“In this world you are called to live fraternally, not as a utopia but as a real possibility; in this society you are called, as true missionaries of Christ, to build the civilization of love” (Blessed John-Paul II)

Maria, Kathline, Cecile, and I in front of Holy Redeemer Church one morning

At the end of January, we welcomed two Heart’s Home India missionaries into our community for three weeks as they applied for new Indian visas. Discovering our charism of compassion through Kathline’s (21, from France) and Maria’s (20, from Germany) eyes been a tremendous experience of unity for me. In almost every way (except for the prayer and community life we share), the girls’ lives in Tamil Nadu look so different from ours here in Bangkok. The saris they must wear every day to keep covered and their prohibition from talking with men in the street are a stark contrast to our freedom to wear what we choose and the sexual promiscuity and exploitation so glaringly present in Thailand. They sleep on the floor and eat with their hands, while we enjoy the comfort of our simple beds and our forks and spoons. They drooled just to step into a convenience store here, while we enter at least one of the 3,400 7-11’s in Bangkok daily. They arrive at Church and their apostolate visits in 15-30 minutes, usually on foot, while we find ourselves battling Bangkok traffic for several hours each day in getting to Mass, school, hospitals, the immigration prison, and back to our neighborhood by combinations of bus/taxi/skytrain/walking. On visits, they are often welcomed into family homes for hours as they are hand-fed (literally!) until they want to explode, while we encounter Thai hospitality most often in small gestures of friendship and conversation in the streets. Their days are spent in a virtually Indian-only area (they are the only westerners there), while we share our time with an array of refugees and asylum seekers from all over Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, European and Latin American ex-pats, and of course our neighborhood Thai friends. They often find themselves lost in the deep complexities of Indian traditions, while we often find ourselves struggling to penetrate the superficialities of Thai culture and relationships. And yet in sharing our joys, questions, and frustrations, we find ourselves so close to one another-- seeking to embrace and help carry the particular poverties of our country, in prayer and through binding ourselves in friendship to those who suffer most. We meet the same hungers of the human heart. This new awareness of unity within Heart’s Home has also deepened my sense of unity with each of you -- as we each seek to live compassion for those Our Lord places in front of us each day-- and with the whole Church, whose very identity is this movement of Christ’s compassion for each and for all.

Maria, Kathline, Cecile, and I  take a walk