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"It really does help to know that you are not alone in the world with your troubles."John P Martin
Merida, Yucatan, Mexico June 2010 The story behind my web site name dates from my seminary days from 1955 to 1966 when visiting Maryknoll missioners would ask me my name. "Oh, but you are not The John Martin", by which they referred to a veteran Maryknoller with the same name.
I would always like to have responded: "I am not The John Martin, but John the P. Martin." La historia del nombre de mi página de web data de mis días en el seminario cuando los Misioneros nuestros de visita con nosotros me preguntaban mi nombre.
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"Pero tu no eres El renombrado Padre Juan Martin", con lo cual se referían a un compañero nuestro muy veterano del mismo nombre. A mí siempre me hubiera gustado responderles: "No soy EL Padre Juan Martín, sino Juan el P (por Patricio) Martin."
I started my life with my calling to be a missionary at the age of twelve in my Parish of the Ascension in New York in 1952. I became a Maryknoll missionary when I entered our Minor Seminary in Clarks Summit Pennsylvania for third year high school in 1955.
I began my formal missionary career with my ordination to the priesthood and assignment to Mexico in June 1966. In 1975, to supplement my cross-cultural phase, I joined my companions in the Bangladesh Unit in my inter-religious phase with our association with the Muslim people.
I enriched this experience with many pilgrimages and sojourns in India over the next two decades with believers of the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist traditions. I delighted in sharing the fruits of my missionary life back in the United States as well as by correspondence and visits to folks in other countries.
At the end of fifteen years again back in Mexico, in 2012 I returned to the United States for my latest career change, to being a writer so as better to share those same fruits of mine with folks And that is why I am available here.
I began my formal missionary career with my ordination to the priesthood and assignment to Mexico in June 1966. In 1975, to supplement my cross-cultural phase, I joined my companions in the Bangladesh Unit in my inter-religious phase with our association with the Muslim people.
I enriched this experience with many pilgrimages and sojourns in India over the next two decades with believers of the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist traditions. I delighted in sharing the fruits of my missionary life back in the United States as well as by correspondence and visits to folks in other countries.
At the end of fifteen years again back in Mexico, in 2012 I returned to the United States for my latest career change, to being a writer so as better to share those same fruits of mine with folks And that is why I am available here.
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Mi vida como misionero comenzó a la edad de doce años en mi Parroquia de la Ascensión en Nueva York en 1952. Me hice Misionero de Maryknoll al entrar al Seminario Menor nuestro en Clarks Summit Pennsylvania para el segundo año de prepa en 1955.
Empecé mi carrera formal como misionero con mi ordenación al sacerdocio y mi nombramiento formal para México en Junio de 1966. Como complemento de la fase inter-cultural de mi vida, en 1975, me uní a los compañeros de la Unidad de Bangladesh en mi fase inter-religiosa en asociación con la gente musulmana. Logré enriquecer esa experiencia con varios peregrinajes y visitas en la India con creyentes de las tradiciones Hindú, Sikh y Budista que abarcó casi dos décadas en el Sur de Asia. |
My first celebration of the Mass, San Juan de Aragon parish, Fall 1966 | Mi primera Misa en San Juan de Aragón, Otoño 1966.
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Fue un deleite para mí compartir los frutos de mi vida misionera tanto en los Estados Unidos como por correspondencia y visitas a la gente en otros paises.
Al final de otros 15 años en México, en 2012 volví a casa en Maryknoll Nueva York para proseguir mi nueva carrera como escritor con la misma meta de compartir mi vida con los demás. Y aquí me tienes.
Al final de otros 15 años en México, en 2012 volví a casa en Maryknoll Nueva York para proseguir mi nueva carrera como escritor con la misma meta de compartir mi vida con los demás. Y aquí me tienes.
NEW!
In the early 1990's I spent many months in an academic environment where political correctness demanded rapt attention to the causes of women's rights and respect for gays and lesbians. All well and good by me, but I soon began to feel like the degraded or debased one since I am male, straight, Catholic, a priest and a missionary. This debasement was very subtly conveyed to me, I must say, but also in the reactions from some people with whom I had expected a more spontaneous and respectful relationship.
This incident reminded me of an earlier one, back in 1976 at our Barisal Language School in Bangladesh where a German nun confided to me that her vaunted good self-image was besieged by the dominant behavior of the Muslim cultural milieu of female oppression. And this too is what I felt decades later.
And so my launching this website is done deliberately to counteract any denigration of my above roles and functions, for I am unabashedly and unashamedly proud of them and glad to be promoting my own history of living them out in several cultural and religious traditions.
NEW!
I realize that the word or the role of missionary has been associated with an historical critique that saw them as destroyers of indigenous cultures and religious traditions in the past. Despite this criticism, and possibly the denigrating attitude of some people toward missionaries and our role in our Christian tradition, I am unashamedly proud of being a missionary. Albeit, one with a respectful, tolerant and uplifting attitude toward the peoples I have dealt with, believing in their innate goodness and ability to channel the power of the Spirit of God in their lives. I can never say that I have NEVER been the cause for the denigration of anyone's faith or community life, since I have been an outsider to them in some way or other, and could well have affected those people unconsciously in a way that was neutral or fine by me, but in the end possibly harmful to them.
Contact Father John P Martin
johnthep@msn.com
johnthep@msn.com
