What Does it All Mean?

"What does it all mean?" The title of today's blog sounds like a great title for a Vocation Blog... But this time the question is actually referring to the blog itself and not vocation discernment. I wanted to explain some of the details along the right side with my readers.

Along the right hand side of this blog is a lot of information and sometimes new readers don't always know what it means, so today I provide you with a brief explanation/description:

My Twitter feed, follow @hermanodavid is linked in case you want to get the latest and sometimes wacky updates.

Also along the right side is a way that you can EASILY SHARE my blog with all your friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter. Try clicking on "Share this" or "Tweet this" to see how easy it really is.

The Join this site button lets you register to receive automatic updates when I post a new blog. You can register publicly or privately.

The Facebook button allows you to find me on Facebook (Hermano David Henley). Here we can stay connected with more regular updates. Glenmary's Vocation Department also has a Facebook page which you will want to "Like" as well.

Scrolling down lets you see the most popular Glenmary Videos on my Youtube (BrotherDavidGHM) channel this week.

There is also an Archive of all my blog posts and a list of my most Popular Posts.

Right below these words is a place for readers Comments. I pledge to keep adding quality blog posts, and ask my readers to occasionally share some feedback - tell me what you think, good or bad.

Saint Meinrad Seminary

Saint Meinrad Seminary

I am currently in Saint Meinrad, Indiana visiting with the Glenmary students in the seminary. Monday night is the best night to visit because it is community night at our Glenmary House. The students gather for prayer, Mass, meal, a programmed talk and social time. It is a lot to squeeze into one night but it is an important part of community life. Since everybody has a little different class schedule and extra curricular activities, community time has to be worked in when EVERYONE can participate. It is the one night a week all the Glenmary students are together, under one roof to talk about what is happening in life, at school, etcetra. And since we are a religious community - community life is extra important: we choose and promise to be a part of this community of missioners for the rest of our life when we take our final oath.

This past Monday night I was the main cook for the community night. The good news is everyone ate what I served and a few of them even went back for seconds... This either speaks well of my cooking or says something about what they have been eating in the seminary cafeteria. I hope to stop in and cook for them a little more often - as a couple of them were looking a little thin.

If anybody would like to visit the seminary, meet the students, our formation directors or myself as part of your discernment - let me know, it can be arranged. (Monday nights are best!) 

Conscience

I took these photos of an old cathedral while I was in Xela, Guatemala a couple of months ago. 

What inspired me to start snapping these photos was the enormity of the Cathedral versus the fragility of the tiny beggar woman on the steps. As I took these pictures, I noticed that I captured a story. The first image of the beggar woman by herself. The second photo shows a family walking past who appear to not even notice the beggar. The third shows a girl who, after she walked a few steps past, turned and went back to drop a coin in the beggar woman's basket.

God, sometimes we fail to recognize you at crucial moments in our life. We pass you by on the street everday. We have to turn around and look again before we see you. Sometimes we even have to take a few steps back to meet you before we can go forward again.

Suggested reading for further reflection: Matthew 21:28-32 & Matthew 18: 3-4

Link to Glenmary's Vocation Page

Glenmary Blogs

Wanted to share with all my readers some other good Glenmary blogs to follow from time to time - Just don't forget about this one...

Rev. Charlie Hughes who is only 83 years of age started a blog a little over a year ago and covers a wide range of his mission experiences and reflections. The blog is called Catholic Insight and it can be found here:  http://frcharliehughes.blogspot.com/ Usually updated a couple or three times a week.

"We count! While God formed the universe, scattered the stars by the billions, made the grass to grow, designed the flight of birds, the color of the sky and the hardness of the diamond and granite stone, He had each of us in mind! God knows us, God loves us, each one, uniquely, by name. Lord, Thank You !"

Rev. Steve Pawelk has a new blog titled Missionary Beginnings. This blog highlights his experiences along with those of Bro. Joe and Bro. Craig in a new mission in Eastern Tennessee. It can be found here:  http://catholicmissionarybeginnings.blogspot.com/ I have found it is usually updated at least once a week, usually on Monday afternoons, sometimes more frequently.

"We had Mass in my house, and as far as I know, unless there's evidence different, it was the first Mass in Union County. To think that the Eucharist is present in Union County, even though there's just two of us at a 6 a.m. Mass, that's what it's all about. It's offering the Eucharist and transforming the community through the grace of God in the power of the sacraments."

Deacon Aaron Wessman who is studying in his final year at Saint Meinrad Seminary shares some of his seminary reflections in his blog called Cognition of a Roman Catholic Missioner.   http://aaronwessman.blogspot.com/  Although it is not updated as much as the others it is worth following. I think Deacon's Theology Exams take precedent over blog updates in his life right now...

"Everyone goes through struggles, some of which are far greater than those I will ever experience - I must be more grateful for what I have been given."

On the Road Again

Somebody once told me "It is hard to hit a moving target." As Glenmary Vocation Director I sometimes feels like I'm always moving... But don't let that dissuade you from trying to hit the target and talk with me about your vocation, this is where to find me this weekend:

Thursday and Friday - I will be attending the Catholics on Call Partners Conference at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Looks like they have a good slate of speakers lined up for this event. The theme of this conference is Engaging Young Adults for Church Vocations.

Friday Night - Dominican Priory in the Pilsen Neighborhood of Chicago. I lived here while serving as a long-term volunteer before I joined Glenmary Home Missioners. I did 2 years of service at the San Jose Obrero Mission homeless shelter as a member of the Volunteer Missionary Movement.

Saturday - Attending a wedding of my friends Kate and Paul in Union Pier, Michigan.

Sunday - University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Too bad there is no football game on Sunday.

Sunday night till Thursday morning I will be hanging with the Glenmary seminarians studying at Saint Meinrad, Indiana.

Vocation or Vacation II

I often search for the word "vocation" on twitter (@hermanodavid) and I am always amazed at how often the word "vacation" is misspelled as "vocation." I blogged some of the funnier mistakes that I found last month (Aug 26 blog) and have since found some more. 

If it wasn't a misspelling, I might have missed my true calling on the vocation that includes "Sun and Beach." 

Here's the tweets:


I wish my vocation would last the rest of my life!


SUN and BEACH - best vocation ever!


I really would love to have a paid vocation.


Why can't vocations last forever?


Due to my vocation I did not have access to internet last week


A week off work spent at home cleaning house is not a vocation!


I think I need an extra long sumer vocation.

This is the best vocation of my life.


Vocation=Disneyland


I am looking for a good place for a family vocation. Any recommendations?


Free vocations are the best.


As long as people keep misspelling vacation as vocation on Twitter - this blog title might turn into a regular series...

St. Mark the Evangelist

This past weekend I was invited by the Archdiocese of Galveston Houston to make an appeal for Glenmary Home Missioners at St. Mark the Evangelist Parish. Appeals weekend are exciting since I enjoy visiting new places, giving talks about Glenmary and sharing stories from our missions. This weekend was particularly enjoyable because there was so much activity happening in the parish and the community was so welcoming - I felt like I fit right in at St. Mark's. Weekend liturgies truly felt like a family coming together to for prayer and worship. I am sure the preaching is good every weekend but I thought it was particularly good this past one. Thanks to la familia Silverio for welcoming me into their home and thanks to everyone at St. Mark the Evangelist parish in Houston, Texas for the wonderful weekend celebrations and for their generous support of the missions.

Saturday night's parish activities included a dance to honor the queen and princess of the Fiestas Patrias. The young ladies who took part of this event had raised $7,000 for the parish. Congratulations to all the young ladies and to the Knights of Columbus who supported them in their fundraising efforts.

Come and See

"I fully believe that God is alive to people and I fully believe that God hears the cry of the poor. I think we in the Church have have to look around to the suffering and struggles of the people and nature and take action. God has empowered us. We can't let God take the bum rap for why things aren't done." Rev. John Rausch

October 15 - 18 the Glenmary Vocation Office will be making a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Appalachia. Not the Holy Land most people think of when making a pilgrimage... This will be a great opportunity for those discerning a vocation to meet with a number of Glenmarians, visit areas where Glenmary serves, talk with the folks living in those areas and learn about the challenges that exist in these poor rural areas of the United States. Glenmary priest, Fr. John Rausch will serve as our tour guide for this extraordinary event. Fr. John's pilgrimage will not only be an opportunity to take pictures of the beautiful scenery in the mountains but also include discussions and analysis of the current social economic and environmental crisis this region of the U.S. is confronted with everyday. These issues include mountaintop removals' environmental impact, lack of quality healthcare, education, unemployment and much more... Fr. John who is a recipient of the Pax Christi Teacher of Peace award, has over ten years experience leading these types of educational tours throughout Appalachia.

If you are interested in joining us on the tour let us know we see can send you more details.    

Register for the Pilgrimage on our website.

Quick Trip to México

Last week I went to San Juan de los Lagos to visit with the seminarians and to meet with Vocation team serving in the diocese. I studied Spanish at the seminary in San Juan a number of years ago so I always enjoy the opportunity to go back for visits. The rhythm of the seminary life allows lots of time for prayer, reflection and studies. The men I met with there are very much holy men who are preparing themselves in order to dedicate their lives to God, the service of the church and the people of God. At the meeting with the Vocation Team, over forty people, we evaluated some of the events from last year and planned out this coming year's agenda. I am looking forward to participating with the diocese in some of the upcoming Vocation Weeks and Vocational Fairs.  I wish I could have spent just a little more time in Mexico but I had to return in order to continue with the vocation promotions here in the U.S. as well.

Reunion con el equipo de Promotores Vocacionales en San Juan de los Lagos:

This coming weekend I will be at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Houston, Texas. I will be talking about Glenmary's missions and vocations at all the weekend Masses. If you are in the area stop by for Mass and say "hi" afterwards, I'd love to meet you.

Special thanks to Fr. John Rausch who allowed me to publish his monthly column as blog post last Friday while I was out of the country. His column about labor and Catholic Social teaching truly challenges us to reflect on the significance of work and the dignity of  the human life.  Stay tuned for next months column which will be published here as well.

To Earn Our Livelihoods

I am out of the country visiting the Seminary in San Juan de los Lagos. So I invite you to enjoy my Guest Blogger, Glenmary priest Fr. John S. Rausch. Below is an article he recently wrote:

     This year marks the one hundredth anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire, one of the worst industrial accidents in U.S. history.  In 1911, on a Saturday afternoon when workers began thinking about their Sunday off, a fire started on the eighth floor of the ten-story Asch Building in Manhattan where the Triangle Company occupied the top three floors with 500 workers.  The flames spread quickly to the upper floors trapping many amid the burning fabric and trimmings that lay bundled and loose in numerous piles.  Witnesses reported the horror of seeing workers, many embracing one another, leap to their deaths from windows as the fire engulfed them.  The tragic toll numbered 146 dead, mostly immigrant girls and women, with scores more seriously injured, because the company owners locked the stairwell doors leaving only the two freight elevators that failed for an escape.

     More than a century ago workers regularly logged twelve hour shifts six days a week.  In 1880 one sixth of American workers (1,118,000) were children under the age of sixteen.  In 1889 alone 22,000 railroad workers were killed or injured on the job.  Because wages fluctuated with the economy, the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892 cut pay between 18% and 26% leading to the Homestead Strike that ended in bloody violence.  Only a century ago the human dignity of American workers was sacrificed to the new wave of industrialization.

    These conditions prompted Pope Leo XIII to write his groundbreaking encyclical,Rerum Novarum, in 1891.  His letter rejected both an unbridled capitalism that could deny workers their God-given human dignity, and an ultra-powerful state that could destroy human initiative.  In their 2011 Labor Day Statement the Catholic bishops write: “This encyclical is best remembered for Pope Leo’s prophetic call for the Church to support workers’ associations for the protection of workers and the advancement of the common good.”  

     Unfortunately today, most Americans remain ignorant of labor history and the struggles our forebearers endured to create the working conditions that insure a more dignified work place.  Child labor laws, workman’s compensation, Social Security and retirement programs, health and safety laws, and the eight-hour workday all represent progressive reforms supported by organized labor and the church.  Each required a piece of legislation, which instinctively means that without due vigilance the strands of labor’s safety net can fray, or be cut, for the sake of deficit reductions or economic efficiency and growth.

    Already some states have legislated to restrict the bargaining rights of public employees, soften child labor standards and diminish health and safety laws.  The arguments come directly from a strongly free market approach: public employees make too much money, young people need work experience and excessive red tape leads to lost productivity and inefficiency.

     For people of faith the dignity of workers rests not on any privilege afforded by the state, or a particular economic theory, but on moral and ethical laws that must never be denied workers.  Each worker is made in the image and likeness of God and we are all our brother’s (and sister’s) keeper.  This theological statement forms the basis for the dignity of each worker and the call to community and the common good.

     “People need work not only to pay bills...but also to express their human dignity and to enrich and strengthen the larger community,” reads the bishops 2011 Labor Day statement.  They are not promoting making money or getting rich, but encouraging a spirituality for workers to earn their livelihood by building community, both among themselves and for the good of all.

San Juan de los Lagos

Today I am traveling to San Juan de los Lagos in Jalisco, México. A place I studied 6 years ago when I was in formation. I am traveling to visit one of our students who is in his second year of Philosophy there. Will also meet some of the other men who are discerning with Glenmary at this time. Please pray for all of them.

While there I will also participate in the annual Vocation Directors meeting. We will go over the agenda and plans for all the vocation events scheduled for the coming school year. This gathering will have about thirty Vocation Directors from many different congregations all over México. Some of the events we will be planning will include the Jornada Vocacional which Glenmary has been participating in for a number of years. These are great events reach out to many young people and give them the opportunity to get to know religious, sisters, brothers and priests and discern their call to single, married or consecrated life. An example of the weeks events can be seen in this YouTube video I made from one of last years events.

Jornada Vocacional en San Ignacio Cerro Gordo

Labor Day Weekend Special

I think that at some point in our country's history the true meaning of Labor Day has been lost. Today it seems like it is celebrated as something between a last blast of summer and special two for one sales on shoes.

I recently read Bishop Stephen Blaire's thought provoking and challenging statement on Labor Day. His whole statement can be found on the USCCB website. One quote in particular from his statement that I can relate with is: "Our faith offers a clear moral criterion: put poor and vulnerable people first." A few years ago I served in a mission assignment in Western Arkansas. Upon arriving in the mission, I took a job working in the local poultry plant. I did that not because I was in need of an extra income but in order for me to meet the people in the area by working  shoulder to shoulder with them. My understanding of scripture and Catholic Social Teaching leads me to believe that as religious we are called to be with the people and together we can work for the building of the Kingdom. Jesus didn't wait for the fisherman to look for him in the synagogue but rather he found them where they worked and taught them there. More insight from my experience in the poultry plant can be found in the Glenmary Challenge article titled Glenmary Brothers Lives of Service.

After working in the poultry plant for a few years, I had the opportunity to obtain video from inside the plant. I edited the video and posted it on YouTube in order to share images of the harsh working conditions and to connect it with Catholic Social Teaching on labor. I hope you find it insightful. Many people have commented about the video and I find it surprising how many negative comments are posted on the YouTube site, they seem to lack in understanding and compassion. The working conditions are tough although the video may not always show that - smiling faces do not necessarily mean happy workers but they are the natural result of having a video camera pointed at your face. Feel free to add your own comments too, as a rule I have left all of them public, good and bad, only erasing the ones which use profanity. 

Inside a Poultry Processing Plant

Eleven years ago U.S. Catholic Bishops of the South signed the pastoral letter Voices and Choices which was a message concerning justice in the workplace. "For more than 100 years, the leaders in the Church have been concerned about the ways we all live our faith in our work, about the conditions workers face, and the meaning of work in the light of the Gospel. Work is important because it is an exercise of the divine dignity and divine giftedness of every human being; a vocation. Having "voices and choices" enables the that dignity to be recognized and exercised in our 'extended' neighborhood. As teachers in the Church, we bishops continue to add our voices to the struggle for worker justice." Maybe this labor day is a good opportunity to reexamine this document and some of the many other Church teachings concerning the dignity of human life and how it relates to work.

This labor day weekend my prayers are for the many people unemployed at this time, those who are struggling to make ends meet by having to work two or three different jobs and for those who are forced to work in difficult and dangerous conditions.