I had the privilege of making my first trip to South America for a double mission—to minister to my own Benedictine brothers at our dependent Priory in Vinhedo (Archdiocese of Campinas) and to speak at a major charismatic conference a bit farther south in Cascavel, the state of Paraná. I also had the chance for one sightseeing expedition to the Falls at Iguassu, on the border of Paraguay and Argentina (where the movie, The Mission, took place).
Our monks in Vinhedo were wonderful to be with, to pray with and to speak with. Their monastic horarium begins at 4am with Vigils, followed by 40 minutes of lectio divina and then morning prayer and Mass for a total of three and a half hours in the chapel. It’s a very warm, kind, prayerful community with traditional monastic practices that made it a nicely renewing experience for me. Fr. Paulo, the Prior, was my classmate in seminary and we were ordained deacons together, so I have always held a warm place in my heart for him. It was wonderful to be together with him again after more than two decades apart. He was so kind to me and so generous to open up their community life to my presence and also my conferences.
With Pentecost approaching, I spoke to them about the Holy Spirit, focusing two of the conferences on the Pentecost sequence. Specifically I focused one conference on the stanza: Come, Father of the Poor, Come Giver of Gifts (munera), Come Light of Hearts. The Holy Spirit fathers our poverty. He makes us poor (or really helps us embrace our poverty) in order to give us gifts. Specifically He endows us with the threefold gifts (munera) of sharing in Christ’s gifts of being priest, prophet and king. In another conference, I focused on the two stanzas that first described our woundedness—from our own sin, from neglect, and from the sins of others. The second stanza focuses on our defenses—rigidity, coldness, and deviancy. This gave me a chance to talk about the wounds caused by relational disconnection and the healing that comes through accompaniment which is empowered by the Love, Who is the Holy Spirit.
In Cascavel, the conference was co-hosted by two ministries: The Rock of Peter, led by Fernando Nasciamento (who also translated for me) and The Tabor Catholic Community. The members of the Tabor community were enthusiastic about the lasting impact they expect that the conference will have. Some people remember the early Encounter conferences in the United States and we can see how they have grown. The Tabor community has a similar sense about what we inaugurated there at the end of May. There I was able to give three hourlong conferences, teaching on how the gifts of the Holy Spirit, both hierarchical and charismatic, help us to live out our calling as baptized Catholics.
They also invited me to lead a time of Eucharistic worship and healing and worked with me to translate my Litany of Healing and Repentance into Portuguese. With the help of some patient participants, I learned Portuguese well enough to lead the first page and final prayer of my litany. There were some powerful testimonies of healing that came from it, similar to when I originally led it at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in 2024.
Overall it was a remarkable trip, in which I truly felt the joy of the Holy Spirit at work in the hearts of the wonderful Brazilian people. Their faith helped to renew my own faith and made me want to continue spreading this Good News even more intensely and broadly. The central message of accompaniment as the source, the means and the destination of our Christian journey of holiness permeated my talks and also came through in many personal encounters. Please keep in your prayers the many faithful men and women whose lives were touched by our ministry there!
