Ss Peter and Paul, Pray for Us!

Hola Mis Amigos!

Como estan?  Estoy bien!  Esta semana estuvo muy emotionaldo. The highlight of the week was visiting the oldest church in Central America. This church is pretty small, but it's very beautiful inside. It was a privilege to pray in same church that Jesus was present in the Eucharist for the very first time in this part of the world. It also was the church of the first wedding and baptism too. We also got to take a chicken bus there and back. For those of you who don't know, a chicken bus is an old USA school bus totally, as the kids say "tricked out."  It's painted and has loud music and some even have TVs. It's quite the experience, and not like taking the PACE bus. From what I read, it gets the name chicken bus because sometimes people will bring on animals for transportation. There are also no safety regulations like the US. If there is space, more people can come on. It is very cheap which is nice. 2 quetzals. That's about 25cents of our money.

Fr. Elmer from Mundelein also made a short visit this past week. It was great having him here, especially because he is my spiritual director. He had meetings with all the Mundelein guys, took us out for a fancy dinner, and then said Mass for us this morning. I guess it's a good sign that I'm learning Spanish when he said "peace be with you" and I forgot the English response for a moment.

I leave four weeks from today. I can't believe how fast it's going. This week will be pretty low key. Fr. Mike Warden, recently ordained from Mundelein, joins us this week for a month. It will be great to have a new priest here with us, seeing as some guys classes have already finished and have gone home.

I wish everyone a blessed solemnity of Ss. Peter and Paul. We are going to be having a good fiesta tonight with all the monks, so I hope everyone is able to celebrate back home. Know of my prayers, and thank you for yours!

-Cris

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66858764@N08/with/9112948990/

(Photos of the trip to the oldest church now uploaded)

Un Mes Aqui

Hola Amigos!

Today marks one month in Guatemala!  I can't believe it's already been that long. In this month I have learned a lot and have also grown a lot.  Sure parts have been difficult and I have had some days that I really miss home, but overall it has been a very positive experience.

This weekend is pretty relaxing here. No formal events are going on.  I do have a test to study for, however.  It will be my first exam here covering all that I have learned so far. I'm a little nervous, so if you want to pray for me as I take my test Monday that would be greatly appreciated!

This past week we had some visitors from Marmion Academy.  Abbot John and Father Marcos came with them. It was great to have some new people around here. They were here for the week doing mission work for habitat for humanity.  We also got to play basketball and spend time together.

We also made American pizza again!  We made it for everyone here and the Marmion visitors. It seemed to be a big hit again. I was told we are having hamburgers Monday too.  I hope those turn out just as well as the pizza.

This week we also have a priest from Mundelein visiting. His name is Fr. Elmer. He is my spiritual director at the seminary, so it will be great to have him come visit and to meet with him.  He plans on spending a few days with us, sitting in on some classes, and having meetings with all the Mundelein guys. I'm sure it will be a great visit.

I have to celebrate a practice Mass in about two weeks here as part of my final exam. I con celebrated a practice Mass with my friend Keith last Wednesday. It was a lot of fun!  Granted I didn't have to write the homily like he did, but I felt pretty comfortable with the Spanish. I'm sure with more practice I'll be all set in two weeks!

Please know of my prayers and I'll talk to everyone soon.

-Cris

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66858764@N08/

Chillin'

Hola Friends!


So right now I'm just relaxing outside. The weather has been perfect here for most of my trip. I don't think it has been over 80 degrees aqui. Most days you actually need a jacket.  This past weekend wasn't that exciting in terms of adventures. Some friends and I walked to the Walmart. We had to pick up the essentials. You know....Oreos, pretzels, sour gummy worms, etc.

Yesterday after Mass the language started to click a little easier. I lost a lot of my fear and also started understanding a lot more. Feels really good that its clicking for me. For dinner last night tambien we had beef ribs. One of the Spanish students made them. Very tasty!  "Our Crew" was also asked to make pizza again this Thursday, which I'm 100% OK with.

My teacher and I for class tomorrow are planning on walking to the bakery. Now I think you'll agree...class...bakery...this has to be good!  My friend Keith also celebrates his practice Mass this week as part of his final exam. He is having me be a con celebrant for him.  My final Mass exam won't be until the end of my time here probably.

Other than that, nothing else is really going on. Well one more thing. Visitors from Marmion Abbey are here. I think us seminarians are going to challenge them to a basketball game later in the week!

OK everybody, talk to you soon!  And keep checking this other link for photos of my trip as well.

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/66858764@N08/

-Cristobal

Photos

Hola

So here is a link to my photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66858764@N08/

I only have a few uploaded right now, but when I get a chance many more to come!

-Cristobal

1/3 complete

Hola Friends!

Well, we have reached the 1/3 mark. I've been here for three weeks today, and it has been quite the experience. I want to first thank everyone who has been reading my blog and praying for me over these past three weeks. The prayers have truly been a blessing, and please know of my prayers for you!  In these three weeks I have had over 500 page views on my blog, American pizza 3 times, 4 spiders in my room (3 in my bed), seen movies in the theater twice, visited the Cathedral twice, had two days without rain, been in class for aproximaldamente 42 hours, and learned countless new words in Spanish!  I guess that was a small 3 week stat review :)

The past few days have been pretty good aqui. My teacher started cookin' with gas en mis clases. Some of the concepts have been very challenging, but once I master them it will make my spanish much better.  We also started going over the past tense today. Let me tell you, things make a lot more sense knowing some words in the past tense. My homework the past couple dias has been to write stories in español using only the present tense. I was amazed at now much I was able to write!  I look forward over the next six weeks learning more and more so I can become much better with the language.

As I mentioned in my stats review, I have seen movies in the theaters twice. They have been in English which is nice, but have Spanish subtitles which helps.  My seminarian brother John and I went to the centro commercial aqui en Quetzaltenago today to have lunch and watch a movie. We were able to have a good Spanish conversation, and we also talked to some kids in Spanish waiting outside the theater.  Plus I can't beat the price for a movie here. 15 quetzals. That's just over $2!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow when we play the seminarians in basketball again. Thursday is probably one of my favorite dias aqui. We have Mass at 9am (instead of 5:45am) and then play basketball after lunch. Last time we beat the seminarians, and I hope we win again tomorrow.

Also in my stats I mentioned American pizza. Pizza is my favorite food, with steak and Portillo's right behind it.  Well last Friday we made American pizza for all the monks and seminarians. It turned out perfect!  It was really well received and tasted great. Fr. Juan Francisco asked if we wanted to make it again this Sunday. We are going to let another Spanish student cook something he knows this Sunday, but I will be cooking again soon!

Speaking of food makes me think of dinner. Speaking of dinner makes me think of when I said in an earlier post I will share some traditions. So here is one of them. For dinner every night in the monastery, it starts off in silence. When the bell rings one of the priests leads a prayer. After the prayer one of the Benedictines reads from the rule of St. Benedict. After the reading we are allowed to sit down, get our food, and begin eating. Breakfast also is in silence everyday here. As some of you know, (and I know those who do know are about to laugh ) I'm not a morning person. 5:45am for Mass and breakfast at 7:30am is an early beginning for me, so I welcome the silence in the morning. It's a great way to just start off the day peacefully with our Lord and to prepare for classes.

I hope everyone is well back home. I'm thinking about all of you. Please know of my prayers and we will talk soon.

-Cristobal

Ps. I want to share some photos, so eventually I will be making an online photo album and I'll post a link so everyone can see them.

An Amazing Day

Hola!

So today has been a pretty awesome day!  Our Lord has clearly been working overtime for me!  Let me explain a little bit. Yesterday during basketball I hurt my foot. I was limping pretty bad yesterday and earlier today, and it hurt pretty bad to put my full weight on it. Well today, June 7th, is a very special day for me.  This year especially. Today is the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  One of my favorite feasts and along with Divine Mercy, my favorite devotion!  AND it was on this day in 2008 at the Ordination Mass for Joliet where I heard that inaudible voice of the Holy Spirit call me to seminary!  So yes my foot hurt, but none the less it is a pretty special day for me. Well that pain before I knew it was about to disappear too!  During Mass for the Sacred Heart of Jesus, my foot hurt almost all the way through. However, after I received communion I noticed when I was back at my pew the majority of the pain had disappeared!  I could put full weight back on my foot again and walk like normal, and still so far today can walk normal. I can't explain it, but God truly gave me a grace today. So as you can tell between being one of my favorite feasts and devotions, the anniversary of my call into seminary, and having the pain in my foot go away, this has been an amazing day!

Along with all that awesomeness, I had a great class today too. I feel I was able to understand a lot, and we finished up with grammar for the present tense. I have a lot to review this weekend, but it's slowly starting to click. Also today I got to try horchata for the first time!  It was quite delicious. If I understand correctly its rice milk and sugar. Whatever it's made of, I like it!

Tonight some of us Americans are making American pizza for the monks and other seminarians. We made a small rookie mistake when we realized their system of measurement is different than the one we use in the US, but we think we have a recipe ready to go!  I'll have to let all of you know how it goes.

I'll talk to everyone soon!

-Cristóbal

A Little Update

Hola amigos!

Como estan?  Yo estoy muy bien. It has been a pretty good past couple days. The weekend for me was very relaxing!  On Sunday we celebrated the Solemnity of Corpus Christi aqui at the monasterio. I was very excited because one of the Benedictine brothers asked me to help altar serve. It was great to get back in the saddle and altar serve again!  Mass is very similar to how it is at home, however, they give very long Sunday homilies here. They average around 30 minutes each.  Mentioning Mass also made me think about this past Saturday. I got to be at my first quinceanera. A quinceanera is a celebration for a 15 year old girl on her birthday. It is sort of her moving from being a girl to a woman. They had a Mass for her and a big party after. There wasn't much different at the Mass. She answered some questions and then publicly thanked God for all the blessings she has received in life.

Classes keep going well. I have to admit, it is very difficult to be in class from 8am-12:45pm Lunes a Viernes, pero it's paying off!  As you can see here and there I'm using Spanish words in my blog, and I understand A LOT more than when I first arrived. I still can't speak it very well, but that is just going to take time and practice. However, I can understand a lot better what people are saying. Por ejemplo, hoy during the homily at Mass, Padre talked about, "where is your heart?" and "It's always the time to start up...to start reading Scripture..."  I'm only able to catch little parts, but it's nice to start understanding individual words and getting basic concepts.

We had 4 new students arrive today. Some are here for just over 3 weeks and another one leaves the day after I do. What's great is we are all seminarians ( but one) and all are trying to learn Spanish together to help our local church in the future as priests.  I'm still super excited that part of my final exam is to celebrate a practice Mass in Spanish!  What a blessing that will be in the future.

I hope everyone is doing well in the states. I really missed American food all day yesterday, but that's bound to happen. I explained to my teacher today in Spanish all about Portillo's, so I definitely earned some when I return home. Please know of my prayers from Guatemala and if you could please pray for a priest at my Seminary in Mundelein. I got emailed the other day and found out he has stage 4 cancer. His name is Fr. Oakes. I know he would greatly appreciate the prayers through the intercession of Fr. Augustus Tolton!  Thanks everyone!

-Cris