Holy Week in Honduras by Chris
 |
| This is our family walking around Comayagua, Honduras the morning of Good Friday before the Living Stations of the Cross procession had started. |
I don't know if you recall back in April 2021 we hosted a marriage retreat in Puerto Rico for other FMC missionaries and we had a future single missionary named Morgan that came along to help Anna to run a retreat for the kids. Morgan wound up staying with us for about a month in Aguada and then she went to visit Honduras and an organization called The Missioners of Christ. Morgan wound up joining that organization and has been in Honduras pretty much ever since then. She has kept in touch and has wanted to come to visit us in Costa Rica as we are so close. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out for her to visit us. We were quickly approaching one of our necessary trips out of the country which we have to do every ninety days to renew our visas. I did a search and there were inexpensive tickets available through a Colombian airline called Avianca to visit Morgan in Honduras during Holy Week. We went ahead and booked the tickets and decided to go during this time which was also a time our kids were out of school. Karen and I were also very curious to see how another Catholic foreign missionary organization functions and what we could potentially learn from one another.
We took the bus down to the airport the day that we were leaving and our travels were very uneventful which is the way we like it. The flights were inexpensive as they were two small flights to get there. The first was from San Jose, Costa Rica to San Salvador, El Salvador, and then from there to Palmerola airport outside of Comayagua, Honduras. This airport is practically brand new and was one of the nicest new airports we have flown into. We arrived rather late at night (about 11:30pm) but the John Paul II House of Formation of the Missioners of Christ was only a fifteen-minute drive away. Morgan and another missionary came to pick us up. After a quick drive back to their formation house, we were shown our room and quickly headed to bed. The next day started early with Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours together with their community in their chapel. We had breakfast and then we had a quick orientation tour of the facility. Before we knew it we were having lunch and heading off to a small community a little over an hour away. They asked Karen and me to give a Lenten marriage talk to the community and Karen and I had only a little bit of time to prepare. The Holy Spirit showed up in power to provide the words we were to share and the talk went fantastic.
 |
| Karen and I started off our talk by singing a few songs |
We then headed back to one of the families from the community that hosted us for dinner and they were so generous in giving each of us a bag of coffee that they grew, roasted, and ground themselves. When we finished up we headed on from there a few more hours away to a retreat center/camp that they have in the mountains near the border with El Salvador.
The climate in Honduras is much drier and dustier than where we live in Santa Rosa de Pocosol, Costa Rica. The cool mountain air was a pleasant surprise when we arrived. We slept like babies after the long day and long truck ride out there. The next day we did Morning Prayer again with their community and enjoyed breakfast together. It was nice for each of us to have time to talk with their missionaries. This is where we first met one of the founders of the Missioners of Christ, Carol. We had the opportunity to share meals with Carol and to share our stories. We were very blessed by the time we were able to spend out at this facility although it was less than a day, it was very blessed. We took a hike out to a lookout that they have which has a beautiful view of a waterfall.
 |
| Karen and I with the waterfall in the background |
We left the Mountain retreat center and headed back to Comayagua and arrived in time to attend mass for Holy Thursday in town. We stood outside of the small church as there was no room for us inside. The mass was very beautiful and the music was especially enjoyable for me. We headed back for dinner and then off to bed.
The next day was Good Friday and we were going to head to Comayagua to attend the Living Stations of the Cross procession that is over the alfombras (translated: carpets) that are made from colored sawdust. The picture at the top of the blog post is from us walking around in the morning while the people were still decorating the streets with colored sawdust. Morgan sent us a video that a guy made of that day with his drone, here is a link to the video: Comayagua Drone Video. I will include some photos that we took from the day down below:
 |
| The 12th Station: Jesus dies on the cross |
The stations were led by the bishop of Comayagua and he also led songs that went along with each station. Again, it was a very memorable Good Friday.
Our family was very blessed to spend time with the Missioners of Christ. I want to include a link to their organization here: Missioners of Christ. We were also blessed that there was a friary across the street from them that belongs to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. We were blessed to attend the Easter Vigil mass that they gave which was bilingual and included U.S. military personnel from the local joint military base. Here is a photo from that:
 |
| The Easter Vigil Mass with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal |
We also attended the morning Easter Mass with them as well:
 |
| The Easter Morning Mass with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal |
We had to head to the airport Monday night to fly back to Costa Rica early Tuesday morning. We slept a bit in the airport as we waited for our flight which was at 5:40am on Tuesday. It was a very blessed trip and a wonderful exchange between Catholic missionary organizations. Please pray for the Missioners of Christ and their Honduras mission.
