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Showing posts from March 22, 2015

Dominican Study

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I am in the last four months of a year of full-time study.   I have been writing a thesis relating to the unaccompanied minors who have been crossing our southern borders.   As a Dominican, I have not and cannot just sit behind a desk to study.   Twice during this past year, I have traveled to the borderlands to understand in a deeper way what these young people experience.   During these trips, I have sat in court rooms, hiked into the desert to migrant trails, and spent days welcoming these newcomers at a social service center.   My study has also sent me to a nearby parish where these unaccompanied minors now live with family members.   I have interviewed service providers and organized focus groups with the minors themselves. For the Dominican women of Sinsinawa, study is a way of life.   It happens everywhere we are and everywhere we go.   What we learn is that the mystery of God is unfolding. Study is actually not meant to make us smarter.   We are called in our study to be

Come, Holy Spirit, Come

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It’s the middle of Lent, Easter is not here yet and I am praying a Pentecost prayer:   Come, Holy Spirit, Come!   Actually, this is among my favorite prayers.   Others are:   Here we go, God!   ~~   Help!   ~~   Thank YOU! What comes next is even better.   These prayers cause me to pause and to do something I often suggest to people:   Pause and take three slow deep breaths. Did you find yourself pausing right now?   Did you take a deep breath? This is my shortest blog offering yet because I want to encourage you to consider what are your prayers – in your own words.   Then take those three slow deep breaths. Roberta A. Popara, O.P. North Palm Beach FL