Montana: The End

Our last full day in Montana was Friday.  I am sorry I haven't posted since but we traveled most of Saturday and yesterday I was reintroducing myself to my children!

Friday was a typical school day save for a play some of the students put on.  It was a play about traditional Blackfeet stories but with morals intertwined for the kids (bullying, etc).  I couldn't really hear much of the dialogue as the kids spoke softly but the audience got it.  At the end of the play we all got in a circle and did a traditional dance around the gym.  It was a very fitting end to our visit.

The school day ends at 3pm on Fridays so Bro. Ray dropped us off at the Museum of the Plains Indian which is right down the street from the school.  They had tons of artifacts (mostly clothing) and a little movie we could watch.  The movie was interesting but very dated - it was narrated by Vincent Price! and they made reference to the moon landing!  Following our visit here we walked to some shops to get some gifts for our families.  We then headed back to the bunkhouse for dinner and to clean-up.  That evening we gathered for our final prayer service where we read the story of Jesus and the rich young man and I offered a reflection (see below).  I was surprised (but delighted) to hear that three of the students are now considering becoming teachers after this experience.  One girl said, "I am not thinking about it, I WILL be a teacher."

We had an early flight on Saturday and the airport is over 2 hours away so we left the bunkhouse at 2:15am.  Bro. Ray and Bro. Dale drove us and I stayed awake out of solidarity with Bro. Ray who was  driving along some very lonely roads in the middle of nowhere.  Many of our students didn't even bother going to bed so they were out cold on the way to the airport and on the planes.  We were back in Boston by 4pm.

I am still processing the whole trip and catching up on sleep.  We hope to put together a parent's night for us and the students who went to Guatemala as well as a piece to show in theology classes.  I appreciate everyone who followed the blog during our trip, I had a lot of fun sharing our experiences with you.

Here is my reflection from Friday night:


On Twitter today Pope Francis tweeted “Dear young people, do not bury your talents, the gifts that God has given you!  Do not be afraid to dream of great things!”

I think it’s safe to say that Trinity High School does a good job preparing you for college and your chosen career.  But I hope through Campus Ministry and theology you also feel prepared to be disciples of Christ in the world.  We don’t want you to just be good lawyers, doctors, business people, we also want you to be Christ to a world that desperately needs it.

I hope that through this experience you have found ways to be Christ or seen others be Christ.  I saw Christ in a 5th grade classroom yesterday where Mr. H calmly and patiently tried to teach long division to a group of students who did want to learn long division.  He never raised his voice, he never got angry.  In fact he kept on referring back to Father Ed’s homily about loving one another.  

I saw Christ in Bro. Dale and Bro. Ray who have given up everything to follow Christ and to make Him known to young people.  I never fully appreciated the sacrifice brothers make until I was here.  They were not forced to come here but they did, far from their families and hometowns.

I saw Christ in the volunteers who instead of spending their early 20’s in some major city or at some major company making lots of money, they have come here, to the middle of no where, to a place very few people want to stay, for little money.

I saw Christ in the students, young men and women who, like Christ are poor, neglected, in despair, ignored, hated.  Christ has a special place in His heart for these children, I know it.  They might have been hard to work with at times and you may have been frustrated but just pause and consider the lives they lead.  Consider how Christ was, in a way, just like them.  Please continue to pray for them.

Finally, I saw Christ in all of you.  You jumped right into this experience and embraced the poverty, the discipline issues, the downtime, the frustrations.  But you also embraced the joy, the love, the opportunities.  I thank you for being pioneers on this trip and for accepting my invitation (or for approaching me and asking if you could go).  This is just the beginning.

Which brings us back to Pope Francis and his tweet.  I hope this experience changed your idea of what your talents are.  You all have many talents that look good on a college application or a resume but what other talents did you discover this week?  It is not an accident that you are here, God brought you here for a reason, to help you discover something about you that you never knew existed, a feeling, an emotion and He wants you to use these new talents to do extraordinary things for Him and His people.  Do not bury whatever it is God has given you and do not let this experience end at 4:07pm tomorrow when we land in Boston.

I hope you are not the same person you were when we arrived last week.  If you are, I failed.  I don’t expect you all to go home and want to run off to Montana or somewhere else to change the world.  However, please look at this week as a moment when God dropped the scales from your eyes and invited You to help in the work to build His kingdom here on Earth.  Answer His call.  Now.  Be not afraid...for God has chosen you to do His work. - *

* - This line comes from a quote from St. John Baptist de la Salle and was on a candle we used for our weekly meetings leading up to the trip and during our prayer reflections in Montana.