table width="600" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" class="bodyTable"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" class="defaultText" align="left" style="font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 18px; font-family: Verdana; width: 400px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; ">I recently read a story, met an inspiring woman, and read a scripture passage that helped me to understand--once again-- what our Mission in Nicaragua (and wherever we live) really is all about: <b>living the Gospel in real time! </b><br /><b><br />Here is the story:</b><br />A truck, crowded with concentration-camp victims, is on its way to the gas chambers. Everyone, including the guards, are silent, because all know the final destination. Suddenly, a man grabs the hand of one of the condemned and begins to read his palm. “Oh, I see you have a long lifeline," he says aloud. “And you are going to have three children.” He is filled with excitement and goes from one man to another predicting futures filled with long lives, loving families, and great joy. Immediately, the moods of the prisoners’ change. One can sense a rising hope. The guards become confused; what seemed inevitable is now in doubt. For whatever reason -surprise, uncertainty, wonder - the men are taken back to the barracks instead of to the chambers. The palm reader was the poet Robert Desnos. What the poet did for these passengers to Auschwitz was to revive the imaginations of those trapped by despair.<br /><br /><b>The Gospel is Alive!</b><br />The story of Dona Rita tells the tale of how one person can revive the imaginations of those trapped by despair.<br /><img height="170" border="0" width="375" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/ef45f4ebf1f6a24b11ec49464/images/dona_rita_3.1.jpg" alt="" /><br />We ran into Dona Rita on the way to a work site for a Community Service project this past month. She was going somewhere, but nobody really knows where. Dona Rita is about 86 years old. She gave me permission to take her picture. She lives on her own. She prefers to sleep on the dirt ground on her small porch in a poverty that only saints like St. Francis have tried to imitate and could bear. She has repeatedly been beaten and robbed of her spare change, food, and even the clothes that people give her to help alleviate her sufferings. She has been found sleeping along the roadsides in the midst of huge mansions and tin roof wood shacks that make up one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Nicaragua. <br /><br />We have known Dona Rita for four years. Last week when we stopped to talk with her and ask her how she was doing, she told us she was on her way to visit some family members in Managua to help her nephews. In reality, she can no longer get on a bus and her family members have apparently given up on her. She told us that she has many friends in high places in Nicaragua, as well as friends in Europe and the USA. “One day…” she tells of how she is going to stay in one of her homes in Philadelphia. <br /><br />Dona Rita can be seen in this neighborhood daily. She shuffles slowly, one step at a time with her walker, but she moves with determination. She has somewhere she is going. The day we visited her, she was on her way to buy food for a big party: a party that she was going to organize “to give food to everyone who comes, with Caribbean music and dancing,” which was going to be played by a musical group from Bluefields. Before finishing her description of how the party was going to be, she invited all the work crew to come to the party.<br /><br />During the four days of our manual labor work project, the youth group from the Orphanage visited with her and helped to clean her home and yard. On the day of the party, Dona Rita had provided the dream, the youth group brought the food, the teenagers played and danced, and we all had a great time. Our son Christopher also enjoyed himself.<br /><br />We all learned a valuable lesson from Dona Rita. Every day you have to have a dream and a desire to fulfill and that will get you through the day. Dona Rita has reportedly escaped every retirement home she has been taken to because as she says, "I prefer to trek with pain than sit down and quit." Why? Because she is walking towards her dream; a dream that always includes everyone. <br /><br />Her uncomfortable presence reminds us of the poor in our midst. In a world that is often dominated by a radical consumerist and individualist influence on every corner, Dona Rita desires to dream, share and serve others. In a society that proclaims old people should not have to suffer, Dona Rita prefers to be beaten physically rather than surrender her spirit and die spiritually. Dona Rita is unstoppable, and for me she is a hero. Maybe, at best, we can befriend her with along with others who care for her (both the rich and poor of the neighborhood.) In the future, when she asks for help we can be there for her. All of us can help fulfill her dream: food for everyone, a party, dancing with live Caribbean music, friends and family surrounding her to enjoy life together.<br /><br /><b>The Gospel and Dona Rita</b><br />For me, Dona Rita is a living Gospel. She is much like the old woman Jesus praised in Mark: <i>Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’ (Mk, 13, 41-44)</i><br /><br />This poor widow gave all she had. Everything. Nothing was left, except her belief that God will take care of her. God bless and long live Dona Rita! Lord, teach us to have the faith of the poor and little ones of this earth.<br />May God bless and inspire in you a dream that includes all of Gods people!<br /><br />All the best in 2010,<br /><br />Patrick, Damarys and Christopher<br /><br /><br />Patrick T. Duffy, Jr<br />Charles de Foucauld Lay Missionary<br />Apartado LM 131<br />Managua, Nicaragua<br />Home: 505-2-532-0346<br />Cel. 505-8-655-7368<br />www.patduffyjr.com<p> </p></td><td valign="top" class="sideColumn" align="left" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: dashed; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); text-align: left; width: 200px; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div class="sideColumnText" style="font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; line-height: 18px; "><span class="sideColumnTitle tpl-content-highlight" style="font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; line-height: 18px; ">February 2010<br /></span><b><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="color: rgb(0, 51, 0); "><br />Support our efforts in Nicaragua</span></span></b><br />Please help spread the Good News of Jesus in Nicaragua by praying, donating and becoming a Partner In Mission Nicaragua!<br /><br />Make check payable to:<br /><a href="http://www.nccfcommunity.org/" style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0); text-decoration: underline; font-weight: normal; ">National Catholic Community Foundation</a><br />Mail to:<br />National Catholic Community Foundation<br />1321 Generals Highway<br />Suite 202<br />Crownsville, MD 21032<br /><b>IMPORTANT</b>:<br />Write “<a href="http://www.nccfcommunity.org/subpages/da17.html" style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0); text-decoration: underline; font-weight: normal; ">Partners in Mission Nicaragua</a>” on the memo line of your check.<br /><a href="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/ef45f4ebf1f6a24b11ec49464/images/check.jpg" style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0); text-decoration: underline; font-weight: normal; "><img height="79" border="0" width="175" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/ef45f4ebf1f6a24b11ec49464/images/tn_check.jpg" alt="View sample check" /></a><br /><a href="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/ef45f4ebf1f6a24b11ec49464/images/check.jpg" style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0); text-decoration: underline; font-weight: normal; ">View sample check.</a><br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: small; "><span style="color: rgb(0, 51, 0); ">Bookmark our new web site!</span></span></b><div style="text-align: center; "><a href="http://www.patduffyjr.com/" style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0); text-decoration: underline; font-weight: normal; "><img height="102" border="0" width="175" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/ef45f4ebf1f6a24b11ec49464/images/web_shot.jpg" alt="New web site" /></a><br />We have a new web site thanks to Kate Bast. Please visit the site at <a href="http://www.patduffyjr.com/" style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0); text-decoration: underline; font-weight: normal; ">www.patduffyjr.com.</a></div><br />Thank you for all of your support. Please share this email with friends and family. We are working earnestly to improve our online communications so that we are able to keep costs lower and connect more frequently!!<br /><br /><a href="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/ef45f4ebf1f6a24b11ec49464/images/family_pic_09.JPG" style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0); text-decoration: underline; font-weight: normal; "><img height="136" border="0" width="175" alt="" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/ef45f4ebf1f6a24b11ec49464/images/family_pic_09_tn.1.jpg" /></a><br />Damarys, Christopher and Patrick visiting Cincinnati (Click photo for larger image.)<br /><br /><span class="sideColumnTitle" style="font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; line-height: 18px; "><span style="font-size: small; ">More images from Nicaragua</span></span><br /><br /><img height="236" border="0" width="175" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/ef45f4ebf1f6a24b11ec49464/images/cross_2.jpg" alt="" /><br /><img height="158" border="0" width="175" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/ef45f4ebf1f6a24b11ec49464/images/pat_elder_2.jpg" alt="" /><br /><img height="132" border="0" width="175" src="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/ef45f4ebf1f6a24b11ec49464/images/reading.jpg" alt="" /></div></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-11212739560759954582009-12-23T11:56:00.001-06:002009-12-23T14:49:55.488-06:00Who stole the Baby Jesus from Christmas?Peace and greetings to all!<br /><br /><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dear Jesus, </span><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sadly, it appears that Santa Claus, or someone out there, robbed you from Christmas a long time ago. It is head spinning to see what Christmas has become. </span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I know for sure that Christmas was not like it is now when my grandparents were growing up, because they never stopped telling me. Nor would they have allowed any one to rob the Christ child from the crib, as has happened in our day. </span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is the biggest crime of the Century, but since sex is not involved no one is paying attention. I personally think this crime is a very serious offence to my faith as a Christian, and even more so as an (Irish) Catholic. I really believe that we have to organize to get you , the baby Jesus, back into the heart of Christmas, even if it be a handful of crazy people, who take their faith seriously and joined Advent Conspiracy.</span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For me, this relatively new movement is what I would call a new Christian + Catholic conversion experience with an old theme; the sort of conversion experience that all the Prophets, John the Baptist and Jesus himself, were extremely passionate about, the conversion of the heart.</span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Some might ask why do we need a “new conversion experience” as a people in the United States, after all we are the most generous in the world. I would say, for a starter, that we need a new conversion experience because our young people are being spiritually assassinated by a materialistic - consumerist society gone completely out of control.</span><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">While I was visiting a Guatemalan friend in Nashville, I took my wife and son to the Gran Ole Opery Mall (just to let the kid run around some where) and it was so big we got lost. While I tried to find my way out of there, I saw hundreds of advertisements with happy faces of families, super well dressed young people and sexy skinny models everywhere. But, when I looked at the face of most of the people there, quiet honestly I did not see that many happy faces.</span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I have no doubt that in the midst of all the “worlds’ crisis’s” in the economy, in our morality, on our planet and in our families, God is calling us to change. Gods will is for us to re-focus the core of our relationships with one another, in every aspect of life and society on a global level. This confirms what I have learnt from Theologians and Christians in Latin America; we have to choose between the God of Life and the God of $. If we really, really read the Scriptures, like you did, it is clear there is no middle ground on this issue, but in our Country few have the courage to preach the way you lived and taught.</span><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Over my 16 years in Latin America, I have also seen (as you did in Nazareth) how too little material wealth destroys human life, erodes even the most basic human goodness, evaporates simple honesty and creates a culture of corruption and survival at any cost. I see this every day in Nicaragua and it is very sad and disturbing to me. You saw the same thing in the Religious leaders of the Holy Temple of your day. </span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">On the other hand, when I come home during “Christmas time” or really any time, I see how too much affluence and money clearly destroys the soul and those around it. I see this in my own loved ones. This all seems to happen without people even really knowing what is going on.</span><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As a good friend of mine, Fr. Patrick Clark, who has been living in Sao Paulo, Brazil and working for 30 years in the slums wrote to me in a recent email about this same issue: </span><b><i><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“the agenda </span></i></b><b><i><span style=" line-height: 18px;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">of the consumer society … I am sure is one of the root causes of most depression, neurosis and compulsivity that currently plague our planet, and one of the main casualties of which is the impoverishment of all spiritual life. In a way, it is quite easy to see how the life of faith does not flourish in the mass consumer emporia that we have created in the Western world. It is, as you so rightly say, a place where values, faith and the soul itself, are destroyed.</span></span></i></b><b><i><span style=" line-height: 18px;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span></i></b><b><i><span style=" line-height: 18px;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here in the third world, where the poor are forever reminding you that they are there and that you live in isolation from them at your spiritual peril, you have some chance of being awakened to the depths of your Christian calling. But what if no one ever knocks on your door? What if when they do, all you can do or say is to get angry because they have disturbed your peace? That private peace that is your hard won ~right~ which no one can disturb. Then, if that is your way of life, shored up by an obsessively individualistic culture of ego needs that can be instantaneously met, you are surely on the road to spiritual and even human bankruptcy. And what of the gospel? How can it be preached in such a place?</span><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">”</span></span></i></b><span style=" line-height: 18px;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 14px;"><b><i><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></i></b></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style=" line-height: 18px;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The hope, for me, is there are so many people who are preaching the Gospel by their example. They understand the life and death issue that this choice implies, and for me, this has everything to do with living our Christian - Catholic Faith to fullest. </span><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style=" line-height: 18px;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">CONGRADULATIONS ADVENT CONSPIRACY!</span><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style=" line-height: 18px;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If a few people organized and planed the hijacking of the baby Jesus from Christmas, then you don’t need allot of people to take him back; you just need a few people who have a lot of faith! That is how you move mountains, not with numbers, but with FAITH!</span><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style=" line-height: 18px;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jesus, I hope that you get your rightful place back in the center of our homes and hearts this Christmas!</span><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style=" line-height: 18px;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And may you please come knocking on my door and give me the courage to open it wide!</span><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="line-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style=" line-height: 18px;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Patrick T. Duffy, Jr.</span><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style=" line-height: 18px;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Charles de Foucauld Lay Missionary</span><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style=" line-height: 18px;color:black;"><span style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nicaragua </span></span><br /></div></div>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-60484849839583213842009-11-30T21:28:00.006-06:002009-11-30T21:40:51.260-06:00Getting ready for Jesus by putting him back in the center of ChristmasPeace and greetings to all!<div><br /></div><div>Here is an opportunity to get Jesus back from those who robbed him from Christ</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; white-space: pre; "><object width="500" height="405"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eVqqj1v-ZBU&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eVqqj1v-ZBU&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="500" height="405"></embed></object></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-size:-webkit-xxx-large;"><br /></span></span></div>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-64436888414232992392009-10-24T14:12:00.001-06:002009-10-24T14:18:01.729-06:00October / November UpdatePeace and greetings to all!<div><br /></div><div>Click on the below link to get updated, Peace, Pat.<br /><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=ef45f4ebf1f6a24b11ec49464&id=bbf56901e3&e=9763d2e9a3">http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=ef45f4ebf1f6a24b11ec49464&id=bbf56901e3&e=9763d2e9a3</a></div></div>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-59516663469757797242009-07-16T07:20:00.001-06:002009-07-16T07:20:41.383-06:00Re-discovering Fr. Wasson´s Original Inspirations<a href=http://shar.es/jRxc>Re-discovering Fr. Wasson´s Original Inspirations</a><br /><br />Posted using <a href="http://sharethis.com">ShareThis</a>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-45230353000354267282009-05-12T10:15:00.003-06:002009-05-12T10:46:18.080-06:00PARTNERS IN MISSION NICARAGUA – 2009<a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/SP-tGwEj8fI/AAAAAAAACoA/8RbR1AZnXYM/s400/DSCN1837.JPG"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px" alt="" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/SP-tGwEj8fI/AAAAAAAACoA/8RbR1AZnXYM/s400/DSCN1837.JPG" border="0" /></a><br />THE OUR LITTLE BROTHERS AND SISTERS FAITH FORMATION PROGRAM<br /><br />Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Latin America. In some of the rural areas there exist the highest suicide rates in all of Latin America. Generalized poverty conditions, high unemployment rates and forced immigration are the sad reality for the majority of Nicaraguan families. Yet, in spite of all the odds the majority of the Nicaraguans are a people of deep faith and hope.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/SP-vuOM_MlI/AAAAAAAACpc/Md5z9whd45w/s400/dscn1833.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br />Patrick Duffy is a North American Catholic Lay Pastoral Minister who has recently partnered with NPH Nicaragua. Throughout his many years in Central and South America, he has tried to build small Christian communities and jumpstart the faith formation of the people of Nicaragua, especially the youth. <img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 108px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 144px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/SP-phn7jyeI/AAAAAAAACl8/J-xsgvb67lY/s144/DSCN1565.JPG" border="0" />The Religious Education Program at NPH, organized by the Directors and Patrick, is built on three pillars: Scripture – Spirituality of Fr. Wasson – Christian Leadership<br /><br />From years of experience in mission and work with youth at risk, Pat is convinced that our work as Christians must be creating hope in the midst of hopeless situations…¨In fact, the message of Scripture is always one of hope no matter the circumstances we are under. The majority of the Scriptures we have today were born out of situations similar to those of Latin American: oppression of the poor, corrupt empires supported by pseudo religion, etc.<br /><br />Pat has learnt from his experience that when you open and delve into the Scriptures with the poor and the youth, you can indeed find hope and offer a faith filled approach to life. Specific to his work in Nicaragua, is the idea of the common people holding the scriptures in their hands and learning to interpret its message for their everyday reality. Pat believes that Scripture is the true source of all true liberation both on the personal and societal level. <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/SP-vYjp5hrI/AAAAAAAACpE/PiIm5Ak00TA/s800/dscn1923.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 392px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 326px" alt="" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/SP-vYjp5hrI/AAAAAAAACpE/PiIm5Ak00TA/s800/dscn1923.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Springing from years of experience and in partnership of the Faith and Life Institute, the creators of the Catholic Youth Bible (CYB), Patrick has decided to make scripture one of the main priorities with the young adults of NPH Nicaragua. The Faith and Life Institute, out of Stockton California, has organized “The First Bilingual Biblical Mission Among Young People In The Americas – 2009”. This effort is part of a Continental wide Catholic Youth Bible Mission and has been organized by the Faith and Life Institute in partnership with Editorial Verbo Divino, Producciones Dynamis, and Saint Mary’s Press with the collaboration of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) and Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano (CELAM).<br /><br />The Nuestros Pequeños Orphanage and Pats is to implement this Continental Wide Biblical Mission in all of the NPH homes in Latin America who are interested, which includes offering the CYB to youth who demonstrate a concrete commitment to do 20 hours of out reach effort in their communities and who desire to participate in 20 hours of introductory biblical study courses, as well as one Biblical Retreat. At the end of the courses and retreat, the youth of NPH will be given certificates and their very own Catholic Youth Bible. Patrick and the directors of NPH Nicaragua have planned biblical retreats for the entire year of 2009 for all of the NPH staff and youth.<br /><br />Weekly Biblical reflection circles have already met for a year at the two homes in Managua. Monthly reflection groups exist in Casa Santiago on the island and the newest home of Casa Padre Wasson. The small reflection groups serve as a medium in which youth can reflect on their lives and connect their experiences from light of the scriptures in order to improve their lives at NPH. The idea of reflecting and studying scripture is new for many of the youth at NPH Nicaragua and will surely take time to fully realize.<br /><br />Father Wasson, the Founder of NPH was honed in the scriptures. You may say that they were what planted the seeds to start NPH. Fr. Bill Wasson left a living testimony and an example to follow. To maintain his spirit alive among us it is essential for the children, teenagers and educators of NPH to have a deep understanding of his life and essential message.<br /><br />Currently there are workshops planned to study his teachings and Philosophy, as well as initiatives to produce a small Children’s book on the life of Father Wasson and other small booklets on the essential teachings of his life.<br /><br />There are also plans, in all of the NPH centers to offer participative Youth Masses and Celebrations of the Work as a means to enrich and deepen the understanding of the Eucharist. Lastly, Patrick and the rest of the NPH staff hope to train potential Christian leaders to lead small groups or lead celebrations of the word in all the NPH – Nicaragua homes. </p><p>This project is planting one small seed at a time together with the youth of NPH. The Directors of NPH and Patrick hope that in through the study of scripture and Father Wasson’s life the youth will begin to create a new hope in their lives and enable them to create a future full of hope. </p>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-51687614282502759022009-03-02T12:42:00.001-06:002009-03-02T12:42:12.851-06:00Proyecto Biblia Catolica para JóvenesCheck out this SlideShare Presentation: <div style="width:425px;text-align:left" id="__ss_778921"><a style="font:14px Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;display:block;margin:12px 0 3px 0;text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/patduffyjr/proyecto-biblia-catolica-para-jvenes-presentation-778921?type=powerpoint" title="Proyecto Biblia Catolica para Jóvenes">Proyecto Biblia Catolica para Jóvenes</a><object style="margin:0px" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=mision-madre-cabrini-2008-2009-ppp-1227396719509851-8&stripped_title=proyecto-biblia-catolica-para-jvenes-presentation-778921" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed src="http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=mision-madre-cabrini-2008-2009-ppp-1227396719509851-8&stripped_title=proyecto-biblia-catolica-para-jvenes-presentation-778921" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><div style="font-size:11px;font-family:tahoma,arial;height:26px;padding-top:2px;">View more <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://www.slideshare.net/patduffyjr">patduffyjr</a>. (tags: <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://slideshare.net/tag/partners">partners</a> <a style="text-decoration:underline;" href="http://slideshare.net/tag/in">in</a>)</div></div>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-87670654288162426272009-02-22T12:42:00.001-06:002009-02-22T12:42:30.804-06:00pic<br /><P style="margin-bottom: 0.19in"><FONT FACE="Arial, sans-serif"><FONT SIZE=3>My<br />bio</FONT></FONT></P><br /><P style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in"><br /><IMG src="http://docs.google.com/File?id=df4fmhb9_132gs3bjgfm_b" NAME="graphics1" ALIGN=BOTTOM WIDTH=153 HEIGHT=229 BORDER=0></P><br /><P style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in"><br /><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3><FONT SIZE=2><FONT FACE="Maiandra GD, sans-serif">Hello,<br />my name is Patrick Duffy, Jr. I am a native to Cincinnati, Ohio</FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></P><br /><P style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in"><br /> <FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3><FONT SIZE=2><FONT FACE="Maiandra GD, sans-serif">My<br />most significant transformative experience occurred on the Streets of<br />Sao Paulo, Brazil. Those were the years when violence and systematic<br />assassinations of street children was at a peak. The goal of life<br />during that period was to live in the midst of the poor, to walk with<br />them and share their life. </FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT><br /></P><br /><P style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in"><br /><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3><FONT SIZE=2><FONT FACE="Maiandra GD, sans-serif">Our<br />good works consisted of going out to visit the kids on the Streets:<br />to lose time with them, to build trust, friendships and simply<br />listen. Over time, we were able to offer a few alternative activities<br />to life on the streets. </FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT><br /></P><br /><P style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in"><br /><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3><FONT SIZE=2><FONT FACE="Maiandra GD, sans-serif">One<br />day, a little boy named, Ricardo (who was a ¨marked¨ kid due<br />to his terrible reputations on the streets) simply disappeared.<br />Reflecting on that experience changed me deeply. I came to the<br />conclusion that I was going to dedicate my life to working for the<br />Gospel of Justice. </FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT><br /></P><br /><P style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in"><br /><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3><FONT FACE="Maiandra GD, sans-serif"><FONT SIZE=2><font size="3">What<br />I leant from those years in Brazil is that: ¨</font></FONT><I>Justice is<br />always going to be harder not only because it is long-term, but also<br />because a true awareness of justice leads to ongoing conversion and<br />many times an awareness of the relationship between our wealth and<br />other's poverty. It is hard to own that and also to move to change<br />that. Many times charity does not call for a change in our<br />lifestyle. Often a commitment to justice eventually does call<br />for that change.¨ (this is a quote and I don´t remember<br />where I got it from)</I></FONT></FONT></FONT></P><br /><P style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in"><br /><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3><FONT SIZE=2><FONT FACE="Maiandra GD, sans-serif">My<br />present work in Nicaragua is teaching Scripture to Youth at Risk and<br />seeking to build a small Christian community, rooted in the<br />Spirituality of Brother Charles de Foucauld. </FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT><br /></P><br /><P style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in"><br /><FONT FACE="Times New Roman, serif"><FONT SIZE=3><FONT SIZE=2><FONT FACE="Maiandra GD, sans-serif">My<br />most important relationships today are with God and my family.<br />Nicaragua is now my home, where I live here with my wife, Damarys and<br />son, Christopher. </FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT><br /></P><br /><P style="margin-top: 0.19in; margin-bottom: 0.19in"><br /><BR><BR><br /></P><br /><br>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-66209199287085990872009-02-02T16:30:00.006-06:002009-02-02T16:52:25.564-06:002008 Partners In Mission Nicaragua Report<span style="font-weight:bold;">Peace and greetings to all! </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight:bold;"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/SYYjltKMpAI/AAAAAAAAECQ/s8-sZYVDLC0/s512/Pat%20-%205.jpg" /> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: -webkit-monospace; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; white-space: pre-wrap; "></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: -webkit-monospace; font-size: 12px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-weight:bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: -webkit-monospace; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; white-space: pre-wrap; "><object width="250" height="250"><param name="movie" value="http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/25e264274862ad52"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="event_title" value="Partners%20In%20Mission%20Nicaragua"></param><param name="event_desc" value="This%20Fund%20is%20to%20help%20Pat%20Duffy%20Family%20Living%20Expenses%20in%20Nicaragua"></param><param name="color_scheme" value="blue"></param><embed src="http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/25e264274862ad52" flashvars="event_title=Partners%20In%20Mission%20Nicaragua&event_desc=This%20Fund%20is%20to%20help%20Pat%20Duffy%20Family%20Living%20Expenses%20in%20Nicaragua&color_scheme=blue" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" width="250" height="250"></embed></object></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">2008 PARTNERS IN MISSION NICARAGUA I: NARRATIVE REPORT</span><br /></div><div><br />Thanks to the Partners In Mission Nicaragua Oversight Teams, the NCCF and to each individual who has helped through prayers, donations, fundraising, mailings, organizing our data base, the Lay Pastoral Ministry Project has been a very significant and important Mission in sharing the Good News with the poor of Nicaragua in 2008.<br />PROJECT REPORT:<br /><br />Ø WATER PROJECT PROCESS <br /><br />o LA GARNACHA<br /><br />Upon returning from Cincinnati this past June I visited the La Garnacha to see how the Water Project we started back in March of 2007 was evolving.<br /><br />See: http://picasaweb.google.com/patduffyjr/LookingForH20InNicaragua#<br /><br />To my delight, after meeting with Fr. Patrick and Brother Joe Barnett, I learnt that the Community had followed up on the Workshop on Community organizing we initiated in 2007 to motivate the La Garnacha community to seek a solution to the water problems that plagued their community and affected the health of their kids, especially during the dry season.<br /><br />The Good News is they were able to organize themselves and with the assistance of local municipal organizations obtain financing. They got to work and overhauled the outdated tubing system, amplified the spring box according to the recommendations of the Water specialist from Living Waters and Amigos for Christ, who I had taken there on previous visits.<br /><br />The cost for the workshop and facilitators were paid for in agreement with the donation that came from the Richmond Virginia Dioceses. This Parish was the first group to initiate the H20 Project, in partnership with Colleen Branger. Colleen is a fellow classmate who I partnered up to do an ART project on the Water Issue (Action – Reflection – Transformation) as the practicum for a Course on Catholic Social Teaching.<br /><br />The balance of the funds raised by this Parish will be invested in a new water project that can potentially benefit over 1000 families. I will keep Colleen and her Parish informed on the progress and distributions of those funds. I personally financed all the transportation costs separately to honor the %100 for water condition from that donation. This has been the longest and most challenging home work assignment in my life!<br /><br />In the process I have learned a great deal about the issue of Water Privatization and how Water projects work and are funded. I have researched and found the “preferred” way to go about this sort of Mission in the future. In a nut shell, most big organizations pay for expensive engineering studies as a first step and often have high overhead costs. The cost of those studies often reduces the amount raised for water improvement significantly. Even though these studies are often necessary, many times they are not. In the future, for others who are interested in implementing this project can go to: http://www.theh20project.org<br /><br />Implementing a Water Project is not simply a matter of sending in the specialist to drill a well for the people, take some pictures and send them home to the donors. What is always more important is that the people become the main actors, organize and implement the project, or the result can be abandoned wells. Often times the people cannot afford to pay for the diesel or electricity to keep the water pump functioning. So, one important criterion is that there be a Community organizer who can do the follow up on the maintenance needs and water conservation education. Follow up is the key to a successful water project.<br /><br />My plans for the future are to work in coordination with Amigos for Christ who have specialists in the area of well drilling and community organizing. In the future all funds raised for water can go directly to<br /><br />http://www.amigosforchrist.org/Amigos%20for%20Christ/projects/projectsdonate.htm<br /><br />IMPORTANT NOTE: My work in the area of Water Projects is a follow up to my Catholic Social Teaching Course. My main work is in the area of Faith Formation. I fund all the trips to these locations according to what my schedule and budget allows me.<br /><br />Ø FUTURE WATER PROJECT:<br /><br />o PALAGUINA COMMUNITY WATER PROJECT<br /><br />The future Palacaguina Commuity water project is located in a Parish run by the Divine Word Missionaries. This is where I plan to apply the remaining balance of the Richmond Virgina Diocesis Fund. There is also a group from Mother Mercy High School who desire to implement the H2O Project and donate the proceeds to Nicaragua. We are in contact via email.<br /><br />I have met with this community a few times and have begun to build a working relationship with them, as well as realized some Scripture reflections related the issue of Water in the desert. More information will be coming in 2009.<br /><br />Ø CATHOLIC YOUTH BIBLE MISSION 2008 – 2009 <br /><br />This is where I have been spending the most of my time. I now have networks in numerous Latin American Countries of young people who desire to learn about and become a part of the wonderful effort to share the Good News with the poor via the First Continental Wide Biblical Mission. The Countries that I am striving to broaden this Mission include are: Honduras, Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba, Chile and in a few ther Central American countries. In Nicaragua we have four Catholic Institutions already participating in the Catholic Bible Mission.<br /><br />Why Bibles?. Because for me the area of faith formation is the most important work that I can do transform the root causes of poverty. Over the past 16 years I have been living and working in Latin America, I have learnt that the best programs, which make a real and lasting impact are those that are organized from a faith based – people and social oriented – Gospel awareness approach. I believe that with the Gospel at the center you can change and transform poverty.<br /><br />Over the past three and a half years I have been working in this direction. My convictions have been confirmed from Pope Benedict XV on down to the Nicaraguan youth on the Street corners. This conviction has also been confirmed by the last Cardinals Synod and during the 2007 Continental Ecclesial Bishops Conference held in Brazil, also in numerous other declarations which request that: "we invest time, money and talents in order to improve the area of faith formation with a special focus on Youth and Scripture. I was please to discover this and felt confirmed in the direction I have been dedicating my life, time and energy.<br /><br />o MOTHER CABRINI HISCHOOLS<br /><br />The series of Introductory Scripture courses I did this past year for the Teachers of 3 Inner City Mother Cabrini Highs schools were well received and approved. They have asked for the Courses to continue in 2009, along with the implementation of the 2009 Catholic Youth Bible Mission. We are in the planning process of implementing this Mission right now. There are over a 1000 students in their Inner City High Schools, most of who would have very little or no quality Scripture Courses without our Partners In Mission Nicaragua effort.<br /><br />o Our Little Brothers and Sisters Orphanage (see: www.nph.org)<br /><br />In the Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos Orphanage, I organized and led a number of Retreats both with the directors, staff and youn people this past year. I taught two courses a week in their Half Way programs located in Managua. The last weekend of each month we organized and led a small Team to work in the area of Faith Formation with over 80 of the 350 kids on the Island of Ometepe.<br /><br />We have also initiated the production of a booklet on the life and testimony of Fr. William Wasson, the founder of this Orphanage. We currently are in the planning process for 2009 in developing a Religious Education Plan with the directors and Bishop of the Dioceses, as well as a schedule of activities for the coming year.<br /><br />o MT. TABOR PARISH<br /><br /> The Mt. Tabor Parish is located where Damarys, Chris and I live. See: http://patduffyjr.blogspot.com/2008/08/our-little-community-in-nazareth.html<br /><br />Over the course of the year we have made friends with the local Pastor, the Parish Priest and some of the youth from the Parish. This past year we led two Retreats for the youth groups who seek to form part of a Team that will implement the 2009 Catholic Youth Bible Mission in the Parish. Most of our time in this area (where we live) is made up of our simple, daily Nazareth life: just being a friend, visiting neighbors, occasionally organizing some educational activities (when time allows) and Birthday parties for neighbor kids.<br /><br />Ø SUICIDE BOOKLET DISTRIBUTION<br /><br />This past year I began the distribution of the Booklet we published in 2007 on Suicide. It has been reported to being selling, at a symbolic cost, both in Managua and the Rural Parishes where the TEYOCOYANI Team has offered it, along with the other materials they produce in the area of Faith Formation.<br /><br />In 2009 I plan to distribute this booklet in all of the Dioceses of Nicaragua via the Curia and Caritas. Sadly, on each of my last two visits to the La Garnacha Community I received the sad news of two young people who committed suicide.<br /><br />Ø CHARLES DE FOUCAULD LAY FRATERNITY<br /><br />Our small Charles de Foucauld Lay Fraternity was able to celebrate the Eucharist once a month and participate in a Desert Retreat at the end of the year. Little by little, more people are becoming interested in joining our group. The Charles de Foucauld Lay Fraternity group is our life line; it is our small Christian Community that strengthens us for the journey and for our efforts to live the Gospel faithfully in our daily life. To see who we are go to:<br /><br />http://sites.google.com/site/partnersinmissionnicaragua/new/the-charles-de-foucauld-lay-fraternity<br /><br />o The Charles de Foucauld Lay Fraternity Continental Meeting of the Americas:<br /><br />From January 4 to the 12 I will be participating, as the Nicaraguan representative, in the 2009 Continental Wide Charles de Foucauld Lay Fraternity Meeting to be held in Santiago, Chile. During this week we will be reflecting on the theme of: the meaning of our vocation today, as lay followers of Charles de Foucauld in the Americas. If you are interested in seeing more about this group, the International Team has put up a Website to share this event and the reflection material. See:<br /><br />http://www.tamanrasset.cl/fraternidad/MarcoSistemas.php<br /><br />I will be going to participate, as well as to help in the translation in English, Spanish and Portuguese.<br /><br />CONCLUSION AND GOALS FOR 2009 - 2010<br /><br />To conclude, as my friend, mentor and Lay Theologian, Jose Argüello (founder of TEYOCOYANI Center for Ecumenical Faith Formation) has said: “what you are doing is of vital importance for Nicaragua, but it is like trying to move an Elephant. You need to tell your folks at home how important your efforts are, in spite of not having lots of instant results to present. The Church here moves slowly due to its complicated history . . . What we are doing is some thing much deeper and will take generations to see the fruits. You have to hang in there. It took me three years here to just find a few Parishes that would accept my proposals. We have been working at this for 15 years and only now are we beginning to see some fruits… You are doing a great job, keep on with the mission. All the support you need will come because of the great cause you have decided to dedicate the rest of your life towards. I commend you; you have done a great job. Keep it up! ”<br /><br />Thank you for your help and for being a part of this effort to build up the Body of Christ and the Kingdom of God.<br /><br />GOALS FOR 2009:<br /><br />Ø 2009: Raise $30,000.00 for NCCF Partners In Mission Nicaragua Fund.<br /><br />Ø Implement the 2009 Catholic Youth Bible Mission<br /><br />Ø Develop and implement the Faith Formation Plan for the Our Little Brothers and Sisters Orphanage.<br /><br />Ø Organize and form three Charles de Foucauld Lay Fraternities, with 3 – 4 core leaders.<br /><br />Ø Complete Water Project by the end of 2009.<br /><br />Ø Distribute the remaining Suicide Prevention Booklets in all Dioceses of Nicaragua by the end of 2009.<br /><br /><br /></div>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-74105693560527868492009-01-25T22:16:00.002-06:002009-01-27T01:36:02.152-06:00How you can help!Peace and greetings to all!<br /><br />Dear Friends,<br /><br />Today I helped and 83 and 84 year couple put a new Tin Roof on their ¨house¨. You would have to say shack to translate it correctly. Some of the roofing sheets were made of asbestos and have been there for years, surving a War, an earth quake and a hurricane. It gives new meaning to ¨having a roof over your head being a blessing¨. You would have to add, even if it be a Tin Roof.<br /><br />This little project is costing us around $700.00. For a hard working family in Nicaragua seven hundred bucks is allot of smackers. Damarys and I are fronting these funds for now from our own savings. In the future we plan to create a fund for this sort of project on a small micro level scale, sort of one new Tin Roof at a time.<br /><br />This family lost their son during the Contra War back in the late 80´s. His tortured body was delivered to the door, for respect I will leave out the details. The Mother told me that she has forgiven the death and torture of her son and those responsible. She holds no resentments, as she is a devout Catholic, who has been serving her Church community for over 45 years in a poor marginal Managua neighborhood, visiting the sick, the shut-ins and organizing prayer - reflection groups. She is a tireless follower of Jesus, and for me, a true inspiration. This woman like so many others are some of the reasons I find the motivation to keep on with the Mission.<br /><br />The 84 year old man was once the best mechanic in the neighborhood and at 84 he still gets up and goes to work every day. He puts in a full 8 hour day, Monday thru Saturday, but due to the prolonged social - economic - political crisis here he brings almost nothing home for the family. Years ago, he lost all of his built up capital, his retirement fund and a nice track of land to overdue taxes that he was not able to pay during the wars year. <br /><br />Today this old couple live on pure faith and the generousity of those who help them out. The mother receives a small stipend from the Governemt because her son was killed in the War.<br /><br />In December, during the most important religious festival, called the La Purrissima, she as well as thousands of other poor families give out hundreds of pounds of small packages of gifts: made up of candies, rice and beans and other treats. They pass these small packets out groups of women, youth and kids, who come to sing before a Marian Altar set up in the homes.<br /><br />Back in December she told me that "even though she did not have enough to give out, as in years past, the important thing was to maintain the ¨devotion¨ and a living faith in a God of Life. <br /><br />Not soon after that, a hundred pound sacks of rice and beans arrived to her house for her to re-distribute to the singers of the Popular Purrissma religious festival. Her generousity to others was rewarded. <br /><br />I believe that sort of generosity, of over 40 years of giving from what one does not have deserves a new Tin Roof.<br /><br />Thanks for helping and keep on being generous!<br /><br />Pat. <br /><br /><br /><object height="220" width="220"><param name="movie" value="http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/25e264274862ad52"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="event_title" value="Partners%20In%20Mission%20"><param name="event_desc" value="This%20fund%20helps%20Pat%20Duffy%27s%20Mission%20work%20and%20Family%20living%20expenses."><param name="color_scheme" value="blue"><embed src="http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/25e264274862ad52" flashvars="event_title=Partners%20In%20Mission%20&event_desc=This%20fund%20helps%20Pat%20Duffy%27s%20Mission%20work%20and%20Family%20living%20expenses.&color_scheme=blue" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" height="220" width="220"></embed></object>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-68091175070538758722009-01-25T05:17:00.000-06:002009-01-25T05:18:16.657-06:00How to help!<object width="234" height="60"><param name="movie" value="http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/25e264274862ad52"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="event_title" value="Pat%20Duffy%2C%20Jr.%20"></param><param name="event_desc" value="Family%20Living%20Expenses"></param><embed src="http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/25e264274862ad52" flashVars="event_title=Pat%20Duffy%2C%20Jr.%20&event_desc=Family%20Living%20Expenses" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" wmode="transparent" width="234" height="60"></embed></object>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-67861563668272768962008-11-20T16:56:00.013-06:002008-11-20T17:51:12.928-06:00Biblical Times and Tension in Nicaragua11-20-2008<br /><br />Dear Friends and Family, <br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/QunJyeFBl-W_g9skW_qarQ?authkey=hL-4rhZ7rFI"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/SOlwES3hI1I/AAAAAAAACKU/-dfQA91XjLw/s400/1.JPG" /></a><br /><br />Greetings from Nicaragua!<br /><br />This past weekend we had our first Catholic Youth Bible Retreat in preparation for the Continental wide 2009 Catholic Youth Mission. There were 30 participants, made up of the small groups and Organizations where I am presently working. It was a very good Retreat. <br /><br />The main goal was to create an environment of community and sharing. Then we sought to motivate the group by creating a deeper awareness of the reality of youth today in Nicaragua and how making the Word of God and the practice of the Sacraments part of their daily lives can indeed enable them to build their futures on a more solid ground.<br /><br />This Retreat came at a very important moment. Nicaragua is going through a very chaotic situation with the past November 9th Mayoral elections.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/17/xin_212110517151459381248.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 450px; height: 302px;" src="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/17/xin_212110517151459381248.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Accusations of fraud have resulted in post-election violence, roaming bands armed with rocks, machetes and baseball bats, and the destruction of a few Radio stations, intimidations against the media and other acts of violence. To date this has produced at least 2 deaths and others wounded. <br /><br />The saddest part is this spiral of violence is opening some of the deep, still unhealed, wounds of the past. The polarization between the current Government and the opposition Party is growing daily and threatening to further divide a society and a people who are already unemployed, tired, and hungry and at their limit, struggling to survive any way they can under a prolonged economic crisis, which has no light on the horizon. There is frustration, fear, tension and concern that this violent spiral of events could unravel in the coming weeks into a very conflictive situation at a National level. Presently, most of the violence is centered in Managua and the National Police has been doing a good job at protecting both sides of the population and preventing further violence. <br /><br />So once again, in Nicaragua, you could say in a historical sense we are in “Biblical times”. However, I believe, that when in communion with our Catholic Tradition and other mainline Christians, we really can learn from Scripture about how History tends to repeat itself and discover we need to do in any current situation. <br /><br />One thing is for sure, here in Nicaragua, we definitely need courage, faith and action on behalf of peace. I feel, more than ever, in today’s world we need to practice our faith and learn from the non-violent wisdom of Jesus in the Gospels. With each passing year I am coming to understand that it matters little what side of the dividing line you have been placed on by circumstance or class. There are times in history when “our world” is challenged, shaken and questioned to the core. We loose faith in God and at that moment appears a very real temptation to see the world and others as a dangerous battle ground. <br /><br />We forget, as a people of God, who we are and to protect “our world” we quickly forget that the axis of Evil runs through the center of my own heart. Almost imperceptibly we begin to believe that the Evil one is “out there”. Precisely at that moment, the Devil has won his first battle. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:I0-b_un_dMokhM:http://humanrights.palermo.magenta-aps.dk/nyheder/feature/Hvordan-siger-man-undskyld_feature/minipositive.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 112px;" src="http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:I0-b_un_dMokhM:http://humanrights.palermo.magenta-aps.dk/nyheder/feature/Hvordan-siger-man-undskyld_feature/minipositive.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Issues tend to become confused. Complex reality gets over-simplified, the entire world gets separated into the “us versus them”, “evil capitalist vs. evil socialist”, “black vs. white” and “the good people vs. the evil people”. We are no longer the one human family God sees with loving eyes, but enemies to one another. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:I0-b_un_dMokhM:http://humanrights.palermo.magenta-aps.dk/nyheder/feature/Hvordan-siger-man-undskyld_feature/minipositive.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 112px;" src="http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:I0-b_un_dMokhM:http://humanrights.palermo.magenta-aps.dk/nyheder/feature/Hvordan-siger-man-undskyld_feature/minipositive.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />One thing I can tell you, from over 16 years in Latin America, is that much of the senseless death and massive brutal violence that happened (while we were partying back in High school and College) was perpetuated and justified in Central America by this same perverse and evil logic (over 50,000 people in Nicaragua, over 75,000 in El Salvador and 100,000 in Guatemala were killed in period of a little more than a decade). Other solutions could have been developed to resolve the underlying causes, which were related to the huge social inequalities. Sadly, these same social inequalities have changed very little for the majority of the populations of Central America. <br /><br />As a Christian, I believe, we can only take one side: the side that seeks to reconcile divisions, the side that listens and brings clarity, the side that stands for Life and works to stop the tide of hatred and violence, whose only fruits are more death and violence. <br /><br />Firstly, I must do this in my own heart, but we cannot stop there. We are called to re-create this world according to the vision of Jesus and the Kingdom of God. For me, this is what Jesus in the Gospels is calling us to today. It is the way of the Prophets standing on the side of the “widows and orphans”, taking on the Empires of their day and finding light, strength and clarity by being rooted in and directed by the Spirit of the God of Life. <br /><br />In times like ours today, here in Nicaragua, or in the USA, I believe as Christians, we are called to be on the side of life from the womb to the tomb. We must strive to proclaim the “humble truth” revealed in life of Christ by our testimony. When we do that we can make a difference in whatever situation we find ourselves, but only in our fidelity to following in the non-violent foot prints of Jesus! <br /><br />On a personal level, after I let some of the fears flow through me over these past few days, I eventually became more convinced of the urgent need for the work we are doing here: sharing the Good News with the poor. You cannot do that, if you don’t have a Bible in your hands and some one to help you understand some of its infinite treasures. I thank God for the work he is allowing me, through your help, to dedicate my life. <br /><br />Yes, we can indeed take comfort in the Word of God, we can indeed find inspiration and the general direction to follow in any set of circumstance, if we open, pray with, and listen from the heart to the Word of the God of Life. And that is some thing we STAND upon!<br /><br />To conclude, once again, I thank you all for your support, friendship and know that we are indeed on a Mission together.<br /><br />May God bless you all and Gods speed on your great work! <br /><br />Patrick T. Duffy, Jr.Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-11765840263332667272008-10-03T16:53:00.000-06:002008-10-03T16:55:18.975-06:00PARTNERS IN MISSION NICARAGUA I<a href='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/SOai1q2fM6I/AAAAAAAACJ0/q0DvXCEeQaM/s1600-h/Web+Page+Collage.jpg'><img src='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/SOai1q2fM6I/AAAAAAAACJ0/q0DvXCEeQaM/s400/Web+Page+Collage.jpg' border='0' alt=''style='clear:both;float:left; margin:0px 10px 10px 0;' /></a> <br /><br /><br />Peace and greetings to all!<div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-9843930294827217322008-09-29T17:00:00.002-06:002008-09-29T18:10:43.671-06:00Just keep on smiling!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/SOFuXaNkpfI/AAAAAAAACFs/9LLmBPJmQ-o/s1600-h/Pat+-+5.jpg.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/SOFuXaNkpfI/AAAAAAAACFs/9LLmBPJmQ-o/s400/Pat+-+5.jpg.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251599988943005170" /></a><br />PARTNERS IN MISSION NICARAGUA UPDATE<br /><br /><br /><br />JUST KEEP ON SMILING<br /><br />Peace and greetings to all!<br /><br />I hope this message reaches every one doing well in the midst of all the financial crisis news, painful political campaigning, and other world events which can cause us fear and uncertainty.<br /><br />This picture is during a story telling session with some neighbor kids we do occasionally, along with Birthday celebrations and other after school activities. One thing I have learned from kids and the poor is to JUST KEEP ON SMILING! So, I hope you can too. <br /><br />Our life and work here in Nicaragua is moving forward, little by little. This past weekend Damarys, Chris and I, along with a small group, visited the orphanage and organized activities for about 50 of the 250 kids and teenagers. We plan to organize and work in small groups to teach Music, start a Children's Missionary Movement, work with pre-adolescents and implement the 2009 Catholic Youth Bible Mission. All in all, we had a great Weekend and Christopher did well also. He is a pretty popular baby. <br /><br />Little by little we are also forming a Team, made up of a small group who go with us to the Island and who also help me in the Retreats, Workshops, Talks and other activities I am doing to inspire the youth of Nicaragua in Managua.<br /><br />Last week I completed a Confirmation Course with 40 youth and accompanied them during their Confirmation, it was a beautiful moment and renewed my own faith in the power of the Spirit to assist me in overcoming all the obstacles to becoming a true follower of Jesus Christ and to build up the Kingdom of God. Our faith truly is our greatest treasure. Some times we just are not aware of it or it may need a tune up. <br /><br />Two weeks ago I spent two days in the Mountains following up on the Water Project and evaluating with a Parish, an organization that specializes in water and a local government, in order to find the best way to invest the money raised for the Water Project. (If you want to read more about the Water Issue see the article I will put at the end of this Update. We have much to do and teach people about water conservation and what the Church teaches in her Catholic Social Doctrine about the right to clean drinking water.)<br /><br />The Courses in the High Schools with the Teachers are going well and their is great interest in our work here. It all seems to point to the message of: keeping on with the MISSION! God always sends what is needed, if we have the faith to walk on....to walk on water.<br /><br />Here in Nicaragua, there are allot of tensions and difficulties in the social and political arena. The constantly rising prices of basic food supplies make life very difficult for the vast majority. While the small elites of the Country show little interest in making any real change. There is little dialogue amongst the differing Political and interest groups. All of this combined with the heat...the rainy season ....can some times make it all appear that we are on the road to impending doom. And that is precisely the point where I believe we need to BE AWARE!<br /><br />What is needed in these times is not more people who STOP ACTING, but rather people who fill their minds with FAITH and START ACTING.....GOD WILL SHOW US THE WAY.....THRU THE DESERT AND TO THE PLACE WHERE HE IS LEADING, but is only by ACTING that we will overcome the huge fears of our times. <br /><br />So, let's not let fear run our minds and control our lives.....let's us stand up and ACT on FAITH! Become part of the solution. <br /><br />Yours truly, in Heart of The Lord of all LIFE!<br /><br />Pat.<br /><br />P.S. To see the article on water go to: <br /><br />http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/05/29/is-water-becoming-'the-new-oil'/Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-11620209812854612372008-08-09T11:26:00.011-06:002008-08-21T13:56:45.564-06:00Nazareth Homes - One Family At a TimePeace and greetings to all!<br /><br />On this presentation we want to share with you the story of one family. It represents the story of a large majority of Nicaraguan families, who strive to better their lives, often against great odds.<br /><br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="400" height="267" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fpatduffyjr%2Falbumid%2F5233310114707294657%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br /><br />Dona Mercedes and her family have lived in the houses of rich and wealthy of Managua most of their lives. They have worked as maids, gardeners, night watchmen, and servants most of their lives as live in servants. They were forced to emigrate to Managua to find work when they lost their land in the Northern areas of Nicaragua many years ago. <br /><br />On a meager salary, and with the help of others, they have been able to educate some of their younger girls. Their life is one of daily survival, one day at a time. Her life represents the majority of the poor of Nicaragua. <br /><br /><br />Back in April, Dona Mercedes decided to leave her life "as a live in maid", because the chauffeur of that family tried to rape her 15 year old daughter. The daughter escaped by a miracle. Trusting in God, she decided to quit her job, find new work and seek a decent place to live.Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-1065774187227503042008-08-07T11:27:00.002-06:002008-08-07T14:14:13.041-06:00Our little community in Nazareth<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/SJsz5doQ7iI/AAAAAAAAB5g/jiqH7nKj9tQ/s1600-h/Pat+-+10.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZnwXv6ipCo8/SJsz5doQ7iI/AAAAAAAAB5g/jiqH7nKj9tQ/s400/Pat+-+10.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231832454420033058" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Peace and greetings to all!</span><br /><br />I hope this picture reaches you all well.<br /><br />One of the incredible things about Nicaragua is the capacity of the people to smile against all the odds. Just take a look at the faces of these people. All of them have allot of reasons not to smile, but most of them smile easily. We have so much to learn from the poor.<br /><br />If you could only know some of the stories behind the smiles you too would be impressed. Stories that the poor the world over experience: inter-family violence, abuse, kids abandoned by the parents, youth with no hope, drug and alcohol addiction, unemployment, etc.<br /><br />The Nazareth where we live is in a barrio called Espinoza Martinez and is a mixture of smiles and poverty. This neighborhood is located on the outskirts of Managua and consists of two dead end streets, made up of mostly poor - working class families (mostly unemployed). It is in this neighborhood where we try to share the Gospel, not by running any great projects in the area, buy by simply trying practice the spirituality of brother Charles de Foucauld, which consists of being with the poor, sharing their daily lives, labors and worries. Above all, by seeking to be a real presence (the presence of Jesus) and a friend and by staying there.<br /><br />We have just completed one year in our new Nazareth. We have been tested, questioned and now accepted by most of the families in the area. They are happy to have us with them. But is not easy, we see things that are not very good, difficulties that we can do nothing about. In our Nazareth there are undernourished kids, abused kids, there are scores neighborhood "drunks" who hang out on the street corners (they are "members of the community", who always greet me warmly and offer to share a drink). Actually, they prevent other gangs from coming in the neighborhood.<br /><br />We see the elderly with no possibility of decent health care and youth with little perspective of a future different that the poverty in which they live. We see the frustrated unemployed men and women, desperate for any sort of job (At least once a week people come to me asking for work or a contact of any sort). Often the turn in their frustrations to the bottle for some relief and the kids end up paying the price.<br /><br />As each month goes by, we also see and feel the weight the basic food basket rising, along with energy, gas, transportation and water services (in the places where they exist). How the vast majority of the poor of this country survive is nothing short of a miracle, yet is caused by "the Sin of the world". There is nothing good about romanticizing poverty, poverty is a sin! It is a disgrace to the dignity of Gods people and an offense against God.<br /><br />For me, I am learning, often from my wife, how to do the little things with more love and attention. How to share a meal with the kids who show up at dinner time, right at the time when I get home from a long day of frustrating waiting and working very hard to make the smallest bit of "progress". My wife, and the poor, teach me how to open the door of my house and the door of my heart to those around us; how to share a word of encouragement to the kids and how to smile and look with hope at the teenagers who approach us.<br /><br />In order to survive, in a survival reality like the one of Nicaragua, I am learning to stay focused on my small part in making this world a better and more human place to live.<br /><br />Once again, I want to thank you for being a part of that "small part". I would not be here without your help.<br /><br />Love, Pat, Damarys and Chris!Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-67851295570536149912008-08-05T18:33:00.003-06:002008-08-06T16:46:47.826-06:00Tears and the price of beansPeace and greetings to all!<br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>Tears and the price of rice and beans <span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><!--[if supportFields]><span style="';font-size:10.0pt';"><span style="'mso-element:field-begin'"></span><span style="'mso-spacerun:yes'"> </span>DATE \@ "dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy" <span style="'mso-element:field-separator'"></span></span><![endif]--><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p> </o:p><span style="font-size:85%;">Tuesday, August 05, 2008</span></span><!--[if supportFields]><span style="';font-size:10.0pt';"><span style="'mso-element:field-end'"></span></span><![endif]--><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p>Two nights later, Damarys and I went to do our bi-weekly grocery shopping in one of the poorer neighborhoods on the North side of <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Managua</st1:place></st1:city>. The moment we got out of our car, a small little boy, who was crying very hard, and his sister came up to Damarys and me.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The little boy (around 9 or 10 yrs.) looked us in the eye, and in tears began to tell us of how he had been robbed by some older street kid of all the money he earned from selling his little bags of fruit on the street that day. He told us, in a sobbing voice, that if he went home without the money his Mom and Dad were going to beat him badly, please help. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Damarys went over and sat down next to the boy and put her arm around him. I remained standing, analyzing the situation. Over my years of work on the streets, I have learned how to respond to these situations and the first thing I try to do is see what’s the real story. Some times they are invented schemes, which is part of a street kids survival repertoire. But this one felt different. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">So, after Damarys comforted him a bit, I sat down on the other side of his sister, looked him in the eyes and asked him: “So, tell me how many years have you worked on the streets? He looked back at me and said, “About 5 years”. So, I said to him, “hey my little buddy, if you have been working on the streets for that long then you should know by now that you need to get your little butt home before it gets dark! What’s the deal, why are you not at home at this time of night? </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">He then went on to tell us, that they “were on their way home, but the robbery happened on the way to the grocery store where they were going to buy some rice and beans with the money they earned for their <span style=""> </span>family.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">After assessing the story and looking at the boy, who appeared from his style and dress to be telling us, at least some version of the truth, I said to Damarys, “hey, why don’t we help them by buying them some rice and beans to take home?” She looked at me and agreed. I told them to wait for us. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">When we got back to the car they were still , waiting for us. We gave them their “rice and beans”. We offered them a ride home, but they did not want a ride. So we negotiated an agreement that if we gave them the rice and beans they had to go straight home. They agreed, gratefully took the rice and beans walked off in the night, stopping occasionally, and looking back at us… with frightened eyes. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Rice and beans, the food of the poor</span>, which continues to be more costly as the months go by. At least for those who are not making millions of dollars in profits from the “world food crisis”.</p>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6506693083222309318.post-48290380071683537482008-08-05T18:29:00.003-06:002008-08-06T16:59:19.526-06:004 bullet holes and 12 stepsPeace and greetings to all!<br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>4 bullet holes and 12 steps</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><o:p><br /></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><!--[if supportFields]><span style="';font-size:10.0pt';"><span style="'mso-element:field-begin'"></span><span style="'mso-spacerun:yes'"> </span>DATE \@ "dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy" <span style="'mso-element:field-separator'"></span></span><![endif]--><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="">Tuesday, August 05, 2008</span></span><!--[if supportFields]><span style="';font-size:10.0pt';"><span style="'mso-element:field-end'"></span></span><![endif]--><span style="font-size:10;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p>I arrived to “the corner house” in the Monsignor barrio to pick up “John” (his anonymous name) for my weekly meeting with the Our Little Brothers and Sister Orphanage Youth Group. He was scheduled to give his testimony – talk to the group. We are in the midst of a debate about “social drinking” vs. the "evil" of alcohol. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">John’s house is located on one of the main “drug corners” of this neighborhood. It is located a block and a half away from where I lived for about two years. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">When I got out of my car I was immediately greeted by his wife, who was standing on the side walk in front of the house. I asked if “John was around” and she said, “yes, let me call him”. As she walked towards the door she casually pointed to the front wall of their block house and said, “hey take a look at the 4 bullet holes on the wall from last nights gun shots”. Then she walked in the door and called for John. <span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">During my year and a half, living around the corner, I heard gun fire shots in the night,probably, about a dozen times. For those who live there, it just becomes part of the scene. Like most of the inner cities I have known in <st1:place st="on">Latin America</st1:place>, usually gun violence is related to drug disputes between rivals or those who are in debt to the drug dealers. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">When we arrived to the group, I introduced “John” to the teenagers and he began to share his story, which was one of a very long journey to recovery. As he talked, the group sat there mesmerized with his stories. They listened to him with wide open eyes. A good number of the kids had that “I can identify with that story" expression on their faces. Made me remember some of my own stories too.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">At one point, John shared how he was expelled from the Seminary for his “social drinking” when they discovered in an chimney exhaust pipe about a years worth of Rum bottles. He confessed how badly that episode devastated his life and his dream. But that it was not enough to STOP his “social drinking” adventures. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">He carried on with his finely knitted narrative of how he lost almost everything that was really worth anything in his life due to his “social drinking”. All of us followed the roller coaster story of his near death and disaster stories with amazement. He left us all impressed at the fact that he was still alive. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">I think the story which impressed us the most was the time he was caught drinking with a “great looking young chick in a miniskirt”. This woman’s husband arrived on the scene, saw them together, and sat down a few tables away from them. Then the infuriated and jealous husband called out to them, as they were both hugging each other and the same bottle of booze. He then shouted out to John: “Hey you, son of a …… I have something for you!” At which point the enraged man pulled out a hand gun, pointed right toward his face and fired a shot. John said that “I felt the bullet pass right by past my cheek and hit the wall behind me. It was a miracle that it did not hit me right in the face.”<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">He then went on to tell us, while incredible as it was, that episode was not enough to STOP his “social drinking”. However, it did make him stop for a few months. With the help of his “best friends” he was able to forgot about the episode, as they convinced him that what he really needed to do was to “celebrate his life" with a few drinks. He said, the argument was so logical that he could not but agree; after all he was still alive! "Let's go party!" Then he carried with a series of other incredible stories. <span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The biggest laugh he caused, was the time he stopped dead face, and said, “No, it is not all that bad. One of the things I got as a result of my drinking is... then he flashed his glimmering smile…and said: “is my smile!”<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">He then went on to tell us that because of his drinking he had most of his front teeth knocked out in fist fights, and as a result he got these new fake teeth, which he showed with a smile. They were a gift from his Mom, who bought them for him with her sparse life savings.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">We all ended listening to his story laughing, as he had found the way to recovery and sanity. To finish he answered our questions and then thanked us for listening to him. He offered to be available to any one in the group who needed or some one to talk to. All they needed to do was call him, and off he went home to be with his wife and kids, who were the pride and meaning of his new life.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Through his entire testimony, he kept us laughing, thinking, reflecting and questioning our own struggles to live a “clean” life. </p>Pat Duffy, Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08712297728405249820noreply@blogger.com