To the Band of Brothers: 
BYM Edition #3
 

7/7/2025
Fr. Willie, S.J. ’87 | President

Happy 4th of July! It’s amazing to celebrate the birthday of our nation from the mountains of the DR. While the beauty of God is everywhere, being on foreign soil on a day like today helps you appreciate the good ole US of A. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder. I have 60 boys (and one priest) who would agree.

Some may know my favorite television show, maybe of all time, is “The Office.” The writers and actors were brilliantly funny. In one scene, Michael Scott is being filmed at his desk by the documentarians and he is responding to a question. You realize he was asked the same question Machiavelli asks in “The Prince”: “Is it better to be loved or feared?” Not one to be very good at making decisions, the manager of the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin responds: “Both! I want you to be afraid of how much you love me.”

Life is filled with choices and the ability to make them is a trait exclusively human. That being said, we are oftentimes relieved of making them because we are allowed both. You don’t have to choose between vanilla or chocolate ice cream because you can have both. You don’t have to choose between two friends to be your best man at your wedding because now, for reasons I don’t know, you can have both.

Over the last few days, we have had long periods of time without electricity or running water. Up in these mountains, electricity is a luxury and daily, the power goes out for hours. When it does, the villagers pause and patiently wait. In these mountains, water pipes are fragile and often located above ground. They break or get disconnected all the time. When they do, the villagers pause and patiently wait. For them, it is a way of life. For us, it is a massive inconvenience.

Our boys take these two things for granted. Since they were conceived, they have had unlimited access to both. They walk into a room, flip the switch, and the light always turns on. They step into the bathroom, turn on the faucet, and the water always flows. So, after these days in Janey, I asked them at Mass: “If you had to choose, what would you prefer to have, water or electricity?” Without hesitation, they all answered: “Water!”

I agreed. That is why we are spending nine days of our summer building an aqueduct. That is why we are lugging around pipes, digging trenches, building water tanks, sleeping on the floor, and bathing in the open air. We do it because back home, in the good ole US of A we don’t have to choose. We do it because in the mountains of the DR, we don’t want the villagers to have to choose either.

Don’t forget the Hail Marys.

Auspice Maria.