Over Labor Day weekend, I had the blessed opportunity of directing a retreat for Missioners of Christ, a lay community based in Virgina that has collaborated with the friars in Comayagua, Honduras for more than seven years now, and which recently sent a small team to Torit on a mission trip. We are planning additional trips for the future. It was wonderful to see a number of the former MOC longterm lay missionaries, and many more people who have made mission trips to Honduras.
The theme of the retreat was: "Martyrdom: Extraordinary Witness," and I was able to share some of my own reflections on the example and significance of the Ugandan Martyrs, many of whom were youths, as well as why exceptional witnesses to Christ are needed to help break through the mesmerizing seductions of contemporary culture. We also took a look at some of the factors that can impede our witness to Christ, as found in the same temptations Jesus faced at the beginning of His ministry. On Saturday afternoon we viewed the film Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, which recounts the inspiring and unsettling story of a heroic German university student and her companions in the White Rose resistance movement who dared to speak out against Hitler and the Nazis at the risk of their lives.
At the top of this entry is a group photo of the individuals, couples and families who participated in the retreat, and below the beautiful open air chapel on a lake where we concluded the retreat with Sunday Mass.
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