An Introduction to Our Journey to Nicaragua

Many persons have asked us, "Why would you go to Nicaragua for your community retreat?

It is an important question. Why would we leave the quiet of the monastery in order to experience more deeply the lives of unnoticed people in an impoverished country?

While we left the monastery buildings, we journeyed together as a monastic community, bringing with us the values that shape our life. As Benedictine monks, we are committed to the search for the living God, a search that is unpredictable, a search that we know will change us.

We desire to be like the woman in the Gospel of Mark, who approached Jesus, thinking, "If I can only touch the hem of his garment, then I will be healed."

On these journeys to Nicaragua, we, too, have tried to reach out our hands to directly touch the suffering and hope of our sisters and brothers.

In our encounter with these people, so often brushed aside, we have been encountered by the living God, and have been offered the challenges we need for our own conversion.

We were invited to Nicaragua by our Mexican Benedictine sisters, who have two small communities there, and by the people of San Nicolas, an area devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

Sharing Our Experience

Over the next several months, we will tell the story of our journey to Nicaragua on this segment of our web site.

When we discussed our experience together, brothers were invited to write impressions, observations, or reflections on the persons and events that marked our time in Nicaragua. Periodically, we will share these written versions of our conversation, together with photos that we have taken along the way.

What will follow are fragments of our experience in Nicaragua -- the impressions, observations and reflections of 14 different brothers, each coming from a special perspective.

Sharing the experience, suffering, and hope of this courageous people is an exercise of our monastic commitment of conversatio morum, conversation about the things that really matter. We invite you to join us.

The Nicaragua Journals

• Our first visit; its purpose
• The hope of the Sandinista revolution: "Peace with dignity!"
• Some experiences of the journey:
  1. A factory, a settlement, a prison
  2. The churches
  3. The wounded children, the United States embassy

Managua 2001

• A very different journey
• A first impression

Barrio Edgar Munguia

• Hospitality in a small house
• Our Mexican sisters: The courage to be present
• Making solar ovens, Suni Solar
• Laughter & hope in 'Barrio Loco'
• Alternative energy: Looking at our future
• Visit to a health clinic
• An afternoon with Sister Yerenia's friends
• At home in the barrio
• Remembering Edgar Munguia

• The refugees of Hurricane Mitch
• Sandino City: Finding 'New Life' in the midst of extreme poverty
• Nueva Vida: A visit to the bakery
• Nueva Vida: Making concrete blocks
• A trip to Tipitapa
• Managua's new cathedral, far removed from its people

• In the mountains of Nicaragua
• A tough town, a cooperative spirit
• Health care & planting practices
• A big step in cooperation
• A trip to the countryside: Quebrada de Agua
• New homes for hurricane victims
• 'Though our country is small, our dream is great'

• A visit to La Garnacha
• A new industry at La Garnacha
• New methods of farming
• The youth of La Garnacha
• Housing in the middle of nowhere
• Remembering the Revolution

• A celebration of religious Profession
• Farewell to San Nicolas: A dance with the future
• Before leaving: A morning with Ernesto
• Looking back from Vermont: San Nicolas, in time of fasting
• Looking back from Vermont: Our Benedictine sisters
• Looking back from Vermont: Juancito's healing ways
• Looking back from Vermont: An encounter at sunrise