We are FINISHED!

Dear Friends,

Peace and Joy to you all! After 6 weeks of blisters, walking, rain and laughes we finished the walk on August 8, the Feast Day of St Dominic. Thank you all for your prayer and support. Stay tuned to read more about our crazy adventures and some reflections of the summer.

Praise God for His Love and Mercy and for our beautiful Lady who guides out heart into the Love of God. Praise God for all those who helped found the Missionaries of the Eucharist, without your desire to serve the Lord we would not have had such a great summer. Praise God for St Thomas Aqunias, St Therese of Lisieux and St Joseph, for your patronage and prayer from above. Praise God for Servant of God Pope John Paul II, for showing us such a great love for God and His Love for us, body and soul.


Sacred Heart of Jesus,
we Love you.

 

Introducing...

Br. Philip Neri
(Jeff Reese)

Br. Clement
(Michael Dickie)

You can read about these new friars and their classmates at the Dominican Vocations Blog. Photos are from the Province of St. Joseph's Flickr Page. Please pray for their continued discernment and formation as they begin their novitiate.

Peace and Good!
Taryn

Check this out!

http://tob.catholicexchange.com/2009/08/10/1085/

St. Dominic

 

As we were walking through Rhode Island, we were able to visit our Dominican walkers! These beautiful statues are placed within the beautiful campus of Providence College. Here is St. Dominic receiving the gift of the Rosary from Our Lady. He never stopped preaching of the importance and value of the Rosary. Our Lady would often appear to St. Dominic and inspire him to keep on spreading Her Psalter to convert hearts.

St. Dominic, Pray for us!
Our Lady of the Rosary, Pray for us!

United through the Eucharist,
dee

 

hmmm... something about this picture just makes me smile. Maybe its Scooter's lovely face or the cozy-ness of the Sao van or the fact that this is when we were able to reunite with our Dominican brothers... anyway i just love it, yay for MoE's!
in Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,
caroline

MoE's Culinary Creations

 

After another long day on the road, the Missionaries of the Eucharist returned to the Andrew's house for dinner. On this glorious evening the Andrews barbequed hotdogs and hamburgers for the ravenous missionaries. Halfway through the dinner Missionary Renato L. Esposito II, was inspired to embark on a culinary endeavor. He reached to his left and acquired some spicy brown mustard. He then applied it to create some text on the hotdog. The world of Barbecue changed forever.

Saint Lawrence- The patron Saint of Barbecue, pray for us.

Renato Esposito

2009 Missionaries of the Eucharist Swim-Off

 

After a long hot day on the road, Scott Wilkins and Renato L. Esposito II are preparing
to take part in the 2009 Missionaries of the Eucharist Swim-Off. As you can see in this
photo, on the left , Scott is sporting his brand new swimming goggles along with his retro teenage mutant ninja turtles towel. On the right, Renato is sporting the peach swimming goggles and retro summer design towel. These two men are destined for swimming greatness. I salute these two aquatic worriers, looks likes we may have 2012 Olympic future gold medalists in our midst. Swim strong you Sultans of swim, Paddlers of power, Backstroke berserkers, Dukes of the dive.

Renato Esposito

True Devotion to the Holy Spirit

You're praying for our Dominican brothers as they prepare for novitiate, right?
If you need a prayer idea, they recommend this novena:

Novena to the Holy Spirit

After you've prayed, please enjoy Jeff Reese's wonderful talk on True Devotion to the Holy Spirit, presented in three parts below.

From the Desk of the Walk Leader

As I look over our blog, I notice that many (if not most) of our entries are silly. While this is an accurate depiction of our communal life--we're a joyful and rambunctious crew--there are many sobering and serious moments as well. Whether it's praying the rosary in front of an abortion clinic, encountering the shattered lives of despairing homeless, or being jeered by passing motorists, there are times on the Walk when laughter is the farthest thing from my mind. But somewhere between these extremes of mirth and gravitas are indefinable moments of mixed emotions, so poignant that they leave an aftertaste.

Not long after the Walk began, my walkers began calling me "papa." At first I chuckled at the new nickname but as day blended into day and week into week I accepted the role and forced myself to see the paternal aspects of my job. But being a dad is no easy task and I've found myself contemplating the whole "fatherhood" thing. My spiritual director thinks that this can only be good for that whole discernment thing.

It's been difficult to say goodbye to my "children" who've left over the past few weeks. Like a dad who keeps staring at an empty place at the dinner table when his baby goes off to college I find my ears straining to hear Ludwig's absent voice when we chant the office or Marie's chuckle when I crack an exceptionally corny joke. When I'm rounding a hill at the end of a walking shift I keep expecting to see Martha behind the wheel of our van or Taryn typing on her iPhone to answer one of Nick's Franciscan questions. I miss seeing Jeff and Michael discussing the intersection of philosophy and economics or Sam giving a lesson on Church history or Maggie showing Dee how to properly stretch the hamstrings while Regina sings a Veggie Tales song.

For the next few days I have to contend with the very noticable absence of my co-pilot Dave. This summer has been a blessing for me--while Dave and I have lived together for six months and we were already good friends, this summer has really deepend our bond. Thankfully he'll be back soon.

I am really dreading the end of this walk. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have my own bed and the constant promise of a shower, but I would sooner walk for three more months (on feet layered with blisters) than see all my "children" disperse and go their separate ways. There's something special about this bunch. They bless me in so many ways... and they don't even realize it.

Gotta run... the kids need me to help them with their sore ankles.


Scott

The MoE-est Chapter in the New Testament

On the eve of their entrance to the postulancy of the Eastern Province Dominican friars, Michael Dickie and Jeff Reese each gave the walkers a talk on a topic of their own choosing. Here Michael speaks about John 6 and the Eucharist. The talk is presented in two parts.
Please pray for these young men and their classmates - for their continued discernment and formation, and that they may receive the religious names they have written in their hearts when they enter novitiate on August 8th, the Feast of St. Dominic.

Roadside evangelization makes front-page news

Yesterday's front page article of the Washington Post describes the five-week journey of six Franciscan friars that walked 300 miles to Washington DC.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/28/AR2009072803220.html

It's a wonderful story about the joy of sharing the Gospel on the road.

Praise the Lord for the Franciscan friars - kindred spirits to the Missionaries of the Eucharist - receiving such a spotlight!

Questions from Our Viewers

In this video, walk leaders Scott "Scooter" Wilkins and David "Aloysius" Sao answer questions from our faithful blog readers.



Don't forget to send your questions to questions@themoes.us. You could be featured in a future episode of Questions from Our Viewers!

To All the MoEs Who've Walked Before

This post is a shout-out to all the MoEs who have walked before us.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the MoEs have lots of customs and traditions. Some are profound and some are silly. On The Walk, I discovered that many of them are multi-layered in their wisdom:

• Observing an hour of silence daily and a longer period on Fridays provides an opportunity for personal prayer and contemplation - but it also provides a welcome (even necessary!) respite for people who are living with constant noise and zero privacy.
  
  
• Praying the rosary on every walking shift sanctifies each step and sends thousands of prayers heavenward over the course of The Walk. It also provides a pleasant walking cadence and makes hot shifts, rainy shifts, and last-shift-of-the-day shifts pass more quickly.
  
  
• Chanting the Office in men's and women's choirs proclaims the complementarity of the sexes - and it also sounds really neat.
  
  
• Having extensive and expandable car prayers gives us a chance to pray together in a relaxed and unhurried manner. Having a simple and reverent Grace Before Meals prevents MoE mutiny at mealtimes. :o)
  

So, to all the MoEs who developed these and other MoE customs - thank you! You are wise indeed.

Peace and Good!
Taryn

Introducing Handlebar Dimitri Mousekolnikov

Now that I've introduced myself, I have the great honor of introducing a new MoE, Handlebar Dimitri Mousekolnikov. I could tell you a little bit about him, but I think I'll just let him speak for himself:

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Here's what happened when Handlebar met Dee:

Now that you've met Handlebar, you can be his friend on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/themoemouse

Peace and Good!
Taryn

We Are Family

Dear friends,
Hello! My name is Taryn and I'm the redhead in the picture above. I've just returned from a week on the MoE Walk, and I'm popping by to share a bit of what I learned with you. I owe my involvement with the MoEs to my dear friend David Sao. I'd tell you that he's the fellow on the left, but I'm sure you already know that, because Dave knows everyone. He's introduced me to more wonderful people than I can count, including many, many MoEs.
The first thing that I learned is this: the MoEs are family. I've had the pleasure of helping host MoEs in Philly and being hosted by more MoEs at the March for Life, so I already knew the strength of the community. It wasn't until I joined The Walk, though, that I understood just how much of a family the Missionaries are. Like any family, the MoEs have traditions and sayings and jokes that no one else would find funny. We pray and eat and sleep and travel together. Most importantly, though, we take care of each other. We tend to each other's blisters and do each other's laundry.

Sometimes, on The Walk, showers are hard to come by, and we have to get creative to maintain a reasonable standard of hygiene. The MoE family is always ready to help!*

I miss my MoE brothers and sisters very much! Walk well, pray hard, and take good care of each other - I'll be be praying for you every day.

Peace and Good!
Taryn

*Just kidding! No MoEs or commercial dryers were harmed in the making of this post.

We Got Ditched!

 

So one morning I dropped off Caroline and Nick to walk an early morning shift. I guess I hadn't woken up completely when I was driving because while attempting to park, I backed into a ditch. This picture was taken about 4 hours after Dave's van fell into the hole. Ludwig is determining how to get the van out. God heard my prayers though... I had prayed through the intercession of our Blessed Mother that the Lord might send us a free tow truck. Praise God always~ He's so good to us :0).

in Christ's perfect love,
Martha

Jeffrey Matilda Reese

We miss you!!!

This picture of Caroline, Jeff, Martha and me was taken on Jeff and Michael's last day with the MoE's at St. Monica's Parish. On their last night, they gave us talks on True Devotion to the Holy Spirit and The Eucharist. Being able to witness our two brothers "in preacher mode" helped us realize (even though we knew already) their vocations to the Holy Priesthood.
I think this picture sums up our relationship with Jeff quite well. Scare-oline, Miss Martha and I going crazy laughing at Jeff. Whether he was picking us ladies flowers along the walk, talking about the Faith, making fun of Dave Sao, or punching people in the neck, he always had the ability to make someone smile no matter what we were going through on the walk.

We miss being able to spend time with you along with your great sense of humor, but we look forward to spending that time with you in the Eucharist.

Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit...
Make Us Saints! :)

United through the Eucharist,
dee

Got Franciscans?

First Abortion Clinic

Divine Mercy Shrine

We love Tim!

I forgot to post.