Peacemakers in a New Year

New possibilities unfold with a new year. Beginning with the first month, it’s as if we could hear January say, “Let’s begin anew.” Or as Venerable Bruno Lanteri, who founded the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, advised, Nunc Coepi — now I begin. Ahora empiezo nuevamente.

So as we begin a New Year, Pope Francis urges us to be peacemakers. In his message for World Day of Peace, observed each year on Jan. 1, the Holy Father focuses on “Peace as a journey of hope: dialogue, reconciliation, and ecological conversion.”

His five points are ones we can apply close to home in our families, work and communities.

1.         Peace, a journey of hope in the face of obstacles and trial.

2.         Peace, a journey of listening based on memory, solidarity and fraternity.

3.         Peace, a journey of reconciliation in fraternal communion.

4.         Peace, a journey of ecological conversion; and

5.         We obtain all that we hope for”

Pope Francis in his fifth point notes, “Peace will not be obtained unless it is hoped for.” We have to want peace in our lives in order to work for it.

“The desire for peace lies deep within the human heart,” he said, “and we should not resign ourselves to seeking anything less than this.”

He adds, “The world does not need empty words but convinced witnesses, peacemakers who are open to a dialogue that rejects exclusion or manipulation. … Peace ‘must be built up continually;’ it is a journey made together in constant pursuit of the common good, truthfulness and respect for law. Listening to one another can lead to mutual understanding and esteem, and even to seeing in an enemy the face of a brother or sister.”

He said it is an enduring commitment, “an ongoing work in which each individual makes his or her contribution responsibly, at every level of the local, national and global community.”

W each have a small garden to tend

While there is much happening around the world that is out of our control, we can focus on what is within our reach, close to home. Father Tad Pacholczyk, in his column on “Pushing back against evil,” said, “We need to recognize how God has entrusted to each of us a small garden that he asks us to tend. If we tend that plot well, he will extend the reach of his grace in ways we cannot foresee or imagine, and we will actually contribute to stemming the tide of error and evil well beyond the limited confines of our particular plot.

“This implies that each of us has different responsibilities, depending upon our particular state in life, our commitments, and our employment and family situations. By attending carefully to those responsibilities and conscientiously tending our gardens, the air around us can indeed begin to change.”

Thus, we can each be agents of change, peacemakers. As the Holy Father tells us, “Day by day, the Holy Spirit prompts in us ways of thinking and speaking that can make us artisans of justice and peace.”

Let’s remember, we walk together on the journey of peace building. As Bishop Daniel E. Flores reminds us often, “Si no caminamos juntos, no vamos a llegar.” (If we do not walk together, we are not going to get to where we are going.)

Being peacemakers close to home

Easier said than done, you might say. How can we practice this close to home?

As we consider the Holy Father’s words, it’s about listening, about working collaboratively, about forgiveness. Some forces in the world try to bully us into creating divisions and breeding competition. As the Holy Father has said in previous talks on unity, “divisions wound Christ’s body (and) they impair the witness which we are called to give him before the world.”

But when we recognize God’s abundance and his saving grace, we learn to celebrate each other and encourage each other on the journey. Stephen Covey in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, talks about creating win-win situations. When we shift our paradigms away from individualism and competition, we can create environments in which we support one another, neighbor helping neighbor, as God calls us to do.

God guides us at every step. He fortifies us through the sacraments. He invites us to keep him at the center of everything.

As we greet each day and month this year, we can also think of ways of finding peace within ourselves. Recently I visited the Poor Clare Sisters at their monastery in Alamo. As we paused in the prayer garden, Sister Martha invited us to “listen to the sound of peace.” You could also hear peace inside the Adoration Chapel before the Eucharist. The visit with the sisters in the chapel was a strong reminder that making time to spend with God is essential, especially if we are to fulfill our role as peacemakers.

(Originally published in January 2020 edition of The Valley Catholic newspaper)

Our guardian angels: Don’t take them for granted

We cannot see them, but they are always present – our guardian angels. From the moment of our birth, God assigned an angel to each person to accompany us at every moment of our lives.

Because they are invisible, it might be easy to take them for granted, or worse, forget they are present.

When was the last time you said thank you to your guardian angel?

I am guilty of often taking my guardian angel for granted. Some say I often stress mine out in the course of my day-to-day doings.

On Oct. 2, the Memorial of the Guardian Angels, the universal Church celebrates the gift of the spiritual realm present before us, a gift the Lord provides to help us on our faith journey. A few days prior on Sept. 29, we celebrated the feast of the Archangel Michael. On both days we recognize that God created “all things visible and invisible.” As St. Bernard of Clairvaux said in a sermon about the guardian angels, “Remember that the presence of something is not proved only by the sight of things.”

The angels – billions of them in the world, uncountable actually, are God’s messengers, the unseen of our faith. They are ever at our side to help us in countless ways. They help us to pray, to grow in understanding in our faith, to repentance for our sins, and from falling prey to sin or negative thoughts; they protect us from physical and spiritual harm.

We should keep in mind when a loved one dies they do not become angels who watch over us from heaven. Rather, they join the communion of saints. As noted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their angels’ watchful care and intercession. Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life. Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God.” 336

Remember the old cartoons where a winged angel was depicted standing on the right shoulder encouraging his human to do good, while a demon character stood on the left shoulder pushing for the opposite? Everywhere we go, our invisible companion goes with us, helping us make the best choices, those which will be pleasing to God. It is up to us how involved our angel is in our lives.

Father Chad Ripperger, a priest of the Society of the Most Sorrowful Mother, the Doloran Fathers in the Archdiocese of Denver, said in a lecture a few years ago, the angels are more active in our lives than we realize. How active they are is determined by two factors: The first, by God, and the second by us, by how actively we involve them.

From an early age, St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina was acutely aware of his angel. There are countless stories of how he could also listen to others’ guardian angels who brought him prayers on their human’s behalf. St. Pio said these celestial beings traveled faster than planes, thus they could deliver messages more quickly.

In a letter to his spiritual daughter, Raffaelina Cerase, he writes, “What a consolation it is to know one is always in the care of a celestial spirit, who does not abandon us (how admirable) even when we disgust God! How sweet is this great truth for the believer!”

It should give us great comfort to know we are never alone. Think of the moments when you felt certain your guardian angel helped you in some way. I can certainly think of several, particularly during one of my travels when walking alone on an isolated street. But, given our free will, we sometimes don’t listen to our angels. I am sad to confess there were times I ignored my angel, times when I made him cringe and look away by the decisions I made.

To get our guardian angels more involved in our lives, Father Ripperger said we need to foster a relationship with them and ask them to help us. Also, show them acts of devotion. Pray to your guardian angel, and be sure to thank him regularly, he said.

You can ask them to guide your dreams, help you remember things, help you to pray. There is much more that can be written about the angels as “the whole life of the Church benefits from the mysterious and powerful help of angels.” (CCC 334).

While we are not supernatural beings, we can learn from the angels. We can try to imitate them by our day-to-day responses to others in need. By being present for another to listen or offer assistance, we can be God’s helpers here on earth, making him present in world.

Let us continue learning from our angels, these “spiritual creatures who glorify God without ceasing”(CCC350) engaging them daily, and showing our gratitude to God for the gift of his celestial helpers.

(Originally published in October 2019 edition of The Valley Catholic newspaper)

Finding the courage to be imperfect

How embarrassing to confess one’s imperfections to the world. However, when you write and work in communications, any misstep is bound to end up in the public eye. As much as we try to avoid mistakes, we grimace when it happens.

I am thankful to those who caught one of our mistakes in the June edition of The Valley Catholic. After experiencing a litany of emotions — unsettled, disappointed, and embarrassed among others — we made the correction and looked for ways to avoid repeating the error again.

While we were able to correct it for the online edition, the error made us realize that we must be more vigilant and careful, but also that we are human. A priest once advised me that no matter how careful we try to work out every detail, we are bound to end up with some espinitas (small thorns). These espinitas, he said, remind us we are not God, that we are imperfect beings in need of God’s graces to guide us in everything we do.

Confronting our imperfections is not an easy task. Worse, the fear of making a mistake, of being less than perfect, can paralyze us from moving forward. I think it is one of the top reasons we sometimes procrastinate.

This summer I returned to a quilting project I started 14 years ago. In the quilting world, we refer to these as UFOs (Unfinished Objects). One of the women in the sewing circle was shocked that I had not finished the quilt. It gave her anxiety to think of a project sitting in a closet all these years in limbo.

Other priorities and projects got in the way, I explained. I have tendency to take on too many projects, and naturally, family, work and writing take top billing. But after thinking about it further, I realized the reason stemmed from something more, namely a fear of not doing a good job, of ending up with a less than perfect quilt.

Over the years, I have improved my skills at piecing together quilt tops and have become proficient at hand applique, one of my favorite techniques. However, I am limited in my skills when it comes to making the quilt sandwich and quilting the layers together. Which is why I hesitated to finish the quilt, and instead opted to start another, and then another. Confession: I have six quilt tops waiting to be finished. I also have several manuscripts of writing that are waiting as well.

I started this year determined to bring these UFOs to completion. The first quilt I finished shortly before the New Year carries a few imperfections that I am not happy with, but these imperfections I realize now are part of my learning process. They help give me courage to try again. This imperfect quilt serves as a lesson that sometimes we have to give ourselves permission to make mistakes. And as Betina, one of my dear quilting friends points out, a finished quilt is better than an unfinished quilt stored away in a closet.

This summer I finished a second one, a wall hanging that features a Rosary of hand-appliqued roses. I started it as a Lenten project years ago. I lost track of how many hours it took me to cut out each petal and hand stitch each one into 53 rose buds and five larger roses. After all the hours I invested, I was afraid of ruining it with my novice quilting skills. But with each project I gain a bit more confidence. I am also finding the courage to be imperfect.  Unless you look too closely, my espinitas are not easy to spot.

With each step forward, I recognize we are always learning, and on this route, we are bound to make mistakes. There is a great humility in knowing our weakness. It also takes courage to be imperfect.

What have you stored away or ignored? What have you been avoiding because you are afraid to make a mistake? Just as we are works in progress and just as the Lord is merciful with us, we should be merciful with ourselves. Yes, we all want to strive for perfection. But in order to move forward, we have to give ourselves permission to make mistakes, to learn from them, and to embrace the humility of our imperfect selves and ask for help and guidance when needed.

(Originally published in July 2019 edition of The Valley Catholic newspaper)

Come meet our superheroes: Women of action

When U.S. and Mexican Customs officers spot the red Ford F150 pickup truck, both know what to expect. The nun who is driving the truck is on her way to Las Flores/Nuevo Progreso, Mexico to make her rounds. She’s been making these rounds for 29 years, delivering beans and rice, tuition for school children, clothes for those in need.

The nun, Sister Maureen Crosby, a member of the Sisters of St. Dorothy, crosses the bridge three to four times a week. Her mission: “I am trying to help people stay in their own country, assisting them with food, clothing, meds, education and prayer.” In the immigration discussion, we tend to forget about those who are helping people stay in their homeland, helping them find a way to make a better life where they are.

At 76, she jokes, “Nuns don’t retire.” These last 15 years, she has logged 250,000 miles on her truck, which she named Joseph. Sister Maureen is looking for someone to take over the ministry when she does retire, but people are afraid to cross into Mexico, she said.

This March 8-14, as we recognize women religious during National Catholic Sisters Week, which falls within National Women’s History Month, we say thank you to all our sisters serving in our diocese. Most of them serve behind the scenes, like Sister Maureen or Sister Rosalia Vadala, with the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi.

Sister Rosalia, 78, first came to the Rio Grande Valley in 1987, and in 1994 started assisting immigrant families living in the colonias. Since she started Proyecto Santo Niño de Atocha, she has helped thousands become U.S. citizens. She also expanded her ministry into Reynosa, Mexico to reach out to maquiladora workers, teaching them how to speak out and obtain better working conditions.

While the numbers of religious sisters nationally and close to home are diminishing – we have 63 in active ministry, half of what we had 10 years ago – the fruits of their labors continue to grow here in the Rio Grande Valley. More than that, their work inspires us to follow their example.

Sister Rose Marie Quilter, of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who recently returned to the area, recognizes that vowed religious life has an important place in the Church. “While we will likely get smaller, we are here to support the laity,” she said. Sister Rose reminds us we are all called by our Baptism to share in the work of the Church. That means we as the laity need to do our part in our community.

I invite you to reach out and meet the religious sisters who give so generously to the people through the work they do. Their faith and trust in God pours out in their love for the people they work with. You have met several of these women featured on the pages of The Valley Catholic and elsewhere. Among them, Sister Norma Pimentel, a Missionary of Jesus, who has caught even the Holy Father’s attention with her humanitarian response. More than 150,000 immigrant men, women and children from Central America have come to the respite center since it opened in 2014.

This month in Those Who Serve, we feature Sister Zita Telkamp, 85, with the Sisters of Divine Providence. Sister Zita, who has run a shelter in San Benito (La Posada Providencia) for indigent immigrants, asylees and asylum seekers since 2008, will celebrate 70 years as a religious in August.

Our sisters work in all areas of ministry – education, social services, health care, community outreach, and immigration. Working in education, we find Sister Cynthia Mello, a Sister of St. Dorothy who serves as superintendent of Catholic Schools. Working with the elderly, Sister Jane Frances Ambrose of the Sisters of the Holy Spirit of Mary Immaculate prays at the bedside of residents at Ebony Lake and Brownsville Rehabilitation Nursing Home.

Praying behind the scenes are cloistered nuns like Sister Martha A. Garcia, of the Capuchin Poor Clares in Alamo. Out in the colonias, the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who built St. Anne Church and started Proyecto Desarrollo provide needed services to the people in the Pueblo de Palmas in Peñitas.

Further west, we find three sisters who moved here from Crookston, Minn., Benedictine Sisters Nancy Boushey, Luella Walsh and Fran Solum. The retreat house they built in Rio Grande City serves as an oasis for those who need a spiritual retreat. They also started a radio station, KSGS 99.9 FM, eight years ago.

While we try to highlight the work of our religious women, some sisters remain under the radar. Among them are poets, painters, musicians. Women of many talents.

Over the years, I feel blessed to have developed close friendships with some of these amazing women. They compel me to continually discern how God is calling me to action.

Sister Maureen’s courage, her energy, her devotion, keep her adding miles to her red Ford pickup as she crosses back and forth from the United States and Mexico. If you accompany her someday as she makes her rounds in Las Flores, you’ll discover you have little to complain about. Life is different for thousands living across the border, and this one nun, past retirement age, is doing all she can to give the people she meets a hand in the journey.

Her first stop is usually to Lupe’s house, the woman who lives near the corner school. The minute the children see the red truck, they flock to it in the hopes Sister Maureen will have a treat for them.

Sister Maureen started going in 1990 and her love for the people keeps her returning. She has seen both success and despair with the three generations of families she has worked with. The youngest call her abuela now. Others call her by her first name, “Moreen.” She worries about the children who get caught up with the drug cartels. The cartels are recruiting younger kids these days. Some of the fathers drink too much, some mothers make a living sewing, others doing things they are not proud of. But Sister Maureen does not go there to judge them. She goes to give them hope.

She and all our sisters in the Rio Grande Valley carry out a legacy of service dating back to 1852. Think back to the four sisters of the Congregation of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament who left Lyons, France in 1852 to sail by ship for 52 days to Texas. They didn’t know exactly what was waiting for them in the most southern part of the United States, but they came anyway. They opened the first Catholic School in Brownsville, Villa Maria of the Incarnate Word, in 1853, 20 years before the first public school. In 1923, the Sisters of Mercy opened one of the first hospitals in Brownsville and in the Valley.

This is but a glimpse as to how religious sisters respond to the needs of a community. Today, Sister Rosalia encourages us to “look and see what’s not being done.” In other words, get to work.

“When God inspires you, follow the inspiration. Don’t let others tell you it can’t be done. He will give you the courage.”

To all the women religious in our diocese, past and present, I thank you each for your example. I pray that we can respond accordingly and do our part.

Oh, the places you’ll go

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."

– from the Dr. Seuss book Oh, The Places You Will Go!

Setting goals is always useful to help focus our energy and efforts. At the beginning of the New Year, people took to making resolutions or vision boards. The future is full of possibilities. However, sometimes we miss a critical step – asking God for his guidance, paying attention to his will for us in our lives.

Meet Maria Dolores “Lolis” Flores from Brownsville. For years, this 23-year-old who recently completed the two-year diocesan lay ecclesial ministry formation program wanted to become famous for her singing talent. She sang every chance she could, auditioned for different television programs, looked for every opportunity to get recognized by talent scouts. She was becoming discouraged, but during a retreat, she experienced a conversion that helped her surrender her will to what God might be calling her to do.

She became more involved in her parish, Our Heavenly Father Church in Olmito, and started taking formation classes. Soon she discovered she could use her voice to evangelize, to sing for God’s greater glory. “The singing that he has given me is a gift from God and I want to share that with everyone,” she said.

In July 2018, she started praying the Rosary and sharing her music live every night at 10 p.m. on Facebook. Within six months she had more than 50,000 followers. She now has more than 58,000. She has since added an Instagram account that is growing a following as well. “I remember my first live broadcast. I was scared and nervous. I was trembling,” she said. “But one follows the will of God and I entrusted my fears and my will to him.”

Lolis, who started singing in the mariachi when she was 16 years old in high school, said she has drawn inspiration from praying the Rosary live. Since she began, people from throughout the world have joined her in prayer. “It has been a blessing to unite with so many, to join together night after night to pray the Rosary,” she said. “Praying every night, Mary takes us to Jesus.” She said hundreds have since shared their own conversion stories with her.

Last year Lolis also released two singles. Her first single, “Siempre Has Sido Tu,” was released in June 2018. Produced by Joan Sanchez at GOSPA studios in McAllen, the song is available on all digital platforms. Lolis said the song describes her personal “before and after” experience of meeting God.

“It is great to see how people connect to this song. I think we have to share what God has done with us. Through our testimony, people can identify with us, and this song has been a blessing – to record it and to share it,” she said.

In her song, Lolis shares: “Sin darme cuenta, cerré las puertas, le di la espalda a tu amor. / Y siempre has sido tú lo que más necesitaba, Siempre has sido tú el anhelo de mi alma.”  (Without realizing it I closed the doors, I turned my back on your love. You have always been what I most needed, without realizing it. It has always been you.)

As someone who is not in the habit of posting daily on social media, I consider Lolis’ advice something to consider: “I invite you to share your testimony with others,” she said. “What God has done for you in your life may be what others need to hear. God is always present for us.”

Lolis released a new song, “Bendita Maria,” on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe this past December. It speaks of her devotion to the Blessed Mother Mary, whose “yes” changed the world.

While some young people are using social media platforms to post about their daily lives, highlighting everything from the parties they attend to the celebrities they follow, it is inspiring to see how one young woman and others like her are using social media to give witness to how the Lord is working in her life. At the same time she is bringing the light of Christ to others.

I anticipate we will be hearing more from this young woman in the future. Oh, the places you’ll go when God is leading the way. Lolis, “You’re off to great places.”

(Originally published in February 2019 edition of The Valley Catholic newspaper)

By the work of our hands

“May the favor if the Lord our God be ours. Prosper the work of our hands! Prosper the work of our hands!” (Psalms 90:17)

Look at your hands for a moment. Consider all that they do.

Imagine the hands of Jesus who worked alongside Joseph as a carpenter. What did he build after he held a piece of wood in his hands, after he cut it, planed it, and created it into something new? Imagine the hands of his Blessed Mother Mary, who held the infant Jesus, who changed his diapers, who mended his clothing, who prepared his meals.

We spend so much time in front of a screen these days, we take for granted the value of the work we do with our hands. Our hands that prepare meals for those we love, hands that prune away weeds and overgrown bushes, hands that hold another’s when they are ill.

Sister Rose Carmel Garay, 79, a Sister of the Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence, beams with joy when she shares something made by her hands. When she is not working full time with pilgrim groups at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle – National Shrine, she enjoys cooking and making religious items and jewelry.

Her joy is contagious. Sister Garay said cooking and making jewelry give her energy. When working with beads, she finds delight in the infinite possibilities and color combinations. “Discovering what we can create with our hands are pure joy; they are God-given gifts,” she said. She added we can each experience this joy as we discover our own gifts. It also gives her joy knowing her creations make others happy and serve a purpose. The sales from her homemade salsas and the items she creates contribute to the retirement fund for the religious sisters in her order.

As I consider my own interest in sewing and mixed media art, I find my recent fixation on making aprons stems from what they represent. Yes, we value their utilitarian features intended to protect our clothing when cooking, painting or gardening. For me, however, an apron symbolizes something more. It points to the joy of undertaking such tasks, activities that require the use of our hands, that pull us away from the computer or from our sedentary habits. The simple act of putting on an apron triggers the brain to focus on the work ahead. There is a humility too that comes with honoring our role in creating something, whether it is a simple meal or a work of art.

A CBS News story that aired March 18, 2018 highlighted “how busy hands can alter our brain chemistry.” The story featured an interview with Dr. Kelly Lambert, a neuroscientist at the University of Richmond. “I made up this term called ‘behaviorceuticals,’ instead of pharmaceuticals,” she said, “in the sense that when we move and when we engage in activities, we change the neurochemistry of our brain in ways that a drug can change the neurochemistry of our brain.”

The story led me to Lambert’s book, Lifting Depression: A Neuroscientist’s Hands-On Approach to Activating Your Brain’s Healing Power. In the section, “The Work/Pleasure Connection,” Lambert writes about effort-driven rewards. She notes, “Our brains are programmed to derive a deep sense of satisfaction and pleasure when our physical effort produces something tangible, visible….”

Our hands, she writes, “play a crucial role when it comes to effort-driven rewards. “Any activity that requires you to use your hands and that you enjoy, especially if it puts you into the flow zone, will energize your effort-driven rewards circuit.”

Her research explains why I am drawn to hand appliqué and crochet, and even activities that require my hands to get dirty, like gardening and mixed media. Working with my hands actually serves as a retreat from my day-to-day work. The joy of creating something by hand is certainly rewarding. There is added joy when you can share your creations with others. I find too that it connects me to the long history of women in my family, principally my mother, who taught me how to sew.

Whether at home or at work, we all have gifts God has given us. Look at your hands again. What is the work they are called to do?

As we begin a New Year, our communications team for the Diocese of Brownsville, which continually looks at the work we do and try to do it better, recommits to gathering and sharing the stories happening in the Church here in the Rio Grande Valley. We offer up the work of our hands to utilizing all the communication resources available to keep you informed. As St. Teresa of Avila said, we are his hands and feet.

“Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people.”

(Originally published in January 2019 edition of The Valley Catholic newspaper)

Endings and the unfinished

Nunc Coepi, Now I Begin

Spiders can spin a web overnight. Several mornings, when rushing, I have walked right into their sticky threads. We have to be careful and look in the direction we are headed, especially if we don’t want to be caught off guard.

It’s also worthwhile to look at where we’ve been. Each December we publish a year-in-review in The Valley Catholic. It affords us a glance of the faith lived in our Catholic Church here in the Rio Grande Valley. We’ve had some historic moments along with some challenges. Overall, the events of this past year are clear indicators that we are a Church alive, a Church on the move. Somos una iglesia caminante, una iglesia viva.

Pausing from time to time to look at where we’ve been helps us take a notice of and count our blessings. At the same time we can take note of the areas of our lives that need work – we are, after all, works in progress.

One year ends. A new one begins. Taking stock of where we are on the journey helps us. We can make corrections where necessary, take action to reset our course and as needed begin again. What surprised us? What small graces did not escape our attention? What challenges did we confront? What are we most grateful for? How is God at work in our lives?

St. Ignatius of Loyola encouraged the practice of a daily examen. Why not undertake an annual examen and create our own year-in-review?

“Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost,” Henry James wrote in his essay “The Art of Fiction.” Through a lens of our faith, we recognize God is in everything.

One morning, when not rushing and getting caught in a spider web, I discovered a new bird’s nest in my front yard. When I wasn’t looking a feathered architect built a home to nourish new life, a new beginning. The sparrow made use of what was available — twigs and grasses, whatever she could carry. In a similar way, we can make use of what is available to nourish our lives.

Among the graces of this year, the moments shared with family and close friends, are the moments I treasure, moments which nourished us. Some were filled with joy, some with tears, some with healing.

Amidst the endings and beginnings, I face a reality of the unfinished — projects I wanted to complete, responsibilities I pushed to the sidelines; all are tasks I must confront as I move forward in the new year.

I realize I have been putting off what to do with my father’s home. I keep telling my sister I am going to do something about the house. However, until I set a timeline and take action, I am not entirely free to focus on my writing and other creative endeavors. An untended task, if we are not careful, can act as an anchor. Identifying the anchor and finding ways to conquer it helps us move forward.

Taking a step back in time can help us gain clarity on the present and inspire us as we learn from our unfolding story. The V Encuentro helped us as a Church to look at our ministries and how we are reaching out to share the Good News, how we are walking together on the journey. Bishop Flores pointed out to delegates who participated in the V Encuentro that the process allowed us to see how we can work together as we share our faith. He also said we can’t be afraid to make mistakes as we proceed, reminding us, we learn from our mistakes.

The Venerable Bruno Lanteri, founder of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary in Turin, Italy, taught that because of God’s grace, we can begin again. Using the Latin phrase, Nunc Coepi, now I begin, he encouraged, “Begin again, not only every day, but every hour of every day.”

From his writings we hear: “If I should fall even a thousand times a day, a thousand times, with peaceful repentance, I will say immediately, ’Nunc Coepi (now I begin), my God, my God.’”

“Holiness does not consist in never failing, but in rising immediately, recognizing our weaknesses and asking God’s forgiveness …”

Just as God is merciful, we should be merciful with ourselves and others. St. Josemaria Escrivá used the phase as well. He wrote, “This (Nunc Coepi) is the cry of a soul in love which, at every moment, whether it has been faithful or lacking in generosity, renews its desire to serve – to love! – our God with a wholehearted loyalty.”

The graces of this past year should nourish and encourage us on the path ahead. Alimentados. ¡Siempre Adelante!

(Originally published in December 2018 edition of The Valley Catholic newspaper)