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Our Pilgrimage
Our Pilgrimage On July 10th I and several of my religious brothers left to make a pilgrimage to Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. It was an experience that I will never forget. We were greeted by brothers from 11 different countries. The purpose: to re-discover our roots where we began as missionaries, to get to know our founder St. Eugene deMazenod better, and to come to a deeper understanding of our Oblate Spirituality. It was a blessed time as we prepared (21 men in all) to make our perpetual professions.   Once we left Aix we traveled to Lourdes: The place where a small...
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Hispanic student achievement still behind… but there are signs of hope
 A few days ago I was talking to a friend of mine that I’ve known for years in youth ministry. When she was in her teens, working was a priority over college. Over time she realized that she was not getting anywhere, so she decided return to school. She told me: “Now I realize the importance of an education and I know where I want to go. I am more inspired. I have goals and I know I will achieve them.”It was inspiring and refreshing to feel the energy and inspiration she was talking about, especially considering that Hispanics are known to be lagging far behind other groups in education...
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Dreaming of Hope
 What is a dream to you? What do you dream of? For many young people who live in this country, their dream is one of Education, Equality, Justice and Fairness. It is also a dream of being like all their peers, when it comes to education, regardless of their immigration status. The DREAM ACT has been in the news for a long time. The youth rallies advocating for the passing of the Dream Act throughout the country is paying dividends. The most recent victory of these courageous young immigrants took place recently as the governor of the state of Illinois signed it into law. This legislation...
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Code-switching. How’s your Spanglish?
 Code-switching. How’s your Spanglish?For many multilingual speakers, especially teenagers and young adults, combining two or more languages in a single sentence seems to be very common. They enjoy it. It’s part of who they are and it gives them an identity. This is called code-switching. But is code-switching good or bad? What do you think?Many people will say that speaking Spanglish is an easy way out during a conversation because you don’t have to think hard enough. Other people say that it serves a very practical purpose as there are some words in English, or Spanish, that don’t have...
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My Journey with the Oblates
 The life we live is certainly full of hopes and struggles. But through many of the struggles comes the great gift of Joy! We may not always understand all the reasons for the directions that we take in life but isn’t it funny how we look back and reflect on how we arrived at where we are today. Sometimes it is easy to see how the different choices we made led us to where we are today!As I look at where I am right now, and reflect on the struggles that have been part of my journey; I can see how each love, each pain, each person and each year in formation have0 blessed me beyond belief!...
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Lost in Translation?
Lost in Translation? The other day I heard a cute conversation while waiting for the bus. A little Hispanic girl was trying to translate a sign for her mother, but since the mother could not quite make up the idea, she went ahead and explained in Spanish what the sign meant, with limited accuracy I concluded.Even after the laborious explanation from the girl, the mother seemed puzzled and simply nodded agreeing with her daughter, who was visibly irritated for the lack of understanding between the two. They then went on with their day. It seemed to be something they were used to.This...
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