Fr. Thames : latest letter
Dear Friends in Jesus Christ, Greetings!
Here is the January letter just as I am leaving for the U.S. (in about 12
hours). I hope to see many of you while there. Take care all of you. your
brother in Jesus Christ, Bob Thames
The New Year always is a time of new hope and this year is no different. But our
hope is always based in Jesus Christ, so that makes a difference. Anything new
and better does not depend on us, but on the Grace that Our Lord gives us. It is
now up to us to use it, more than the year previous, to be more faithful, more
generous, more patient, in living out God’s expectations as made clear in the
Gospel life of this same Lord.
We began this new year with a vocations retreat for young women, the most mature of those who made the 7 one day retreats each month from June of 2003. There were 12 in all for 3 days. It made my day to hear from some of them afterwards that the most impacting time was the contemplative prayer before the Blessed Sacrament which lasted about an hour..
Two of the sisters will go this week to Cochabamba for one month of Ignatian retreat in preparation for their final vows. Normally sisters with final vows go outside their country, but these two entered at 25 yrs. Old and are more mature in their vocation. One of them is from my parish in Mexico, a really fine young woman and very good religious, who entered while I was there.
During the month of January the 3 seminarians who came in December are continuing of their own choice, instead of being with their families, to replace me and the two sisters who will be on retreat, a really great help. The previous priest was almost alone, and when he left no one replaced him. The people just didn’t have services. We are trying to accustom them to continue everything.
The school construction continues and will open, even if limping a little, on Febr. 2nd, the official date for school to begin. The buildings will be useable, but not finished. We have the principal who will take charge of getting teachers. Actually at this moment, we are just about set. Please pray that the school serve to bring people closer to Jesus Christ, which is the only Force that will make any changes that count and last to be significant in the community at large. Here the diocesan pastoral plan is that the school be integrated into the overall pastoral work of the parish, which is what we are trying to accomplish. I will tell more on this as time goes on.
One gift that one of my sisters gives me every year (now for about 25 yrs.) is a subscription to National Geographic. Only about half of the issues arrive (those in English). So I also buy the Spanish edition that is printed in Chile, but headquartered in Mexico. There are a few differences, though not much. One difference in the December 2003 issue was that the English issue carried a spectacular foto from the renovated Hubble telescope of a galaxy called Sombrero recently discovered by the telescope. To give it dimension it was printed on a pullout page. It really has impacted me. I have used it in a sermon and more I have used it several times in prayer. Just imagine the Maker of such, the size, the beauty; it defies my imagination.
A tragedy happened just before Christmas here in Bolivia. The water of one of the rivers rose enough to push sections of a bridge off their pillars on the main east-west highway. This happened in the early morning while yet dark and a bus full of people, not seeing the disappeared bridge went into the water, killing all but 2 of the people. The highway will be cut off for about 6 months, making a normally 11 to 12 hour into a 30 hour odyssey. Last week we had a one day meeting of Prado in CBBA (Cochabamba), but I chose not to go. It would have been 60 hours on the bus and about 8 to 9 hours of meeting. As I leave this week for the U.S., it seemed not prudent to go. It really has affected the country`s travel and commerce.
This letter will be shorter as I leave this Friday, 16 Jan. for the U.S. to return on the Febr. 16. Originally I was to have gone the night before, but for some unknown reason the flight was canceled and re-scheduled for the next morning. I still should make it to DFW by nightfall Friday.
I pray all of you a very good New Year, cooperating with the joy and trouble that make up our lives.