M.O.P. Concert - Grand Cayman

Here are some photographs of the Missionaries of the Poor fund-raising concert at our parish this past weekend. Fr. Richard Ho Lung, founder of the M.O.P., and five singers from their musical troupe sang Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon, raising over $7000 for Haiti relief and the M.O.P.'s new project in Kingston.







(photos by Diana Brodowska)

Day 40 - 40 Days For Life

Every '40 Days For Life ' campaign, I try to post their meditations here each of the 40 days. Today is the final day of another successful, life affirming campaign. Babies lives were saved through the prayerful presence of people who care.

I am asking those who have been following this blog, or are here by chance today, to do what you can to help this spiritual and practical battle against abortion.

Today , on Palm Sunday, I ask you to take up the Cross and put yourself out for the poor struggling women in Jamaica. International forces (the EU,US and UN) have been relentlessly pressuring Jamaica to legalize abortion. The temptation, is the money offered to ease the economic woes in Jamaica. In other words, the west is asking Jamaica to sell its soul for a small purse. Sound familiar?

Fr. Ho Lung and the Missionaries of the Poor are neck deep in the battle to protect Jamaica's mothers and babies. His brothers, who already operate numerous centres for the poor in Jamaica and around the world, are opening 'Holy Innocents' - a centre that will protect and serve 200 women and 200 babies. The MOP offer all their services for free, and are dependent upon the generosity of folks like us...those who wish to share in the carrying of Christ's Cross .

Fr. Ho Lung has a musical gift, and though he doesn't read music, has been able to find talent around him to perform his music for audiences .His shows give the audience the opportunity to meet Fr. Ho Lung, hear his Gospel message in the musical productions, and to become aware of the work the MOP does around the world. This week Fr. Ho Lung was in Cayman with his 'Five Tenors'. Our family was privileged to attend Friday night's show, and we plan on returning this afternoon for his last show. Fr. Ho Lung also celebrated at every Mass today. Hopefully many will take up the Cross, and help the MOP in whichever way they can. Check out the MOP website, and see what you are able to do.

I can also recommend the retreats that Fr. Ho Lung offers several times a year. They are Ignatian in method (though shorter, of course) and silent. Before and after there are opportunities to visit and work at the various MOP centres in Kingston. The humility and simplicity of the brothers at work and prayer is very moving.

God Bless the Missionaries of the Poor and their friends and good works everywhere.



40 Days For Life

"Through Him, With Him, In Him"

Fr. Richard Ho Lung describes his journey from Boston College professor to founder of the Missionaries of the Poor(MOP).



A year ago I participated in a silent retreat with the MOP, on Mount Tabor, Jamaica. Before ascending we spent a day at the missions in Kingston. Although I have eight children myself, six still at home, I cannot stop wracking my brains for ways to contribute to the MOP efforts. Those brothers are pure love, and their simple hard working lives are joyful beacons of God's mercy. I long to return to the missions and 'tend to Christ's wounds' , but in the meantime I ask you to consider what you may be able to do to help 'the least of our brothers'.

Support Jamaican Life

Remember Fr. Richard Ho Lung in your prayers tomorrow, as he speaks in support of LIFE in Jamaica.
Fr. Ho Lung is the founder of Missionaries of the Poor, an order of brothers who work for the poor and abandoned.
In response to the Jamaican parliament's temptation to legalize abortion , the Missionaries of the Poor are opening the 'Holy Innocents Center'.

Fr. Ho Lung :

...Many of our women are being chastised as foolish for wanting to carry their children even when they do not have a thought of abortion. This is true primarily for poor ghetto women, but even the middle class are being told likewise.

At Holy Innocents we will organize a free daycare center for 200 mothers and their babies. We will offer them free service.

Often our mothers worry about losing their jobs if they take time off for child bearing and after care. This will relieve them. Our home will be right in the heart of another ghetto, near what is known as heroes' Circle.

We will have deliveries. Hopefully volunteer nurses, midwives and even doctors will help us.

A donor (who doesn't want to be named) purchased this building for Missionaries of the Poor's use. God bless this kind man. We hope many donors will come forward to help us repair it.

We believe this will be a center filled with life and happiness. On Sundays we will have Mass with Jamaican music, and our brothers telling of the Lord Jesus.

We don't want to just be against abortion. We want to be Pro-Life.

All the services provided by the Missionaries of the Poor are free. They support themselves with a music ministry and through the generous support of donors and volunteers. Please go to their website for information on how you can best support their good work. And Pray. A Lot.

(Anti-Catholic) Campaign For Human Development

At the end of (another) excellent and insightful article from Fr.R.J.Neuhaus ,he gives us some important and timely information about an organization that many Catholics have supported in good faith, in spite of the CHD's lack of the same:

....Which brings me, finally, to another and related matter that will surely be discussed in Baltimore and deserves to be on the agenda. The Campaign for Human Development (CHD) is an annual collection in parishes, usually on one of the last two Sundays in November. It used to be called the Catholic Campaign for Human Development but the Catholic was dropped, which is just as well since it has nothing to do with Catholicism, except that Catholics are asked to pay for it. Some bishops no longer allow the CHD collection in their dioceses, and more should not allow it. In fact, CHD, misbegotten in concept and corrupt in practice, should, at long last, be terminated.

Ten years ago, CHD was exposed as using the Catholic Church as a milk cow to fund organizations that frequently were actively working against the Church’s mission, especially in their support of pro-abortion activities and politicians. Now it turns out that CHD has long been a major funder of ACORN, a national community agitation organization in support of leftist causes, including the abortion license. ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is under criminal investigation in several states. In the last decade CHD gave ACORN well over seven million dollars, including more than a million in the past year. It is acknowledged that ACORN, with which Sen. Obama had a close connection over the years, was a major player in his presidential campaign. The bishops say they are investigating the connection between CHD and ACORN. They say they are worried that it might jeopardize the Church’s tax-exemption. No mention is made of abusing the trust of the Catholic faithful.

What most Catholics don’t know, and what would likely astonish them, is that CHD very explicitly does not fund Catholic institutions and apostolates that work with the poor. Part of the thinking when it was established in the ideological climate of the 1960s is that Catholic concern for the poor would not be perceived as credible if CHD funded Catholic organizations. Yes, that’s bizarre, but the history of CHD is bizarre. The bishops could really help poor people by promptly shutting down CHD and giving any remaining funds to, for instance, Catholic inner-city schools. In any event, if there is a collection at your parish this month, I suggest that you can return the envelope empty—and perhaps with a note of explanation—without the slightest moral hesitation....

Find a real Catholic charity, that serves the poor. I would suggest Missionaries of the Poor.

M.O.P. news

Fr. Ho Lung Receives Order of Jamaica

(via Fiona)
Father Richard Ho Lung, founder of the Missionaries of the Poor, has been awarded the Order of Jamaica for his services to the poor and destitute.

The Gleaner newspaper hosted a special luncheon in honour of the 67 yr. old Roman Cathollic priest, to recognize this award and to thank him for his years of tirel;ess service to Jamaica's less fortunate.

"It's easy to get caught up in these (awards)", said Father Ho Lung, "but you know, it really says something for all the brothers and the work they have done for society's poorest."

There are 170 missionary 'brothers' in Jamaica, who help operate the six centers which are home to the country's terminally ill, elderly and abandoned poor. MOP also has centers in the Philipines, India, Haiti, Uganda and Kenya.

Reggae Times:

Missionaries of the Poor, was started by Father Ho Lung in 1981, as Brothers of the Poor. What started as a small group of men engaged in apostolic work in prisons, public almshouses and slum communities in Kingston has evolved into an international missionary religious institute that does both corporal and spiritual works of mercy in the poorer communities of the world, and has been acknowledged by the Vatican as an official Religious Community of the Church.

The Missionaries of the Poor is the first male religious order of Priests and Brothers to be found in the English-speaking Caribbean. It was established nineteen years ago by Father Richard Ho Lung. The Missionaries bear witness to Christ by living a simple, serious and disciplined life, and wearing a religious dress with sandals as their only footwear. They currently have four homes for the most deprived and disabled Jamaicans: Faith Centre, Jacob's Well, Good Shepherd and the Lord's Place. The blind, the crippled, the retarded, the deformed, the old, the young and the dying are all cared for in these homes. They eat. sleep, work, worship and die at these centres and are laid to rest by the Missionaries of the Poor.

"Father Ho Lung and Friends" is a musical troupe that has been entertaining with original music and drama for 27 years. The entire proceeds of their videos, CD's and live performances go to help support the Missionaries of the Poor in their work around the world.




If you get the chance to attend one of Father Ho Lung's retreats in Jamaica, modeled on Ignatius, be sure to go. Think of it as a Jamaican 'soul' vacation . I attended one last February. Besides the retreat, the chance to meet and see the Brothers at work in the centers was life changing. I especially appreciated my time with the younger orphans at 'Bethlehem'. The simplicity of Christ's love for us is lived out each day there. I have not yet recovered from the whole experience. I hope not to.