Mass and Other Adventures

The brilliance of Catholicism is that a Catholic can attend any Mass in the world and still feel as though he knows precisely what is happening at any given moment. This was mostly true this evening upon our return to the parish after a bit of site seeing. The Mass was lovely, and every effort was made to make the American guests feel welcome, even to the point of asking Fr. Sparks to preach as a local woman translated. She spent a great deal of time before Mass trying to learn the content of the homily so as to translate well.  Fr. Sparks told her to simply say, "Jesus loves you," if she couldn't translate what he said.  She resorted to this only once.  Following Mass we were assigned to our host families. Most people were assigned with one other American. A handful, myself included, are on our own. I am with a family of four. Most in this house speak at least some English. I am able to supplement with Spanish, so we can communicate easily. Daniel Lang and his companion Sean are in a home that speaks no English. I will be curious to hear how their evening went when we gather early tomorrow morning. The photos are from site seeing, the pre-Mass procession line-up, and the sorting ceremony.  Sorry they are blurry.  My phone doesn't zoom well.  More tomorrow when time allows. I am left to understand that we are celebrating Mass with the Cardinal from Bogota sometime tomorrow.