5 words!

I am still feeling sick :(

Lack of a Post on Sunday

I am sorry for not posting anything on Sunday, the friars had a day long retreat and I spent it with out any of my gadgets (cell phone, computer, camera, or Ipod).  It was a very relaxing way to enjoy the day.  During this past week two great things happened in my life.  My niece Sophia celebrated her first birthday on St. Patrick's day and my good friends Ryan and Lauren were married on Saturday. Also there was the Solemnity of St. Joseph - there is a lot to be grateful for.  I hope to post some photos this week. God willing....

Lent has begun....

Hello Blogging World! Peace! This week in the Christian Circles began the season of Lent.  In Costa Rica like all over the world this sacred time began on Ash Wednesday, where ashes are placed on one's forehead in the shape of a cross. The ashes are made from the palm branches used on Palm Sunday. We celebrated 3 masses and a prayer service for the preschool, primary school, and high school.  I was blessed to preach at both the primary school mass and one of the high school masses.  I focused on doing acts of kindness in secret. This related to discourse of Matthew's Gospel about praying, fasting, and alms giving in secret without anyone knowing. I think that it went well, I received more complements than I accepted.

When I was a kind I thought that Lent was only about sin and mortification, but as an adult I am realizing that it is much more than.  Lent is not a time period to be in penance for the sake of penance, rather it is for the sake of living.  When I recognize my own sinfulness, I recognize my need for God, and that need for God helps me to truly live. Lent is not done for the sake of lent, rather for the Holy Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. As my professors at Oblate say "You get to the resurrection without going to Calgary", "There is no Easter Sunday without Holy Thursday and Good Friday", and my favorite "You can't skip the cross and go straight for the resurrection." That is not the way Jesus lived, and same goes for us.

I am excited more for this Lenten journey to Easter than ever before. I know that I have a long way to go, but our daily cross can lead to daily resurrections.

Blessing and Prayers ~ Fray Nader

PS: I will be posting more picture post this week, I have to reorganize all of my photos because I put two different photo libraries together over Christmas break and now I need to organize them.  I have photos from the same events in two or even three different places.

Happy Sunday! As promised I am resuming my weekly updates.  Yesterday I just relaxed after going to the fresh food market in morning and having a wedding following that in Chapel. I spent the afternoon reading Matilda in Spanish for my Spanish Class and organizing our new china cabinet in the friary.  We then had our normal Mass at 4pm and went out to TGIFriday's for a little bit to eat.  It was a long but good day - hence why belated posts have yet to be seen; but patience I will write them soon.

Well I am off to do some more homework. I know this was a short one, but I am preparing to write some big ones.

Peace

Overwhelmed....

Hello family, friends, fellow bloggers, and people I have never meet,

Peace be with you! As you know I have not written anything on my blog since Sunday December 5th. I know that I have not been faithful to my commitment to write on my blog every Sunday. (Thank you to Ileana, Liz, and Sarah for reminding of this).

All I can say is that I have been overwhelmed over the past two months and have not had the time nor the energy to work on my blog. Today I finally logged onto to Facebook after a couple of weeks to respond to the 43 friend requests that I had, many of them being students at St. Francis College. Also the last time I checked I had 574 messages in my e-mail inbox that I have yet to sort through.

I will resume my regular Sunday updates as of next week. Hopefully on Saturday March 5th the two month anniversary since my last post I can do some catch-up posts to bring you up to speed on my life up to now.

Well "Rejoice in hope, be patient under trial, persevere in prayer" Romans 12:12

With Love and Blessings,
Nader

Birthdays, Birthdays, and more Birthdays

Life begins at conception I have no doubt about that, but it would kinda of weird if celebrated Our Conception Dat and not Our Birthday.  This post is about various birthdays that were celebrate during the end of November and the months of December. 

Tom, Jordan, and Mateo, the men of FrancisCorps celebrate their brithdays within less than a week of each other.  Mateo - Nov. 18, Jordan - Nov. 18, and Tom - Nov. 24. 

They requested Ice Cream for their dessert.

Above is an ice cream cake with chocolate chip cookies, chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup.  Below is an ice cream cake with oreo cookies, ice cream sandwiches, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup.

The Birthday Men!

FrancisCorps with Toño and I

Below is a Birthday Cake the I made for Teacher Cindy.  You can tell from outside, but the inside of the cake is neon green, Cindy's favorite color.

And last but not least of our FrancisCorps Birthdays is Brittany. On February 24, Brittany celebrate her 23rd Birthday.  She asked for a pineapple upside down cake, I arranged the pineapple to spell out her name.  Can you see it?

Here is Brittany with her cake!

Vows x 5!

In the life of the friars, some of the most sacred and memorable moments is when a brother willing and joyfully make the step to profess vows to God, the community, and to the church. During this part of my time in Costa Rica 5 brothers have made this commitment.  Some for a temporary period and other for a life-long commitment.

Below are photos from the Solemn Profession (life-long commitment) of two Capuchin Friars from Costa Rica. 

Below are photos from the First Profession (temporary commitment) of two Conventual Friars who are a part of the Our Lady of Consolation Province in the US.

Last but not least here are two photos of Fray Toño who made his Solemn Profession (life-long commitment) on Saturday, January 15th. Fray Toño and I live in the same friary together in Costa Rica, but I unfortunately was still at my parents house in NJ when his Profession occurred. Below are photos of Toño being Toño.

MerryThanksAdventGivingChristmas!

You are probably wondering what MerryThanksAdventGiving Christmas means.  To be honest it sums up the experience I had of all this holidays and times in the Church during my time in Costa Rica. At the same time there were Christmas Decorations, Thanksgiving Decoration, and Advent Decorations present either at school, the friary, or FrancisCrops.

Here is a photo of the Christmas Tree that was at the FrancisCorps in November.

Below and above are photos of the Thanksgiving Day celebration that we had in the Primary School.  For the first time in 60 years they had a Thanksgiving Celebration in the Primary School for yours' truly. The teacher - one of my families in Costa Rica - wanted to celebrate this day with me.  We had salad, turkey, stuffing, vegetables, mashed potatoes, gravy, and dessert.  It was a Thanksgiving Luncheon to Remember Costa Rican Style. 

Here is a photo of the area outside of the 3/4 grade classrooms decorated for our Christmas Octave of Breakfasts. 

Here is a photo of Roberto (Professor of P.E.) and his wife Alejandra in their house during Advent/Christmas time.

At Mesoamérica we had a Christmas Celebration and was in charge of dessert.  Above is a Christmas Tree made from cupcakes and below is an Advent Wreath made from cupcakes.

Here is Ligia my teacher and Carmen the academic director serving the food.

The following photos are from the Christmas decorations that were present in the Chapel and Friary. I helped out in the Chapel with Fray Jorge as the mastermind, but I was the mastermind in the Friary.

Gary's Visit, Volcán Poas and some Nature Shots

For five days from December 2-7 I was blessed to have a visit from Fray Gary, my director of Formation.  He met with me, the friars, and also people of the school. He was my first personal visitor and I enjoyed every moment of the visit.

One of the things that I got to do on Gary's Visit is go to Volcán Poas, here are photos from trip.

Strawberries growing on the side of mountian!

Cows in the middle of the road.

An image of the volcano.

An explanation of the volcano.

The volcano, can't you see it! I couldn't.

Gary and I with the volcano in the background. It was pouring.

A mysterious yet beautiful walkway.

Gary and Toño

The Three of Us

Below are some nature shots from Costa Rica.

St. Francis and the Negrita!

Francis and the wolf in Alejuela 

One of my favorite photos from Costa Rica, this photo reminds me of the Lion King!