Browning, Day 2, March 12, 2025, De La Salle Blackfeet School

So far, the trip to Browning has been a blessed time. Since the beginning of the trip, I have been amazed at the sense of community Browning clearly exhibits. In the first mass, during the sign of peace, everyone spent nearly two minutes giving peace and even during communion, continued to shake hands and exchanged signs of peace throughout the pews. Being able to play a part in the community of Browning has been so pleasant as I came in with the mindset that the community would have been more broken in the poverty that is present. However, the poverty seems to drive a real love between the people in uniting in their sufferings. Many of the people I have encountered suffer well, and this is something I wish to take into my own life.
In a reflection we had tonight, Roy, the campus minister of University of  Providence (who is also joining the trip with us,) asked the question: “What does it mean to do what God does, see what God sees, and love as God loves?” I have been reflecting on this question tonight and the answer reflects a lot of my outlook on the trip thus far. For one, the answer to this question revolves around love, as He is love, sees through the lens of his love, and what he “does” is love. Seeing through a lens of love and charitability must then be the lens we tend to strive for in our own lives. But how do we actually learn to do this?

I have found that my perspective on how to view others has changed even in the two days we have been able to spend with the students here in Browning. Many of these students deal with real struggles, such as alcoholic parents, abuse, or other stresses that make the ordinary life we take for granted much more difficult. In this way, when in the schools and a student is paying attention, or struggling to pay attention, I find myself have a different reaction that I normally would, one that is more understanding and charitable to what may be going on in their lives outside the classroom. Rather than seeing them for what they do or how they present themselves, I have seen them in a more real and clear light, as children of God who suffer. Though their wounds and sufferings come out in different ways, they clearly love God and love each other, and as St. John of the Cross said: “In the evening of our life, we shall be judged by love alone.”

I have been blessed to see so many smiles on students faces as well as my own as I have been able to see the beautiful humanity that is here in Browning. I ask for prayers for these students, their families, and the many immersion trips that will take place in the future at this school. These students are our family in the Church, and suffer just like us, just in a different way. I am very happy I came on the trip to see this new perspective and am very excited to continue to learn to love and see these students as God sees them.

Ryan Frampton, Senior, Carroll College