What I do every day....April 26, 2025

I got up early today to watch the funeral of Pope Francis, and to honor his life and pray for his soul, in union with the worldwide Church.

Also this morning is the funeral of Melanie, who as I wrote last time, was a very poor matriach in our neighborhood, midwife to poor women, who was killed on the street last week in this lawless country where no one will pay for her death,

The connection between Francis and Melanie is that she represents exactly the kind of marginalized victim of poverty and violence that he has crusaded for his whole life long.

During the past week, we were three priests who met with a notorious gang leader, trying to enlist his influence for the protection of a neighborhood under siege and to try to help us find and liberate a friend kidnapped on April 21.

These dialogues open windows of understanding and solution.

The dialogues do not wipe away criminality. They only try to find solutions so that worse things do not happen.

At this point, Haiti is like a graveyard, a tomb. The Easter message is to call to life again.

I compare how Jesus was raised up again in radiant light, to how Lazarus was called from the tomb fully rotten and in burial cloths.

I think that the many people around the world dealing with really bad situations of malevolence, evil, corruption and violence can take courage by Lazarus, by how slow and even filthy must be the faith filled attempts to bring life to a tomb the size of a neighborhood, or of a country.

We have not had success yet with out kidnapped friend, and this is very painful for all concerned because her sister was kidnapped in 2023 already, and killed by the kidnappers. PLEASE PRAY FOR JUDITH AND HER FAMILY.

In the Gospel according to Mark at mass this morning, the Risen Jesus appears to his disciples and rebukes them for not believing Mary Magdalene or the disciples on the Emmaus road when they told them they saw Jesus Risen. He then tells them to bring the Gospel to every creature.

I like the phrase, since we will try to save two kidnapped creatures today-two horses.

They are not work horses, but horses for training for show and events. On these horses the children in the NPH “St Germaine” programs have trained and earned awards in Special Olympics in a number of countries.

In the same way we have been helping a neighbor unload his store because of bandit encroachment, now this horse farm (some 15 horses) is suffering the same degeneration because of bandits. We may try to move all these horses to our property so they are not casualties of the falling into chaos this country is living.

The mountains of Kenscoff are ever worse. Bombs, fighting, executions. Our NPH program there is still managing, but things are very precarious and we need prayer.

Our livestock farms are failing because we can hardly import feed (tilapia and chickens). There is finally tilapia feed arriving from Dominican Republic today, ordered two weeks ago. It had to be brought all the way north to Cape Haitian and down to Port au Prince along the sea, making the delivery cost an extra $11 each sack.

It is easy to see why businesses are going belly up.

We keep going, in hope and with peaceful hearts, as much as possible.

God is Merciful and Provident.