For those of you who know Columbian Juan Pablo, our "adopted" son, former Missioner of Christ here in Honduras who left to join the Missionary of Charity Fathers last March in Tiajuana, Mexico, here are excepts from a letter we just received from him written the 3rd of January, the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. For those of you who don't know him, you can read it too if you have the time; he is quite a Holy Spirit-filled guy and his experience might inspire you.
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May Jesus dissolve your precious hearts in His and Pierceyou with His Thirsting Love and Mercy!
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Powerful Holy Mary Mother of God blessings and now awesome graces in the Most Holy Name of Jesus! Oh yeah!
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Thank you especially for all your prayers; they sustain me as I learn to remain by Our Lady next to the Cross (iuxta Crucem cum Maria) hoping to one day hang with Jesus. Thank you all! I want to tell you a million things, perhaps the Lord will allow us to speak soon. For now I will just share what is going on here and now.
I am now a MCF Postulant.
***drawing of him with following notes****
Ugly face (Thanks be to God!)
White Shirt
Our Lady's Medal
Blue Pants
Sandal made out of Rubber Tire! (a handy itme hidden in our "bodega") - They DO NOT Smell!
This means that I have taken a further little step on the road of the MC life, and I have consecrated myself to Our Lady, "Sweet, gentle Mary"...title of the song I wrote her. I now have a new superior and not 7, but 11 brothers under his direction and with a completely different apostolate. For now the "dark holes," beloved stigmata will not be the sewers, jail cells, and burnt street men, but a small poor community thirsting for love in the midst of drugs, abuse, and ignorance. I really think the work will be very similar to Honduras except it is all directly connected to the pastoral and liturgical life of this small chapel/semi-parish called San Esteban. I will be a postulant , with God's grace, for 2 1/2 years before Novitiate. The first 6 months I will receive intense human formation and then we will begin philosophy classes in the diocesan seminary with less intense MC human stuff.
Am I happy? Yes, I love Jesus in the poor more and more and this call to quench His Thirst in His bleeding wounds, His little ones. Is it easy? No, because sometimes, except for prayer, the time with Jesus in the poor is the only "consolation," especially when community life appears so challenging. But you know His grace is sufficient and this vocation is precisely the sacrificial love. My heart continues being a tool for the Lord but also for the scoundrel, not because of present temptations but deep attachments and strong feelings I brought. Our Lady of Confidence, embrace me! Certainly, it is all part of the way and I have to rejoice and burn with a Eucharistic Heart, a beating Thanksgiving! Alabado seas por siempre Senor Jesucristo!
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My mother came to visit for a week right before Christmas. She was actually here for the great Solemnity of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She thought she was just coming to see her Juan Pablito, but God wanted waayyy more! Ja Ja Ja
She was so free here and at home with the poor, the brothers, Fathers, and all the amazing co-workers that we work with... she was transformed and went back home on fire and giving out "I thirst for you" pamplets to everyone she met. I spoke to her 2 days ago and she is being persecuted like crazy, even inside the family and her work mates...even her boss....pure grace.
She is following the MC way of compassion and patience, which she acknowledges she has always lacked, but she is a prayer machine and is already forming a group to possibly begin the "I thirst" MC Lay movement in Columbia!!! Pure grace. Seeds, seeds, seeds! Please pray for her and for my sister who is slowly being touched and begins to open to the Lord's love.
~
God bless you,
Br. Juan Pablo RM
~
May Jesus dissolve your precious hearts in His and Pierceyou with His Thirsting Love and Mercy!
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Powerful Holy Mary Mother of God blessings and now awesome graces in the Most Holy Name of Jesus! Oh yeah!
~
Thank you especially for all your prayers; they sustain me as I learn to remain by Our Lady next to the Cross (iuxta Crucem cum Maria) hoping to one day hang with Jesus. Thank you all! I want to tell you a million things, perhaps the Lord will allow us to speak soon. For now I will just share what is going on here and now.
I am now a MCF Postulant.
***drawing of him with following notes****
Ugly face (Thanks be to God!)
White Shirt
Our Lady's Medal
Blue Pants
Sandal made out of Rubber Tire! (a handy itme hidden in our "bodega") - They DO NOT Smell!
This means that I have taken a further little step on the road of the MC life, and I have consecrated myself to Our Lady, "Sweet, gentle Mary"...title of the song I wrote her. I now have a new superior and not 7, but 11 brothers under his direction and with a completely different apostolate. For now the "dark holes," beloved stigmata will not be the sewers, jail cells, and burnt street men, but a small poor community thirsting for love in the midst of drugs, abuse, and ignorance. I really think the work will be very similar to Honduras except it is all directly connected to the pastoral and liturgical life of this small chapel/semi-parish called San Esteban. I will be a postulant , with God's grace, for 2 1/2 years before Novitiate. The first 6 months I will receive intense human formation and then we will begin philosophy classes in the diocesan seminary with less intense MC human stuff.
Am I happy? Yes, I love Jesus in the poor more and more and this call to quench His Thirst in His bleeding wounds, His little ones. Is it easy? No, because sometimes, except for prayer, the time with Jesus in the poor is the only "consolation," especially when community life appears so challenging. But you know His grace is sufficient and this vocation is precisely the sacrificial love. My heart continues being a tool for the Lord but also for the scoundrel, not because of present temptations but deep attachments and strong feelings I brought. Our Lady of Confidence, embrace me! Certainly, it is all part of the way and I have to rejoice and burn with a Eucharistic Heart, a beating Thanksgiving! Alabado seas por siempre Senor Jesucristo!
~
My mother came to visit for a week right before Christmas. She was actually here for the great Solemnity of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She thought she was just coming to see her Juan Pablito, but God wanted waayyy more! Ja Ja Ja
She was so free here and at home with the poor, the brothers, Fathers, and all the amazing co-workers that we work with... she was transformed and went back home on fire and giving out "I thirst for you" pamplets to everyone she met. I spoke to her 2 days ago and she is being persecuted like crazy, even inside the family and her work mates...even her boss....pure grace.
She is following the MC way of compassion and patience, which she acknowledges she has always lacked, but she is a prayer machine and is already forming a group to possibly begin the "I thirst" MC Lay movement in Columbia!!! Pure grace. Seeds, seeds, seeds! Please pray for her and for my sister who is slowly being touched and begins to open to the Lord's love.
~
God bless you,
Br. Juan Pablo RM
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