Monday, June 25, 2018

BACK DOWN IN THE ISLANDS - Part Three

DEACON RETREAT DAY
Saturday June 23, 2018

I got up early (about 5:00 am) to have coffee on the deck and prepare myself for the retreat that starts at 9:00 am. 
Here is what I have to look at from the deck of the Pastoral Centre. The best views are looking out at the sea.  Below is what I see looking out. 



Below is a shot of the newly renovated living room and new Saint James Chapel my organization was able to furnish and build for the Pastoral Centre (Chancery, Bishop's House and Retreat Centre combined). Through the doors on the left is the dining room and kitchen. 



The Port of Kingstown was busy this morning with lots of boats arriving. The dock is to the left - out of range of the camera.  One of the most interesting ships is a ship load of used cars from Japan that stops here and other islands regularly. New cars are way too expensive for most people. 



Deacons and wives and deacon candidates and wives.
The name of the day-retreat is "If You Don't Have It, You Can't Give It." It is about the character of the individual deacon and deacon candidate. We used to call it in seminary formation "human formation." It is one of the four pillars of seminary formation: spiritual formation, academic formation, pastoral formation and human formation. 
Some in the group attended my last two deacon retreats. 







Bishop County joined us for lunch - at the head of the table!



Closing Mass in Saint James Chapel 






Preaching at the closing Mass.



CELEBRATING MASSES IN THREE PARISHES
Sunday June 24, 2018

Saint Benedict Church
Georgetown






An old friend, Sister Zita, arrives for Sunday Mass with several of her charges! At eighty, she is running a home for children! She even does the cooking, as well as getting them up, getting ready for school and tending to their needs. She has a couple of children that are now in their teen years that she has had since they were infants! Think about it - eighty years old! 











Saint Joseph Church
Belle Vue







Mary Star of the Sea
Sandy Bay







Two of the youngest liturgical musicians I have ever met! The tambourine player was four and the drummer was six. They were actually quite good and kept pace with the music perfectly. 








Being "the old lady magnet" that I am, they were lined up for a hug!






See the coconuts on the tree behind me. 






After Mass I was served a fresh coconut from the back yard at the home of the guitar player at Mass. I was surprised at how much coconut milk there was in a single coconut! I was thirsty, but I could hardly finish it. 
After you drink the "milk," you use part of the shell as a spoon to scrape out the "jelly" - undeveloped coconut "meat." The whole experience was very refreshing. 
The dry, brown things we used to buy around Christmas time as a kids was a whole different experience than a fresh coconut. 




TWO HOMES FOR CHILDREN
Sunday June 24, 2018

Bread of Life Home for Children



I had lunch with some of the kids. 
That's little Daniel in the foreground. I wanted to see how much he has grown - and he has! He ate a huge plate of food in front of him! 



One of the things in the boxes of snacks were some balloons which got a lot of attention - almost as much as the boxes of macaroni and cheese and cookie packets. 

Saint Benedict Home For Children

We stopped in to deliver some snacks for the kids, but we were so caught up interacting with the kids that we forgot to take pictures. I was very pleased to see all of them dressed in the tennis shoes and running shorts and tops we had sent down to them! 

Sister Zita, Sister Nyra Anne and Sister Carmen were all at Mass at Saint Benedict Church for the morning Mass with the kids who are able to go to church. 



Sister Nyra Anne and one of her charges.





Sister Zita heads back to her orphanage. 



The drummer, to the left of Sister Carmen on the guitar, is a resident of the Saint Benedict Home for Children.  They led the music at morning Masses at Saint Benedict Parish. 
Sister Carmen teaches the second grade at Saint Mary's School connected to the Cathedral Parish but lives at Saint Benedict Home for Children. That's about an hour tgrip ach way, each day!

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