Compare and Despair
AMDG I, a pilgrim through the classrooms of life, to you, fellow students, sojourners, teachers, and staff. I am three weeks into my orientation and formation program. I’m here with 7 other candidates for mission life in sort of a miniature retreat house, a little campus of rooms with a well-appointed kitchen and dusty courtyard. Instead of a chapel, we have the large church next door. Instead of grounds, we have the surrounding neighborhoods and city center. I fall asleep in between the roar of street racers and I wake up to the coo of doves and the slow crescendo of morning traffic. This is all just the setting, of course for the real stars of the experience: my cohort. I had been nervous about how we would get along and how I would do in community, but my fears were totally unnecessary. These folks are easy going, kind, caring, compassionate... all the sort of people who want to love others, beginning with the person right in front of them. One man is often sliding affirmations into...