Author: ANTONINO

CRIES OF THE POOR

‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying for help on account of their taskmasters. Yes, I am well aware of their sufferings’. (Ex. 3: 7).

If the Book of Exodus is the heart of the 46 books of the Old Testament, we can say that verse 7 of Chapter 3 is the heart of the book of Exodus. It was the starter. It was the hurricane for all that movement of liberation of the Hebrew People from the slavery of Egypt. It all departed from a God who heard the pain and cries of His People. And one day, that God who saw the suffering, chose Moses to lead the whole journey of deliverance that took 40 years through scorching and troubled deserts until they reached the promised land.

The “People Helping People” Association was born of a group of people who heard these cries; who saw this suffering. No one can imagine that on this island of Madeira, so beautiful and so attractive, there is so much suffering and so much misery. There are people who go days without food. We know where they are. One mother confided in me that the only thing she had been giving her children for the past three days was boiled guava leaves. The insensitive and cruel bureaucracies of some institutions leave people on the floor of misery.

One mother, single and unemployed, went to an institution that was supplying her with milk and nappies for her baby. One day, she arrived there, for the usual routine. She was just going to pick up her usual supply of nappies and milk. She was met with a disagreeable “No more. This is over.” Her adorable baby was no longer entitled to nappies or milk because she had turned one year old a few days earlier. I thought it was a misunderstanding. I went there in person and asked if this was true. The answer was a cold and indifferent “Yes, it’s true”. I asked if there was no other alternative. The answer was an even colder and indifferent “No”.

There are people dying of curable diseases because after they go to the doctor they do not have the money to buy the medicines they need. Other people who are very sick cannot get a doctor’s consultation through the state hospital until years later. As they cannot wait that long, they decide they need to see a private doctor. But who will pay?

One day I was waiting for an appointment at the “External Consultations” of the Hospital. After a long wait, the receptionist came in and said, “The Doctor is not coming in to do any consultations today.” A lady who had been waiting for the same doctor as me, said: “I’ve been waiting for this consultation for three years.” The look of defeat on her face was shocking.

Free dental medicine is only available after you’re 60 years of age. I think most people, even after 60, are unaware of this privilege. I only came to know about this at the age of 81. There are unemployed people who are able to find employment, but when they arrive to start working, they are sent away because their missing or damaged teeth “project a bad image of the company”. And image in today’s society is not the “most important thing.” Image in today’s society is the “only important thing.”

The People Helping People Association was born from this. It was born of a group of people who heard the cries of other people, and saw their suffering. This happened after the floods that destroyed part of Madeira Island on February 20th, 2010. The main objective of “People Helping People” is to “mobilize a lot of people to help a lot of people”. It is not to change people, but to alleviate their suffering, whatever the cause. It is not taming people, but helping them to free themselves from poverty.

We have always felt that helping people should be a way of life, with preference for the most vulnerable, the excluded, the discarded… and not an institution. Then, for various reasons, we decided to make People Helping People an official institution. Today, People Helping People is a non-profit association with the same objective of mobilizing many people to help many people. We would like it to always be an open door when all the others close.

However, even though we have a working group, mainly because of the limitations of committed people and financial possibilities, and due to the lack of a venue for meetings that have to be moved from one place to another and from one day to the next (which destabilizes the group), the coordination of family support is being provisionally handled by a wonderful lady called Dalila Oliveira. She has no headquarters (office), nor set working hours. Most of the contacts are made by phone and from there, Dalila schedules a meeting time and a place (usually in a cafe or restaurant) to listen to the pains and needs of each person, and with sometimes only a few possibilities, she is doing her “miracles” to alleviate their sufferings.

All this is done around a cup of coffee, a plate of soup or a meal, and according to the circumstances and our limited possibilities. There are hundreds of phone calls that Dalila regularly receives. But in addition, she also receives many SMS text messages. Some of these messages, we thought would be a good idea to publish in English in the newsletter of the Chapel of Penha de França. These messages, sometimes quite dramatic and desperate, we have given the name of “Cries of the Poor”, which we will start publishing on a regular basis from now on (on the last page of this newsletter). In the messages of the Cries of the Poor, all stories are true but the names of the people who are helped, out of respect for their dignity, will be fictitious.
Love and Peace
Fr. Bernardino Andrade

A few weeks ago I was walking with my two nieces towards a coffee shop where they can find their favourite chocolate bars and I can find my friends from a poor section of the area, and also a small cup of coffee. Inês is 4 years old and her sister, Maria, is 7 years old. It was such a wonderful feeling to hold those tiny childish hands inside my stronger and older hands. I don’t know who was enjoying the most. It was not mainly for safety but for the feelings of tenderness those two little angels were transmitting to me.

All of a sudden, without any previous warning, Maria tells me that her father, Énio, had told her: «When you give something to other people always give them the best of what you have». And I thought «What a father…». And I thought «How lucky Maria is to have a Christian father like that and a Christian mother who shares the same values!». «Always give to others the best of what you have». That means that her father is trying to break the shell of selfishness that covers all the children’s hearts and is trying to enlarge her heart to be able to hold God and all the world inside of it.

I was fascinated with this kind of message a father is trying to instill in a 7-year-old daughter. I think that the message Énio is trying to transmit to his daughter is that helping people is not an association or an activity, but a way of life. Maria’s mother, Alina, was still a young student of podiatry when she would spend long periods of time assisting the pilgrims to Our Lady of Fatima, taking care of their feet because all of them were walking and of course hurting their feet badly. Some were walking with their bare feet.

But… no more than three minutes later, Maria surprised me again with a poignant statement saying: «My Catechist said that we should never give money to the poor because they will spend it to buy alcohol and drugs». I thought that Catechists were supposed to teach about the project of Jesus that is: «to bring good news to the poor» (Luke 4: 18).

I could see that inside of that little head, with apparently small brains, there was a struggle between the «Give the best» from her father and «Don’t give money to the poor».

I tried to explain to Maria that the poor need money to buy food, medicine, transportation, clothes, doctor’s appointments, glasses to help with their sight, to take care of their teeth and so many things that are needed to live like human beings and children of God.

Then… I felt like crying! In this battle between Maria’s Catholic parents and a Catholic Catechist who is going to win? Who is going to lose? Then I remembered the words in a wonderful book written by a couple who spent two years living among the homeless, not to change them or help them but only to live the experience of being homeless. The name of the book is «When the excluded are the chosen ones». And their strong words that affected me deeply were: «The poor are always ACCUSED, JUDGED and CONDEMNED without being HEARD.»

Love and Peace
Fr. Bernardino Andrade

– Brought to you by Fr. Bernardino Andrade

(bernardinodandrade@gmail.com)

I am the youngest of eleven brothers and sisters. My father was a farmer of little pieces of land. Thirteen people lived in the same small house. No electricity, no running water, no radio, no TV. I had one pair of shoes to go to Mass on Sunday and the rest of the week I was supposed to save the shoes for the following Sunday. Because I was the youngest I was one of those who had the privilege of going to school and learn how to read and to write. But I have to confess that, very often, I questioned myself the reason why I had to go to school.

I was sure that my life was already destined. I didn’t think that I needed to go to school in order to water the plants, to dig the earth, to feed the two cows my father owned, to feed the only pig and a few chickens my family used to raise, and so many little things that were part of all those families that lived in the same neighbourhood. It never crossed my mind to go to a secondary school and continue my studies. My life, like the life of my friends, was already destined. Oh… by the way, it never crossed our minds (me and my friends) that we were poor. We were all equal. Poor were those older men and women who would walk from house to house begging for something to take home and prepare meals for their families.

One Christmas day I got a Christmas gift. It was an orange. It was so yellow and so beautiful that I didn’t have the courage to eat it. When I was in California I told the story of the only Christmas gift of my childhood. A few days later I got a bag of oranges from a family. Since then I always found a yellow orange on the top of the altar on the First Sunday of Advent and a box of oranges was delivered to my Parish residence on Christmas Eve. When I left California, 12 years ago, the same family gave me a plastic orange that I still treasure in my room. It is still yellow and beautiful and full of memories.

Well…I thought that my future was already destined. Studying and taking a course was only for the rich. Even today, the poor are not allowed to dream. And I had no dreams for my future besides continuing the life of a poor farmer like my father, my brothers, sisters and my neighbours, or to emigrate.

But God has a great sense of humour. One day I was in the kitchen with my mother and my sister Agostinha when, all of a sudden, my sister threw me this unexpected and very strange question: «Bernardino! Wouldn’t you like to be a priest?». My answer was: «Yes». I was twelve years old.

My mother started getting information on how to go to the Seminary and on October 15, 1950 I entered the Seminary. I didn’t enter the Seminary to study my vocation. I entered the Seminary to be a priest.

On June 12, 1965, in a football field of the Diocese of Quelimane (Mozambique, Africa) I received from the hands of my Bishop the Sacrament of priesthood. It was 54 years ago last Wednesday.

When I tell my story it is frequent and normal to ask always the same question I was asked when I was 69 years old. And the question was: «But when you were 12 years old what did you understand about priesthood»? My answer was: «I am 69 years old and I still do not understand».

Priesthood is a mystery that has been slowly revealed to me every day, especially when I deal with the poorest of the poor, when I celebrate the Eucharist and all other sacraments and especially when I alleviate the suffering of the world. I don’t know if I have been a good priest. But one thing I know – I have been a very happy priest.
And I will never understand my priesthood and Christianity if it is not PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE.

Love and Peace
Fr. Bernardino Andrade

– Brought to you by Fr. Bernardino Andrade

PENTECOST SUNDAY

HELLO CHURCH… HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Don’t feel surprised when you attend Mass this Pentecost Sunday if the priest, instead of starting Mass with the Liturgical and traditional «In the name of the Father…» he would start by singing «Happy Birthday». Why? It is because in Pentecost Sunday the Church celebrates her Birthday.

I stop for a few moments and I imagine the «tsunami» that invaded and shook that place where a group of cowards and traitors were gathered: lost, upset, bitter, confused and full of fear. They had lost two friends by tragic deaths: Judas and Jesus. Then, «suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit , and began to speak foreign languages and the spirit gave them the gift of speech» Act. 2: 1-11).

The Holy Spirit came to stay with them and with us.

FRUITS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT – A WAY OF LIFE

Life is about relationships. Faith is about relationships. Politics are about relationships. We all belong to God and we belong to one another.

Very often I am invited to bless houses and businesses places. Some time ago I was invited to bless a Bank. Every time this happens I always read a special passage of the Bible. It is Galatians 5: 22-23. I consider it a mini-course on human relationships. It applies to all situations where people are involved. They are what St. Paul calls, the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. This is the results of the «tsunami» of Pentecost Sunday.

Here they are: LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, GENEROSITY, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS AND SELF-CONTROL. There is no law against such things (Gal. 5: 22-23).

I would like to invite you, when you meet or pray as a couple, as a family or as a group to say one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit and complete a sentence. No discussion. Just sharing. In discussion you give your opinion that can be right or wrong. In sharing there is no right or wrong answers. It would be like this:

1. LOVE IS (Complete the sentence) _________________________________________
2- JOY IS ______________________________________________________________
3.- PEACE IS ___________________________________________________________
4.- PATIENCE IS ________________________________________________________
5.- KINDNESS IS________________________________________________________
6.- GENEROSITY IS _____________________________________________________
7.- FAITHFULNESS IS ___________________________________________________
8.- GENTLENESS IS _____________________________________________________
9.- SELF-CONTROL IS ___________________________________________________

Please try. God loves you and so do I.

Fr. Bernardino Andrade

THE DISCIPLES FINISHED THE JOB

The Italian composer, Giacomo Puccini, wrote La Boheme, Madama Butterfly and Tosca. It was during his battle with terminal cancer in 1922 that he began to write Turandot, which many now consider his best work. He worked on the score day and night, despite his friends’ advice to rest, and to save his energy. When his sickness worsened, Puccini said to his disciples, “If I don’t finish Turandot, I want you to finish it.” He died in 1924, leaving the work unfinished. His disciples gathered all that was written by Puccini, studied it in great detail, and then proceeded to write the remainder of the opera.

The world premier was performed in La Scala Opera House in Milan in 1926, and Toscanini, Puccini’s favorite student, conducted it. The opera went beautifully, until Toscanini came to the end of the part written by Puccini. He stopped the music, put down the baton, turned to the audience, and announced, “Thus far the master wrote, but he died.” There was a long pause; no one moved. Then Toscanini picked up the baton, turned to the audience and, with tears in his eyes, announced, “But his disciples finished his work.” The opera closed to thunderous applause and found a permanent place in the annals of great works.

Jesus instructs us in his Ascension message to finish his work of saving mankind by proclaiming His Good News by words and deeds.

Jesus didn’t say: «If I don’t finish my job, I want you to finish it». He didn’t say it because He knew He wouldn’t. He sent His disciples do the world to continue His job. Before ascending to heaven He sent you and me to the world to continue his job. To proclaim the Good news of liberation and salvation. He sent you and me to bring good news to the poor and transform this world into a family where we take care of each another and together we arrive to our final destination which is Heaven.

Love and Peace
Fr. Bernardino Andrade