From July 31, 2020
For more than 20 years, I’ve been thinking about, writing about, love. Not the surface love we know and sometimes experience, a love too easily engaged and discarded. But the self-emptying love of Christ and the relatively few “saints” from all faiths who entered self-emptying love deeply and practiced it through extreme hardships and suffering.
From July 30, 2020
I’m supposed to return to Florida tomorrow. There is a storm brewing to the east of the Island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic. Weather forecasters latest hunch has the storm growing into a hurricane and hitting the island tomorrow morning.
From July 29, 2020
As I typed this Journal, Jingle Bells watched intently. If he sees me make a grammatical or spelling error, he meows or bites my ear.
From July 28, 2020
These are photographs taken at Santa Chiara as a storm approached…
From July 27, 2020
Today’s Journal features a series of photos from Sunday at Santa Chiara.
From July 26, 2020
Waiting, waiting, waiting. Our spiritual lives are a vigil of waiting. We wait with hope for the advent of God. Yet as we wait for God, God is already here with us. And we are with God, yet not fully so, and so we wait, living with paradox and expectancy.
From July 25, 2020
Yesterday was far less dark. The Gospel reading was the familiar parable of the sower from Matthew. While few of us are farmers sowing seed, we are all gardens and we are responsible for the space around us. If the soil in our garden, the soil around our lives, is rocky, we can make it fertile by prayer and sacrifice.
From July 24, 2020
In the early morning hours of July 23, 2020, I was in such a dark place, I wanted to be anyplace but Haiti. I wrestled with the thought that on my upcoming trip to Florida I simply not come back. The darkness was so bad, I harbored the faint regret that I survived Covid 19.
From July 23, 2020
As to our “bleak” financial situation which I’ve detailed in the Journal, the picture has gotten a little better, but we are still in huge hole. There is no way, if the schools open in September, that I can send any of our kids to the private school. I might not even be able to afford to send them to a public school.
From July 22, 2020
Santa Chiara Children’s Center is unfortunately in a very, very difficult financial situation because of a reduction in donations and rise in the price of virtually everything. As a result, we are forced to cut payroll in August.