Thoughts for Interns

I am an intern at Romero House, a community of refugee claimants and interns, which is at the heart of a greater Romero Community of our supporters, former residents, drop-ins, volunteers, neighbors, advocates and more. We have finished our third full week in the office, and already we find ourselves exhausted. Yet today, at our liturgy, I found myself crying from the sheer amount of blessedness I felt surrounded by (grammar is apparently directly related to the amount of rest one gets in life).

So here are my thoughts, on encouragement, guilt, and relying.

we must encourage one another. What's more, we must rely on one another. We must assume the best in one another, and also assume that we are all trying our best. We must rely on the good in each of the residents. These are not "ours", nor do we need to be their best friend. We must walk with them. We point them in the right direction, and entrust them to the care of someone else more skilled that we. Like the Samaritan, who left the wounded man in an inn, promising to cover the difference of the cost of care, we don't have to continue pouring our oil and wine into the deep wounds that a refugee bears. We love our neighbor, and then we continue on our journey.

we are friends? we are more and less and different. we are a community. we love and uplift and support one another. we don't need gossip or dissension amongst us. we are here for the somewhat long-run. we are here for 11 months.

next topic. guilt.

we are insufficient. we are not trained professionals. we have learned about basic issues in school, we have studied, and read books, and volunteered in the community. we are not trained social workers, we are not psychologists, we are not lawyers. we are "companions". "settlement workers". every thing that we do is insufficient. we are not the best. we are who is present. we trust in God's grace to provide, and to cover our insufficiencies. we must not allow ourselves to feel guilty for not putting in an hour here, or an hour there, for not starting another task at 10pm on a Saturday night. To feel guilty implies that we could do better. that we are individually capable of doing everything in our insanely huge job descriptions. to claim guilt is to imply that perfection is possible. we are guilty every second of every day, which is why we must claim grace. grace that covers all short-comings.

we must be able to find joy in what we are doing. we must be able to claim that it brings us life to be concerned about what the father is about. we must find aspects of each day that bring us life. that draw us closer to who we have been called to be. yes?