 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
(as told by
Brother Isaiah)
—Ring-a-ding-ding! Novices are here!
I've got good news, and I've got bad news. The
bad news is that the first thing we didn’t do in Vegas was go to The Strip. (Maybe that is
good news…hmmm.) The good news is that
one of the first things we did in Vegas was see Bishop Joseph A. Pepe, the Ordinary of the
Diocese of Las Vegas. Like any good pastor, he loves his people and his people love him. After a quick talk about the Diocese, he gave us
his blessing, and off we were to the Therese Center, Fr. Joseph O’Brien’s
Ministry, a Center to help those effected and affected by HIV/AIDS.
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Bishop Pepe |
The Therese Center is incredible. Everything from clothing to doctor visits to
haircuts are serviced here. Fr. Joseph shared
a few stories on how St. Therese of Lisieux herself helped the Center. One day, he says, there was a shortage on food. One of the volunteers went to Fr. Joseph and asked
if he can pray for the intercession of Therese. After
Fr. Joseph encouraged him to do so, the volunteer looked
up to the ceiling and called, “Therese, we need food!” He plopped his arms down and said, “Wow. I need a smoke.”
Just then, a woman who had never visited before drove up with her car
stacked with food.
That night, we were informed that the
trucking accident was fatal for Bro. Jonah’s brother.
We easily decided that we would leave that Thursday and go to the funeral.
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Tour of UNLV
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Bro. Kohl cueing around |
The next day we visited the Interfaith
Center, where we had a quick orientation of the campus ministry at UNLV by Fr. Bart
Hutcherson and the student interns. Later on,
we celebrated Mass with the students, where. Bro Karl Lupe, Bro. John and I preached our
vocation stories.
The next day, we visited Fr. Patrick
O’Neil’s ministry with the dying. We
experienced a workshop about what an average patient goes through during the last stages
of his/her life—and more importantly, we learned about our role as religious in this
process. We discussed mostly the topic of
palliative care, trying to establish the balance between relieving someone’s pain at
the risk of shortening their life. It was a
very powerful experience.
The next morning, we loaded up the vans and
raced to our next stop. |
