Marianist Monday

From Nazareth Farm ....

Pictured above is this year's Nazareth Farm participants. Marianist Brothers Peter and Patrick yearly take this service trip with students from Chaminade High School.

Nazareth Farm is truly a unique place because you can see God everywhere you go, and in everyone you meet. The week I spent at the Farm helped me to strengthen my faith, and I was influenced by every volunteer, and community member I met during the trip. I saw God in every volunteer that we worked with throughout the course of the week, because they had a strong passion for helping those in need, and they were some of the kindest people I have ever met. Throughout the week, we traveled to various homes in the community where work needed to be done on the houses. During this time, we had a great opportunity to meet and talk to many members of the community. The community of West Virginia is very special, and I mainly saw God through them in my week at Nazareth Farm. Similar to the Bible passage where a poor old woman gives away her last two coins to help others, the people who live in the area of Nazareth Farm don’t have much to give, yet they give anyway. This attitude of giving was personified by one of the community members named Ronny, who did everything he could to help the volunteers at the Farm. Ronny did everything from fixing low hanging electrical wires near the work site, to feeding us lunch, and he did all of this without being asked. My faith was strengthened by the community because we saw how little these people had, yet they were some of the most faithful people I have ever met. Every single community member we met strongly believed in the presence of God in everything they did. That is what I took away from the trip most, even though the people of West Virginia weren’t the most privileged, they were truly thankful for everything they had, and now so am I.

Owen Harte