To the Band of Brothers: BYM Edition
Celebrating our nation’s birth takes on special significance when you are in a foreign land. It’s a mixed bag of emotions you experience.
On the one hand, appreciation. Unquestionably the biggest reaction is appreciating what you have and what our families were able to accomplish because the U.S. has provided the opportunity. That’s it. You don’t need anything more than opportunity. Not a hand out, not a pity party, not a fish, just the opportunity to fish.
Being here in Yerba Buena the question is how much of an opportunity do these families, and especially the youth, have. We are sleeping in a five room schoolhouse with five latrines in the backyard. No tech, no whiteboards, no AC. Just three teachers and 140 students covering first grade to senior year! All crammed in that little space.
I think our boys recognize the opportunity their country, parents, and Belen are providing for them. We may have to think twice before we complain about the speed of our internet or the filters on our iPads.
On the other hand, the question naturally arises as to why we have been so blessed with the opportunity and these people in the DR have not. Why can’t the DR provide its people with the same advantages? Now, I am no sociologist or economist and so would never pretend nor intend to expound on those questions here, but, it doesn’t keep the human heart from asking.
Each one of these boys needs to contend with that issue. Each one has to recognize his circumstances are better than the Dominican campesino and actually better than most. What they also need to ask is what to do with it. What is my role and obligation? It needs to go farther than self and those immediately around me.
Yesterday, we cut the workday a little short so we could celebrate Sunday Mass with the villagers. They treated us with songs and an extended sign of peace. But, I think what most impressed the kids was their prayerful intentions. Every one of the Dominican people, at the prayers of the faithful, thanked God for their presence and asked the Lord to bless them with peace. It was a vocal prayer expressed over and over again.
Today, 4th of July, we celebrate our national pride with a full day of hard work. Makes total sense. Isn’t that ultimately what makes the U.S. so great? Wasn’t our great nation built on hard work?
God bless America!
Auspice Maria
BELEN JESUIT PREPARATORY SCHOOL
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: webmaster@belenjesuit.org
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: webmaster@belenjesuit.org
Belen Jesuit Preparatory School was founded in 1854 in Havana, Cuba by Queen Isabel II of Spain. The task of educating students was assigned to the priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), whose teaching tradition is synonymous with academic excellence and spiritual discipline. In 1961, the new political regime of Cuba confiscated the School property and expelled the Jesuit faculty. The School was re-established in Miami the same year, and over the next decade, continued to grow. Today, Belen Jesuit sits on a 30-acre site in western Dade County, only minutes away from downtown Miami.