Baptisms and Feast of Our Lady of Hope

We just celebrated our patronal feast at Alto on the 17 of December with a prayer vigil in honor of our Lady of Hope.  The following day, fr. Patrick baptised 8 children - it was a very joyful event, take a look at some pictures:

End of Year Catechism Celebration

Here we are playing frizbee with the catechism kids from Alto.  Today was the end of year party, baptisms will be a week from now and January 1st we'll have Mass with the Bishop!

Children's Mass at Alto 11/12/2011

Here are some photos from last Saturday's Childrens mass with Fr. John Michael Paul.  We also acted out the Gospel (well, mimed it at least), but I was in it so I didn't take any pictures - oops.  Anyways, it was a nice peaceful Mass in the middle of the afternoon, the Gospel was on the final judgment between the  just who came to the aide of those in need and the unjust.

Some of these children will be making their first communion soon, there are also baptisms planned for the month of December, so stay tuned!

Mass at Alto - 10/30/2011

Here's a video of the Entrance Procession from this evening's mass.  Today was Br. Patrick's first day to preach the homily, he's still working on perfecting Portuguese.  Here are a few more pictures of the inside of the chapel:

And finally a clip of the Recessional:

Missionaries!

Great news!

We now have a second group of missionaries who are eager to come sometime this year and help on project Alto.  The two groups have estimated they could raise as much as $2,500 each - that is close to $5,000 or R$10,000!  Some of that will go towards renovations at Mary Magdalene house (which will cost us in total around $8,000 USD) but a lot of it will go towards smaller projects at the dwellings of some of the inhabitants of Alto who are struggling and need important work done on their homes.  Some of it will go towards cleaning the houses of the sick or invalid, preparing meals and perhaps new clothes.  We'll try to set up some fun activities with the kids of Alto too - a great way for the missionaries to be a positive and joyful encouragement in an often violent and discouraging area.

Oh! By the way... if you want to take a look at where Alto da Esperança is situated in Salvador with respect to the brother's convent (as well as a few of my other favorite places), check it out on Google Maps.

Details on Project Alto

stageOne-projectedCosts.pdf

Estimation and Quote for stage one (renovation of Mary Magdalene House) of Project Alto.

ALTO-PCP.pdf

Booklet Describing the PCP Alto Project.

Slideshow of the youth of Alto da Esperança

Slide Show of Mary Magdalene House - In need of renovation!

Alto da Esperanza - Retreat House

From

Here is a walk through of the "Retreat House" that we need to rebuild.  There is a part on the outside that will need to be demolished:

For the moment we are trying to see if we can safely demolish just that part without having to demolish the entire structure.  If we don't have to demolish the whole thing it will save us a significant amount of money.

First Post!

Here is a little video-post I put together to introduce us and our mission here in Brazil.  Feel free to post comments or questions and I will try to keep the blog updated as often as I can!

Peace!
Br. Francis Therese