Today I made cookies...Christmas cookies. Maybe I was inspired by the fact that my winter in Brazil, since I am returning to the United States in nine days, is coming to a close. I know that Christmas is in December, but winters in Michigan have always included Christmas and Christmas cookies. Anyway, they were tasty and in between a little reflection on my experience here, I used a drinking glass as a rolling pin and made these lovely treats.
The more important thing I did today was attend the opening of the Integration Week for the parish of Jesus of Nazareth this evening (Sister Joana works in this parish and is heavily involved in organizing the meetings.). Integration Week is an annual event in the parish that is in celebration of the diversity of creation within the parish community, the local community, Brazil, and the world. This year, there is a meeting for prayer, reflection on the Gospel, and education every evening. The education, in connection with the Bible, this year is being presented by people in the parish (including some of the sisters) who participated in a class offered in Goiania every January. Tonight we began with a short history of the class to describe the types of topics that have been studied in the past and to introduce the topic that would be the focus of Integration Week: living well and what that means for people here and people of other cultures as well, with a look at humanity's relationship to the earth. It was very interesting to think about and realize that "integration" means something very global. They way in which this parish is teaching integration is both community focused, so as to recognize the equality of all, but also focused on gaining perspective about how others live and work and play, both with the same goal of gaining understanding for others and helping to change broken relationships. It might at first seem like there is no room for health care here in this discussion. On the contrary, health is integral since it is all-encompassing. Health is physical, mental, social, cultural. It affects work, families, faith, love, understanding, ability. Health is part of humanity. Therefore, living well, the topic that will be covered as the week progresses, will have everything to do with the health of men and women, girls and boys, in this community in which I now have lived and been welcomed for three months, and outside of it, where I live, where my family and friends live, in Alma where I go to college, in London where the royal baby boy was born today, in Rio de Janeiro where Pope Francis is meeting with thousands of youth from all over the world, and in all the places man resides. What is even better is that this topic will be about both health care and history, two of my favorite things!
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| Sister Anita and I got to meet the speaker after the gathering tonight. The decorations in the background next to the crucifix are representative of leaves and each leaf has a word on it that is part of Integration Week. Some examples of this include to learn, admire, value, take care, protect. |
