saturdy morning

The woman is selling nuts and other items at 10 a.m. this Saturday morning.
She is carrying a little child on her back.

July 31, 2010

Leaning on God
by Joyce Rupp

Which of you walks in darkness and sees no light? ... lean on GodIsaiah 50:4-10
Some people lean against fence postswhen their bodies ache from toil.Some people lean on oak trees,seeking cool shade on hot, humid days.
Some people lean on crutchesBrozova/dreamstime.comwhen their limbs won’t work for them;and some people lean on each otherwhen their hearts can’t stand alone.

How long it takes to lean upon you,God of shelter and strength;how long it takes to recognize the truthof where my inner power has its source.
All my independence, with its arrogance,stands up and stretches within me,trying to convince my trembling soulthat I can conquer troubles on my own.
But the day of truth always comeswhen I finally yield to you,knowing you are a steady stronghold,a refuge when times are tough.

Thank you for offering me strength,for being the oak tree of comfort;thank you for being the sturdy supportwhen the limbs of my life are weak.
Praise to you, Eternal Lean-to,for always being there for me.Continue to transform mewith the power of your love.

I hope that this reflection will help you today Thomas this is my concern for you. your brother Frank

out to lunch today Friday

Dear Thomas,

I am out to lunch this Noon time for a farewell to Bro. Albert Patrick who is in center of this photo with Bro. Larry Kenning on the right and I Frank Dolphin on the left.

Have a good rest and take care of yourself, you were tired the other day and was snoring.

your brother,
Frank

july 29th, 2010

Dear Tom,

It was nice talking with you yesterday and to see your handsome face again and to listen to your present situation and problems with the accident of the student and how they are looking for more money. Which must be a stressful situation for you personally.

Then bothering you in your sleep for a little jerking off. I hope that you were able to get some sleep afterwards.

It is now 10:45 a.m. here in Cochabamba and the sun is shining and it is getting a little bit warmer.

Tomorrow Friday at Noon, I will be taking Bro. Al Patrick out for lunch as a farewell he leaves for the United States on Saturday for retirement and he is 65 years old.

This is all for now.
Frank

birch trees

This photo I took of my sister Maureen's front yard which is birch trees and you can also see a post with the American eagle on it.

It is autumn time and for that reason tht the leaves are yellow in color.

I called you this afternoon Thomas which would be around midnight and there was no answer and so you could be out or busy.

I talked to your brother Benny and he said that he had no eelctricity in his room which seems to be a continuous problem.

So he couldn't use his computer. I check his computer before taking a nap and he was not on.
He said that the weather has been changing and that it is cooler now and I believe the same for you as well.

Our visitors who were with us for two weeks have gone back to the United States. They were Maryknoll lay missioners who had left us last year and so felt homesick and returned this year for a two week visit.

I don't know if they will return again? One of our Brothers, Albert Patrick will be leaving us next Saturday for Maryknoll, New York,
he is 65 years old and wants to retire. He was in the Airforce before joining Maryknoll over 25 years ago.

The weather is changing here with some cool days and the students have not been going to school now for almost three weeks.
There is no heat in the schools and they do feel the temperature change. Although these temperatures are only for 3 weeks at the most.

I believe that Benny has been in contact with you lately. He said that your Mother is doing fine.

It should be a quiet weekend and I am looking forward to it.

This is all for now and I hope that you will write soon.

lots of love,
your brother,
Frank

the old lady

Dear Thomas,
Yesterday Noon time, I had a chance to talk with your brother Beeny and he showed an artcle from the newspaper that was about him in a white cassock and two sisters who were conceren about an old lady who was homeless or abandoned. She was being taken to the home for the old people.

He was doing his good deed for the day in taking care of those people who have no one to care for them. He was following in the footsteeps of dear Mother Theresa of Calcullta. Or St. Francis of Assisi. That was very nice to see and apparently he is very happy in doing this ministry with the people who are poor and helpless.

He gets up early to take of the milking of the cows with other young men. Apparently the cows give a lot of milk and the cows look kike the same ones that we have in Bolivia.

So I am pleased that he feels contented in his new work and ministry. Which is very important for him. The problem here in Bolivia was that he had no ministry although the was very friendlhy with the people in valle grande.

When he was in Bolivia, he had full control of himself and went to confession on a regular basis which is necessary in our life style and being sinners.
It was not necessary to be addicted to his sexual desires. Or to have it become a habit forming drug that he would miss from time to time. In fact he was doing very well here. But due to other circumstances that changed things around for him unfortunately.
So I would hope that he would get on the right track once again, it will take time that is for sure. But the struggles are challenges for him. But showing love in compassion to the older people will help him in this. Also thinking of your own Mother as well.

Our visitors leave us tomorrow, and they have been with us now for two weeks from Washington State which is on the Pacific coast and a long distance from Cochabamba, Bolivia.

So it will be quiet here for a few days and then we will have another visitor for a month here. He will be teaching Missiology at the Catholiv University here in the city of Cochabamba. He is a Maryknoll priest and is Director of our house in New York city.

The weather has been on the cold side here and with snow on the mountains here. There has been no classes this week for young students because of the cold weather.

This is all the news for now.

lots of love,
Frank

Good Morning Thomas

Dear Thomas,
I write to you this Tuesday evening at 7:50 p.m. and it is Wednesday morning in your area in India.

I have been fooling around with my computer and I just downloader "Borders" which is a book store and you can get fre electronic books or Ebooks. So it gives me something to read when I am bored. I know this book store because they have one in Boston. And today I saw on the internet this store and so I downloaded the page. It would be worth while if you are interested in reading.

Today was very cold here in Cochabamba and I felt a tickle in my throat which meant that I was sleeping with my mouth open during the night. In fact I had the heater on in my room to take off the chill.
I don't like getting out of bed on a cold room although I am dressed warmly in bed and I have four blankets on my bed.

I hardly ever am I in the nude in my bed even on the warmest days, I always have pajamas and a tee shirt on. Just in case I should died in my sleep, I don't want someone to find me in the nude.

I listen to music on my radio which is next to my bed and it starts at 5:45 a.m. Then I finally get up at 6 to shave my face. I usually take a shower at this time but because it is cold I have not been doing so at this time.
I already have a bad cold with a running nose. After shaving I then get dress and then get ready to go downstairs for my breakfast. I usually am there at 6:30 a.m., the other brother Albert is also there and he eats fast. He works with young men in a carpentry shop on the other side of town and he says that it takes almost an hour to get there.

This week due to the cold weather the schools are closed for another week. It should start warming up again in a week or so. Usually the weather doesn't stay at cold that long.

I went to Mass at St. John of God church at 8 this morning and then I go to a coffee shop to have some coffee and then I had to do some errands. We didn't have enough milk. We have guests in the house and it seems that they are drinking a lot of milk. They will be returning to the United States this coming Friday. They were former lay missioners of Maryknoll and they are here for a two week vacation.

I returned to Maryknollto get ready for a house meeting at 11:30 this morning. We have these meetings every Tuesday morning.
The discussion was keeping the front entrance to our property clean. At times its is neglected. The Brother who is in charge of the area is 78 years old and doesn't have time to keep the place looking nice.

After the meeting we had our lunch and then to take a nap. I was also asked to prepars something for the departure of our Brother Albert who will be retiring in the United States at th end of this month. We will have a farewell lunch for him on Wednesday, July 28th.

He leaves here on the 31st of July for New York on American Airlines.

We will have lunch at 12:30 p.m. on July 28th. He would like to have pork chops which will be roasted in the oven.

I then talked to your Brother Benny this afternoon and he said that he couldn't open the blog. And then I called you to tell you about the blog.

I am now falling asleep at 8:14 p.m. And so I will go to sleep now after reading the book on Thomas merton and the monastery or Gethsemani in Kentucky.

This is all the news that I have for now.

Have a nice day.
Frank

seeing God in the other

These days I am reading a book called “Thomas Merton’s Gethsemani Landscapes of Paradise”

These words by Thomas Merton struck me, His love of nature is like St. Francis of Assisi … He is a true Franciscan…

In the sacramental vision of reality, each bird, each frog---and Merton himself--- was continually created; moment to moment each creature was loved into being by a God who is intimately present to each species
And each individual in that species. Merton understood that each creature reveals the immanence of God. Each creature is God coming to us. Each day is an experience of Advent. Making straight the way of the lord, building a highway in the desert is not for the purpose of going to God.
We can’t “get to God” for God is too great, too transcendent, God must come to us. God has and God does. God is continually revealing God’s self in the world around us. God’s fullness is present in the person of Jesus, and in God’s overflowing love expressed in each creature. God is not Deus absconditus but Deus imtimus, a God who Saint Augustine said , is more intimate to me than I am to myself, a God longing to be discovered as the very Ground of my being.

This is what I want to share with you today for a reflection my dear brother Thomas. And I would like to know what are your own true feelings on this that is written by the famous Contemplative Trappist monk Thomas Merton.

It is in this honest sharing with each other that we truly grow as brothers in service to others in the classroom or in our community as well as with our intimate friends. Would you agree with me on this?

your brother in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Frank

reflections

Today Monday is rather chilly here in Cochabamnba. I took this photo this morning which I call reflections. It is a small pond on the other side of the tennis court.

It was very niee of you to make contact with me at lunch time today in Cochabamba and sorry that I could not continue the chat or be on web cam. The timing is off when it is 12:30 my time and I have to leave for eating my lunch.

I know that your brother Benny was on line but I was not able to make contact with him.
I had a problem with my computer yesterday, it shut down on me and I thought that the computer had crash or just ended. But what happened is that their was a voltage drop in the electricity which shut it down.

Fortunately the computer technician came in this morning at 10 a.m. to repair it. I had thoughts that I would haveto buy another one and they cost a lot of money around a thousand dollars. So they are not cheap. But fortunately that it didn't happened and it was just a problem with the electrictity.

Today on the BBC news it mentioned about the train crash in India, with two trains being on the same track. A lot of people were hurt and killed. There seems to be a lot of train wrecks in your country. It also showed that very small apartments are being buildt outside the city for poor people so that they have better living conditions.

The weather has been unusually cold today here and throughout the country. We have snow here in the nearby mountains. So it makes it even colder here. The children have no school today for three days.
There is no heating system.

Well this is about all the news for now. Keep up the good work in your teaching of the poor children. And your concern for your friend the Doctor. Just be careful that is my concern that nothing will happened to you in reference to you own superior.
Because I know that when a Superior sense something might not be correct and he will wait for the opportunity. Even though you defended yourself and your relationship with the Doctor. Just be careful and on the watch always like a good boy scout.

My friendship with you is the same and hasn't changed. I hope that you understand this. Taking into consideration the time difference and also ministry obligations.

lots of love,
your brother
Frank

St. Theresa

This is the church and monastery of the Carmelite Sisters in Cochabamba. The chapel is small and not too big.

the sanctuary

This is the main sanctuary and aboe the altar is Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

This morning after Mass at the Franciscan Church hospicio I went to the Carmelite Sisters Monastery which is only about a five minute walk. I wanted to take a picture of the statue once again because it did not come out too good last Friday when I took the picture during the ceremony with the Archbishop of Cochabamba.

snow on the mountains today

Dear Tom,

I took this photo this morning with the first snows on the mountains here in Cochabamba.
It rained last night and so with the colder weather especially in the mountain above we hasd snow.
I didn't realize this until I went to the Franciscan church this morning at 7:30 a.m. Mass.
The gospel reading today was on Martha and Mary. The tension between the two. Martha being active and busy around the house and Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus and lisening to him.
The tension between Avtive and contemplative life and especially in our lives as Religious Brothers.
It is for this reason that we have Contemplative communities and also those who are active such as teaching and missionary communities.
I hope that you were able to get some sleep this night. You had mentioned that you couldn't sleep the night before because of the heat and that you weree sweating. I am sorry that I woke you up if you were trying to sleep.
Today I was trying to make contact with your brother benny and he was having problems with electicity and ther there was no light.
It is a big problem in India with no electricity many times during the day time or evening.
So it was difficult to make contact.
I had a restful day although I did jerk off this afternoon. It fellt good and then I fell asleep for about an hour.
So this is what I want to share with you today.

Have a nice day,
Frank.

the angel

Even this angel is forsale.. is it St. Michael?

more antiques

More antiques and all these dolls.

antiques

a lot of antiques are sold in town also.

flower shop

There are a lot of flowers that are sold here in the city.

cochabamba white hat

the white hat

whie hats

The native Bolivian woman wear white hats and they are from Cochabamba.

pigeons

this little girl is feeding the birds kernals of corn this morning.

native woman

One of the native woman walking across the plaza this Saturday morning.

fountainn

This is the fountain of the three virgins on the plaza of Cochabamba.

you can see water coming in through a small pipe. Flower petals on the water.

little pond

On our property there is a little pond and it is a quiet place for meditation.

language school

The front of the language school on a quiet Saturday morning.