Maria, the girl featured on this year’s Trocaire Box, with Alexis – one of the Trocaire Team in Honduras
Last November, in the company of Trocaire, I visited Honduras with a group from Ireland. I’ve written about this on the blog before (Check posts from November 2016). I know that one of the reasons Trocaire asked us to come along was that we might help in promoting the message of the Lenten Campaign 2017. I’ve been trying to do that over this weekend, with some thoughts in our Parish Bulletin and on www.achonrydiocese.org I also had the opportunity to have an interview on Mid West Radio’s “Faith Alive” programme with Monica Morley. I’m grateful to Monica for that opportunity.
Meeting Maria – child featured in this years Lenten Campaign
I feel I want to make an effort to support Trocaire’s campaign this year and hope that you will join me in that. Whatever support we can give, not least by “opening the TROCAIRE box” will, I have no doubt, make quite a difference.
There are many fine resources on www.trocaire.org and included among them are:
The visit to Honduras brought me to a deepened awareness of global needs. In going there, and I’ve said this before, I was well out of my “comfort zone”. Those who know me best, know that I like my comforts and so to be in a place where people live so frugally and exposed to such dangers – both from nature and society – is something I am not likely to forget. That said, I had the luxury of flying to Honduras and the escape of flying away from it again. For the people we met, this is not really an option. It is their home and circumstances make it very difficult for them to leave that home. Indeed I met one man after one of our meetings. He lives close to where Miriam and Maria live and we had been told how dangerous this place is and how many in the village would like to move to an alternative location that would give them more protection against the elements and the sea. I spoke to this man – just “hello” and a smile and he spoke back with a broad smile on his face and said something I did not understand. One of the Trocaire team asked me did I know what he had just said and I replied “no”. The man had said “The only way I will ever leave here is dead” …. I knew what he meant. It was his home, flawed and dangerous as it was, but always his home. Trocaire, I concluded, is doing its best to make his home a better place.
“The only way I will leave here”, he told me “is dead”
SO “open the TROCAIRE box” this year and let’s see what we can do …..
Make it part of the home – your home, school, workplace – and never under estimate the difference your contribution during Lent can and will make.
Boxes are available in all our Parishes as Lent begins and it’s also possible to support Trocaire directly via its website
Well done Vincent, very moving and inspirational- I came across a thought at the weekend from my daily calendar- it came from the poet, Ralph Waldo Emersen and he quoted; ” Shallow people believe in luck, strong people believe in cause and effect” and I think the quote sums up the work of Trócaire in a real good way. So keep up the great work Vincent and chat soon.
Vincent an absolutely excellent interview and spot on. Well..well done.
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SO “open the TROCAIRE box” this year and let’s see what we can do …..
Well done Vincent, very moving and inspirational- I came across a thought at the weekend from my daily calendar- it came from the poet, Ralph Waldo Emersen and he quoted; ” Shallow people believe in luck, strong people believe in cause and effect” and I think the quote sums up the work of Trócaire in a real good way. So keep up the great work Vincent and chat soon.
Vincent an absolutely excellent interview and spot on. Well..well done.