Year of the Faith

Maria Jose arrived this morning after about about a month long trip to Italy for formation and to talk about the mission here in Paraguay. It was great to hear some of her stories, taste some of the delicious chocolates she brought back and more importantly, just to have her, our leader, back in our community. I also heard from Sr. Kay (Albuquerque) a little while ago who was in Italy at the same time. It was kind of neat to have my two Canossian worlds collide.

Every so often I meet with Maria Jose to work a little on my personal faith. I have little assignments to complete, most of which recently has been reading YOUCAT, a book on Catechism specifically written for youth. Along with the chapters discussing catechism, each page is filled with short quotes about God, faith, prayer, etc. from saints, writers and other great Catholics. Even though I usually leave it to the last minute and have to constantly look up words in my English/Spanish dictionary, I've really enjoyed reading the book. I've only really touched on the chapters about prayer so far, but I plan to keep reading.

Just to give you an idea of how small this really is.... (next to my netbook)

 While she was gone, Maria Jose gave me an assignment to read Pope Benedict's apostolic letter about the upcoming Year of the Faith, which begins October 11. Like usual, I procrastinated. Who would have thought a short 27 page tiny book would be that hard to finish? I honestly tried to begin a few weeks ago, but just couldn't seem to get the information to sink in reading in Spanish, so I kind of gave up. I started reading again last night and got further, but the information just wasn't sticking. I was understanding what I was reading but not remembering. Finally, today I had a breakthough....

...I realized that this must be available online and in English! I was right. I just finished reading it, and I actually really enjoyed it, so I thought I'd share.

APOSTOLIC LETTER
“MOTU PROPRIO DATA”

PORTA FIDEI

OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF BENEDICT XVI