The Lord’s Garden

After a couple of months filled with travels and mission trips, August has brought with it a season of returning to a more regular schedule. I find these more routine seasons are ideal for more deeply delving into ongoing ministries and more intentionally investing in relationships.

I was recently reflecting on how each person is a flower in the Lord’s garden, as Saint Thérèse writes about in her book Story of a Soul. By taking time to notice, get to know, and appreciate other flowers, we get to witness more of the Heart of Our Lord. When we encourage one another to be more deeply rooted in Him, in the garden of His Heart, we help our fellow flowers to flourish, guiding them to His nourishment and delighting His Heart. While I often take for granted opportunities for encounter and helping the Lord in His garden, I hope to remember to treasure each moment with one of His treasured flowers and to continue to invite Him, the ultimate Gardener, to work in and through me as well.

Over the past months, I have had a chance to get to know some of Christ’s flowers in a couple of ranchos where some of the other missionaries and I have been leading Confirmation and First Communion preparation classes for children and teens.

Each week they gather in one of the ranchos for a Communion Service and classes. It has been beautiful to see some of the families gather for the Communion Service and get to know some of them a bit, as it is through faithful families that the youth we are teaching can best be supported in their faith.

On September 12, we will be putting on a retreat for the young people who will be receiving Sacraments as well as for their parents and godparents. Please pray for this retreat to be a time of strengthening and growth in the faith for all those involved, many of whom have little access to continued faith formation and Sacraments, and that they have the grace to cling to the Lord and continually turn to Him and His Word.

One highlight of this month for me was helping with a retreat for the youth group in General Cepeda. Before starting regular youth group gatherings for the school year, the core group of youth generally organizes an overnight retreat (from roughly 5 p.m. to 7 a.m.) with talks and activities throughout the night. I was blessed to visit with the youth, spend time in Adoration, which was available the whole time, and give a talk on the call to missions and being a single missionary. A couple of my amazing missionary community members graciously joined me for this middle-of-the-night experience as well!