Chores: small tasks, but greatest in God's Kingdom

   Hello everyone, I guess I am blogging tonight. My name is Luis and I am a second year Cuban candidate at the Salesian Formation in Orange, New Jersey. As you all have noticed, people have posted a lot about what we do in the house from their own perspective and I want to share (from my own perspective too) a little bit about doing chores in a very Salesian way.

   Salesians are religious people very active in the Catholic Church and this is not a nowadays thing, it has been happening since our founder, Saint John Bosco, founded the congregation in 1859. Therefore, it is more than evident that we Salesians work very hard not only in our ministries, but also in our daily chores. Due to the size of the house where around 27 brothers (us) live together as a big family, there is a lot of work to do every single day.

   We all get different chores every other month, in that way we can partially cover the cleaning and maintenance of the entire house. There are many chores and I will not list them up (otherwise this post would become as long as my Facebook's news feed, and that is very long), however they are all supposed to be done once a day during the seven days of the week. It is very interesting to see how simple, short and small things that involves community contribute to something that apparently seems to be impossible to accomplish. All the members of the community participate on these tasks with a lot of enthusiasm and joyfulness. I am a strong believer of the advice that my mother used to give me when I was a kid-- "work hard, even though they are simple and easy; do them with pride and a lot of effort". Every single time we do our chores we do it keeping in mind how God wants us to participate in His kingdom-- "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted." Mt 23: 12. The kingdom of God is not the regular kingdom that we see throughout the World History, nor in the movies, but a divine and holy kingdom where service is a very important aspect.

   God does not only call the seminarians to be servants and live out His kingdom in the right way. He also calls you to do the same. Our heavenly father creator of everything, is personally inviting you to follow him by doing simple stuff like we do in relation to our daily chores. Think about it, they are not that hard when you try consistently and enough, you will find out a lot of goodness and holiness when you do them. Try to find that simple task/s that God wants from you. It is not hard, simply look around. Once you see it and understand it do not get discourage and try hard. Never exalt yourself, as the Gospel says, but do it with humility in the presence of God. That is what I have been doing so far in my own life; His will. Believe me, by doing small things as you go through life you truly find God and His holy presence within you and every-thing and individual surrounds you. Take care and God bless.


PS: do not forget to do your chore for today before you go to bed but before you do so check this video:

Just a Touch of Love

For those who may not know, today (October 29, 2011) the Salesian seminary here in Orange experienced our first snow storm of this new academic year.

Myself, Luis, and Post-novice Brother Eduardo did not take this into consideration when we decided from the love in our hearts to journey to Brother Eddy's house to help his family move to their new house. What a great day! As the snow flickered upon the sidewalk, we loaded the van and headed off. By the time we arrived, beautiful slush covered the road. But this blog is not to express the beautiful surprises nature brings us. Rather, I wish to paint the beautiful picture of salesian WORK PERIOD!

To prep you for this short lesson, please watch the following clip from Sister Act as these nuns show us the sacrificial nature of their chores.

As Salesians, we all have our daily chores. And it truly is a blessing. By holding each other accountable, we are able to love one another through our work. We want our brothers to grow in holiness. What if the cleanliness of their souls matched the cleanliness of our work areas? This should be motivation to be better cleaners!

On Saturdays, however, we have the blessing of working for a few hours in the morning on a particular project. There are always major things in need of fixing up or cleaning in the house. But today, the three of us (mentioned previously) journeyed on in our work period. We spent time with Eddy's wonderful family and enjoyed his mother's wonderful cooking, all this after a good house-moving. I think this is a beautiful expression of the great vastness of the Salesian family. All are connected. We felt so at home! And every moment is a lesson in love. What a beautiful experience it is to see the gentle charity from which other seminarians are raised!

The order of the places we live usually reflect the order of our souls.
Today's challenge: Go look at your room. The rest is up to you.

Blessed Don Rua, pray for us.

Posted by: Jared R.