Via Crucis: Walking the Way of the Cross

By Brenda Nettles Riojas

The Valley Catholic

SAN JUAN – Walking the Stations of the Cross helps us recall Christ’s final hours.   While images of the 14 stations are displayed inside churches and sometimes outdoors in gardens or prayer paths, the life-size statues of the Passion of Christ, which are situated on the grounds of the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle-National Shrine, help bring to life Christ’s suffering in an especially dramatic way.

A traditional Lenten devotion on Fridays and Good Friday, I thought the Stations of the Cross would be an ideal way to start my own Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday.

During my walk, I talked to one pilgrim, Juanita Aguiñaga of Pharr, who plans to attend daily Mass and walk the Via Crucis each of the 40 days of Lent.

“I want to offer up this sacrifice of love to God for my sins and the sins of the world,” she said, adding, “This is an effort to grow closer to God and grow more in love with him.”

Aguiñaga said seeing the images, life-sized, remind her of how much God loves us and how much his Son suffered for our sins. Confronted with his suffering, “It should truly hurt me to offend him,” she said.

The custom for the Via Crucis originated in the Middle Ages when Christians could not make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

The basilica grounds shaded by mesquites, oaks, elms and palm trees provide a beautiful setting for the Way of the Cross. Benches placed along the way make it convenient to sit in prayer and reflection.

Spending time before each station, gazing on the images, imagining the scene, we can’t help but recognize the tremendous sacrifice that Jesus Christ made as he proceeded on this path in agony and out of obedience to his Father. Station after station he continued no matter the weight of the cross or the suffering he endured, he continued following the will of his Father. Christ’s pain is real.

The sculptor captured it in his face, in his entire body. Barefoot, his face solemn, Jesus carga con su cruz. We see him fall; we see him continue forward. Lou Rodgers, from Boulder, Colo. drew the designs for the statues at the basilica. Italian artist Edmund Rabanser brought the images of the Via Dolorosa to life.

Life-size statues crafted in bronze and resin in aged hues portrays the human form in a size we can visualize. Each scene is set in natural stones to isolate the setting.

The Way of the Cross was a project that took more than five years from initial concept to its dedication in October 1993. It consists of 30 life-size bronze figures located along a path that spans almost one mile.

Rabanser first made a smaller set of the stations (18-inches tall) and worked on them for approximately one year. “I never realized how big this project was,” he said. The Most Rev. John J. Fitzpatrick, bishop of the Diocese of Brownsville at the time, visited the sculptor in to see his work in northern Italy, near the Alps in a town called Ortisei.

It took four and a half years to complete the full set of sculptures for the Stations of the Cross. A master woodcrafter, Rabanser created detailed expressions of each different station. He sculpted each one in order. He said he felt the suffering of Christ as the work proceeded.

Meticulously carved in Italian linden wood, the life-size figures were then reproduced in bronze. He made the crosses from solid oak.

Rabanser, who last visited the Basilica in 2007, to view his work, said he feels a part of them. “I will never make something like this again. Few sculptors have a chance to work on a project like this.”

Thousands of pilgrims come to the Basilica each week, and the Via Dolorosa stands as a permanent invitation to follow Christ’s Passion.

I find the stations where Jesus falls particularly painful, but most painful is the scene in station 11 – Jesus is crucified. He looks to heaven, to his Father; two soldiers hold him down, while another holds a nail in one hand and a hammer in the right. I imagine the nail as our sins and that we hold the hammer.

Walking his last steps, recalling the final hours of our Savior’s pain truly serves as a visual reminder of his love for us and for his Father. Each station provides a different narrative to reflect on and internalize in our own lives.

Pilgrims walk silently along the Via Dolorosa, some leave flowers, sometimes roses. Most often they leave red hibiscus cut from a nearby bush; the flower placed in Christ’s hand or on his crown of thorns.

We finish the fourth station – Christ buried in the tomb. “But the buried Christ,” notes the prayer from the basilica, “is the seed of hope in new life.”

—

Different resources are available for the Stations of the Cross. Copies of the prayers and reflections are available in English and Spanish in the basilica. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has the stations based on those celebrated by Pope John Paul II on Good Friday 1991 accessible on their website (usccb.org). Also, a variety of apps have been developed for I phones and android phones.

(Originally published in the March 2013 issue of The Valley Catholic newspaper.)

Go Outdoors:

 

God Created Natural Pilgrimage Places

By BRENDA NETTLES RIOJAS

The Valley Catholic

WESLACO – Surrounded by the sounds of the black bellied whistling ducks, northern shovelers and other varieties feeding near the shallow ponds in Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco, I was reminded the outdoors serve as a natural pilgrimage site.

Sometimes all it takes to embark on a pilgrimage is a step into our own backyards. We don’t have to travel far to find an hour or more to sit in a garden or beneath a tree and spend time in prayer and silence.

We might choose to travel a little further to the beach, a city park or one of the state parks or national wildlife refuges. The Rio Grande Valley is blessed with thousands of miles of natural habitat.

In this New Year, as I continue on these pilgrimages close to home, I want to include the outdoors. During my first pilgrimage to Estero Llano Grande State Park, on a cold and cloudy day in January, the ducks weren’t complaining about the cold, so how could I. I went bundled and made it a point to sit in silence.

Sitting still can be a challenge, but the natural rhythms of the wildlife in my midst created a perfect setting. Among the honey mesquites, Texas Ebonies and Huisache (Sweet Acacias), the kiskadees, ducks and even the alligators, I felt at peace.

Blessed Pope John Paul II valued his time outdoors. “Whoever really wants to find himself,” he said during one of his vacations in the Dolomites mountains, “must learn to savor nature, whose charm is so intimately linked with the silence of contemplation. The rhythms of creation establish so many paths of extraordinary beauty, along which the sensitive and believing heart easily catches the echo of the mysterious, loftier beauty that is God Himself, the Creator, the source and life of all reality.”

Msgr. Heberto Diaz, Jr., vicar general for the Diocese of Brownsville and pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Brownsville, said he finds peace outdoors and likes to pray in his garden. He said everyone needs to find their own “prayer space” and some people find it outdoors.

Msgr. Diaz, who vacations each year in national parks and served as a park ranger at Big Bend National Park in the 1980s, said he encourages his parishioners, as part of establishing a discipline of prayer, to set aside a space. He added, “There are so many beautiful, natural places that God created. To me these are natural pilgrimage places,” he said.

Msgr. Diaz said as one observes the natural beauty of the outdoors, “each tree, each branch, you can’t help but think, ‘God’s hand was in this.’” One of his favorite spots is Emerald Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park (in Colorado). “I like to go on early morning hikes to be the first one there (Emerald Lake) to be in a quiet space by myself with God.”

Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 after a midday Angelus, talked about nature as a “magnificent gift that presents to us the grandeur of the creator.”

“Contemplating the beauty of creation inspires us to recognize the love of the Creator, that love which “moves the sun and the stars,” he said in his message for World Day of Peace in 2010.

Closer to home, I returned to Estero Llano Grande on a sunnier day and enjoyed the visit as much as the birds and ducks relished their chance to leave their shelters and hunt for food. Estero Llano Grande State Park is one of the nine locations for the World Birding Center. The World Birding Center in the Rio Grande Valley features nine sites from South Padre Island to Roma. As a migration corridor, more than 500 bird species have been recorded in the four-county area.

The centers include, Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park in Mission, Edinburg Scenic Wetlands, Estero Llano Grande (Weslaco), Harlingen Arroyo Colorado, Old Hidalgo Pumphouse, Quinta Mazatlan (McAllen), Resaca de la Palma (Brownsville), Roma Bluffs and South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center.

The state parks and national wildlife refuges draw birders from around the world. Some days can get busy, but even on a busy day visitors can find some quiet near one of the ponds or trails. Estero Llano Grande, which sits on 176 acres, has more than five miles of hiking trails. The shadier spots are near the Alligator Lake. There are also some nice sitting areas near the butterfly gardens.

Susan Keefer, a volunteer at Estero Llano Grande from Vermont, said the stillness in nature energizes her. “It charges me.” She and her husband who retired 15 years ago started coming south when they started following the migration of the birds. “We became a migratory species,” she said.

Keefer and her husband lead educational programs at the park and have led them as well in Maine where they volunteer during summer months. One of the lessons she teaches students is to stop and sit still. “Magic moments,” she said, those moments when a butterfly will rest on your shoulder or a bird will approach to eat nearby, “only come when you stop.”

As I attempt to visit each of the state parks and national wildlife refuges in the Valley this year, I am thankful for the inspiration the Lord provided in January as I sat and hiked at Estero Llano Grande, “the wet place on the big plain.”

(Originally published in the February 2013 issue of The Valley Catholic newspaper.)

 

 

Un Pueblo de Guadalupanos

Feast day celebrates patroness of the Americas

By BRENDA NETTLES RIOJAS

The Valley Catholic

BROWNSVILLE — Priests on horseback, matachines dancing in the streets, the voices of the faithful, hundreds, joined in prayer and song, as processions from three directions converge on Lincoln Street for a Mass commemorating the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

On Dec. 12, the feast day of the patroness of the Americas, you can feel the energy of the community coming together to celebrate.

While millions make a pilgrimage each year to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City for the feast day, local celebrations draw hundreds and thousands here in the Rio Grande Valley.

In the Diocese of Brownsville, three historical parishes (in Brownsville, Mission and Raymondville) and three mission churches (in Expressway Heights, La Villa and El Sauz) named after Our Lady of Guadalupe can serve as pilgrimage sites closer to home. Her feast day is an ideal time as each church prepares a full schedule in honor of their namesake.

Bishop Daniel E. Flores, during an outdoor Mass in 2011 for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Brownsville, said, “We recognize the importance to publically manifest the faith we have of God’s closeness through the presence of the Mother of Christ in our lives.”

He said, the Virgin Mary announces with her presence the new hope of the world. “Dios se acuerda de su pueblo. (God remembers his people.)”

The public manifestation joins parishioners from different parishes. Some parishes celebrate with midnight vigils, mañanitas, processions, and plays honoring the Virgin Mary.

In the Brownville procession in 2011, while some walked and sang, floats carried representations of the apparition with young girls dressed as the Blessed Mother and young boys as Blessed Juan Diego. Our Lady’s image, multiplied on banners, paintings, and t-shirts, was carried through the streets.

The faithful also bring her roses on Dec. 12, some cut from home gardens, some purchased, some made of silk and others hand made from paper.

Father Jorge Gomez, chancellor of the diocese and pastor of Holy Family Church in Brownsville, said it is important to continue the traditions of the Dec. 12 feast day. “We are one family and she gathers us together on that day,” he said.

“Amid the moral and cultural challenges of our time,” Father Gomez said, “she is looked to as model for furthering the new evangelization.”

“Our Lady of Guadalupe has been the greatest missionary that the world has known,” he said. “She is still changing hearts and minds. We continue honoring her as the mother of God, and she will continue leading us to her son Jesus Christ.”

The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe was chosen by bishops of the United States to be a part of the Calendar for U.S. dioceses in 1971. The feast day commemorates the apparition of the Virgin Mary to the Indian Juan Diego, at Tepeyac, a hill northwest of Mexico City in December, 1531, ten years after the conquest of Mexico by Spain.

Oblate priest Father Roy Snipes, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Mission, said the apparition “tells us she (Virgin Mary) loves us and is with us.”

He said that just as Juan Diego, who was canonized in 2002, responded to Our Blessed Mother’s request almost 500 years ago, celebrations on her feast day remind us “ordinary people in their ordinary lives are in touch with God’s saving love.”

On Wednesday, Dec. 12, Bishop Flores will celebrate an outdoor Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Brownsville with parishioners from all the local churches.

(Originally published in the December 2012 issue of The Valley Catholic newspaper.)

Go west to Starr County

Sanctuary 

found among

the mesquites

in rattlesnake

country

By Brenda Nettles Riojas

The Valley Catholic

RIO GRANDE CITY – Sometimes, we need a break from routine, so I went west. I made my way to an oasis of quiet, hidden among the mesquites, brush and cacti in Starr County where the Sisters of the Benedictine Monastery of the Good Shepherd welcome visitors year round.

Some guests come to visit for a few hours, some to stay at one of the casitas on the property for a personal retreat, and some for a discernment weekend or a group retreat. I came for a combination of field reporting and a mini private retreat.

The rock and gravel road leading to the monastery slowed my pace from the start. There is no speeding, no rush, on Monastery Lane.

It’s a good idea to call in advance and make arrangements. Some weekends the retreat center and casitas fill with retreatants. Plus, the sisters like to be on hand to welcome every guest.

They personalized a note outlining some essentials (the gate code and the code to the Fountain of Life Chapel for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament). Included as well, some advice in case snakes are around: “Just let them pass and continue.”

“The Good Shepherd Handmaidens pray for you before you arrive, during your stay and in your absence,” reads the note.

The monastery exists because of the dreams, prayers and work of these “handmaidens” – three sisters from Crookston, Minn., Benedictine Sisters Nancy Boushey, Luella Walsh and Fran Solum, who moved to the Rio Grande Valley in the early 70s and mid-80s.

“We had $900 and an old car and a lot of people praying for us, and some of them thinking we were crazy of course, and sometimes we thought we were crazy too,” Sister Nancy shared about their decision in 1989 to give up their salaried positions and start their monastery in the remote reaches of Starr County.

Monasteries have a long history dating back to the fourth and fifth century. Sisters Nancy, Luella and Fran live in a monastic community and “live the Gospel in the spirit of Saint Benedict.” St. Benedict is known as the founder of western monasticism.

Twenty-three years since the nuns moved west to Starr County, their monastery serves as an ideal place to visit and find some quiet time for prayer in the remote dry brush land. One of the highlights, however, comes from spending time with the Sisters. Their welcoming spirit and love exemplify Christ’s teachings. Without words, their kindness and hospitality inspire me.

They inspire others as well. Shortly after moving into a rat infested home in El Sauz, the three sisters mobilized hundreds of volunteers and started raising funds for their monastery.

Just eight miles from the Rio Grande River, the monastery sits on 115 acres of land donated by Texaco Oil Company in 1993. But it took seven years to get an easement to what the sisters call their “Promised Land.” Meanwhile, they lived in a mobile home until 2004.

The nuns added the Monte Cassino Renewal and Conference Center in 2008 to accommodate retreats for lay and religious groups. They are now raising funds to add additional rooms.

Visitors staying in one of the casitas provide for their own meals, but during my visit, the sisters invited me to join them for a grilled cheese sandwich and soup dinner. As we ate, an array of cardinals, green jays, house wrens and tree swallows pecked at their own dinner at feeders outside the window. Some days, road runners and javelinas make an appearance as well.

“Our guardian angels are the paisanos (roadrunners). They kill rattlesnakes,” said Sister Nancy.

During my stay I had a chance to spend some time with the women participating in their monthly Ora et Labora Discernment Weekend. Ora et Labora is Latin for pray and work.

Irma Wolcott from Laguna Vista was assisting that weekend as she does monthly with the discernment vocation retreats. She first visited the monastery six years ago. “They (nuns) are absolutely wonderful. Their hospitality is tremendous,” she said. “You feel like you are walking on holy ground,” she added about the monastery.

After our visit, we ended with the Lectio Divina and I returned to the Blessed Marmion Casita just a few feet from the monastic residence. When Sister Nancy assigned me to the casita I had not heard of Blessed Marmion, a Benedictine Irish monk who was beatified by Blessed John Paul II in 2000. After some research I learned that Blessed Marmion’s spiritual writings are highly regarded.

I stayed up past 1 a.m. writing, enjoying the solitude. The next morning, I did not want to leave the serenity of the brush country. I delayed my departure with an early morning walk and some time sitting in the back patio of the casita. My visit not long enough, but I know I will return – si Dios quiere.

(Originally published in the November 2012 issue of The Valley Catholic newspaper.)

Dia de Los Muertos 

at the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center, San Benito

We celebrated with words and honored our mothers and fathers, abuelas y abuelas, tías y tíos, and so many others who came before us.

I read a new poem that I am still tweaking. The working title is "La Muerte No Triunfa." The poem was inspired by a story I wrote two years ago (see story below) and my own run ins and confrontations with death.

We Remember the Dead

Death does not mean the end.

“Life is changed, not ended,” said Father Gregory Labus, coordinator of the Office of Liturgy and Worship for the Diocese of Brownsville and pastor of St. Joseph Church in Edinburg.

November, he pointed out, is the month dedicated to remembering the dead.

On All Saints' Day, Nov. 1, Catholics honor the saints, and on All Souls' Day, Nov. 2, Catholics not only remember those who have died but they also celebrate life, he said.

One tradition to mark All Souls' Day -- Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) -- is experiencing a resurgence in the Rio Grande Valley. It involves making an altar in memory of family and friends who have died.

Father Ignacio Luna, pastor at St. Benedict Church in San Benito said “undoubtedly, this is a custom that is growing…It awakens once again that consciousness that was getting lost.”

“It makes people think about the future, about death and not just about the material world, but about how we live our lives and treat others,” he added.

Each year at his parish, Father Luna sets up an altar for the dead so that parishioners may bring photos of their loved ones and place their ofrendas, items the deceased liked, such as flowers, food or candy.

Father Jorge Gomez, Chancellor of the Diocese of Brownsville and pastor of Holy Family in Brownsville, said the tradition goes back to the Aztecs and the Mayans who offered a Feast of the Little Dead remembering infants and children, and a Feast of the dead.

"For God no one is dead, everyone is alive, and we celebrate their lives," he said. "It's a way to commemorate and remember people we love. ... As long as we remember, they're still alive in our hearts and minds."

Father Luna, who grew up in Mexico, remembers the elaborate preparations from his childhood and that continue in many parts of Mexico. He points to the bright colors used – vivid oranges, greens, purples, yellows and reds –and to the festive atmosphere that surrounds the day.

“The colors are alive,” he said. “They manifest the joy because there is no sadness, no mourning, no use of black. There is simply joy and happiness because their souls are already in God’s hands.”

“Es una fiesta no para llorar, sino para gozar,” he said.

Octavio Paz once wrote that, “In the United States the word death burns the lips, but the Mexican lives close to it, jokes about it, caresses it, celebrates it, sleeps with it, it is his favorite toy.”

Hence some of the customs, such as decorating the altars with skeletons and skulls, poke fun at death and serve as reminders about our mortality.

Father Gomez said, “It’s a cultural way of looking at death… La muerte no triunfa. We celebrate life, not death. We are not afraid of death because death does not have the final word in this life,” he added.

Sister Norma Pimentel, a Missionary of Jesus who is the diocesan director of Catholic Charities, said that creating an altar to remember the dead can help in the healing process of dealing with the death of a loved one. “It helps us accept and recognize that we are born of the earth and return to it.”

“We celebrate death and elevate them (loved ones) to God. We accept every aspect of our lives,” she added.

She said the entire process of making an altar contributes to the healing. “Collecting the items for the altar and placing them alongside religious icons in conjunction with pictures helps us remember them, and what they meant in our lives.”

One aspect of All Souls' Day that tends to get lost in the United States is "the doctrine of purgatory," which "has been overshadowed," Father Labus said. Since the Second Vatican Council, he noted, "there has not been as much emphasis for prayer for the dead."

The liturgical readings during this time of year shift to the end of times when God comes in glory and calls his people home, he said. "The Gospel readings focus on the idea that we must always be prepared and ask us to reflect on the question: Have we lived our lives according to the Gospels?"

"It's all tied together," Father Labus said. "On All Souls' Day we pray and remember the dead, and we are reminded that we will follow and should live the Gospel now."

Originally published in The Valley Catholic, October 2010

In honor of the Feast Day of St. Jude Thaddeus celebrated Oct. 28, here is an article I wrote for the Pilgrimages Close to Home series published in The Valley Catholic Newspaper.

“La Cuevita” de San Judas Tadeo

By Brenda Nettles Riojas

The Valley Catholic

PHARR — Inside a small cave in Pharr, candles flicker night and day before a statue of St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint for hopeless cases.

Each day people come. They come all day said Sister Estela Cantu, a secular sister of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, and pastoral administrator of St. Jude Thaddeus Church in Pharr.

They come to pray before the saint and ask for his intercession. They come to give him thanks.

Ignacio and Alejandra Hernandez of Edinburg, originally from Mexico City, come every eight days, “To thank him for all his favors, and for all the ways he helps us,” said Alejandra Hernandez, adding “porque es muy milagroso.”

Ignacio Hernandez wears a green and white habit and holds his miracle, his three-year-old son, in his arm and he walks on his knees approaching the shrine dedicated to St. Jude.

“The doctors said I could not have another child,” his wife shares as she holds her baby daughter in her arms. The Hernandez have three children now. They named their second child, the three-year-old, Tadeo after the saint. Their oldest son is now 13.

Sister Cantu said, “It’s beautiful to see the way people come in. …He just has so many followers who are very grateful for what he has done for them. St. Jude intercedes for them.”

“They keep coming back to thank him every time with flowers, with candles,” she added.

She noted that even though the parish does not publicize “la cuevita” as it has been called over the years, people find it. “He has a lot of followers. We’re here in a little corner, but people find us.”

Buses filled with pilgrims come on the weekend as well; some arrive from Houston and San Antonio after their visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle-National Shrine in San Juan.

While the shrine is popular year round, the saints feast day on Oct.28 draws even larger numbers of faithful who want to honor the saint. Sister Cantu said people come all day and bring mariachis and matachines, and many come dressed as St. Jude.

Also, leading up to the feast day, the parish promotes a solemn novena. This year the novena begins Oct.20 and every intention and petition received will be placed under the altar during the Masses on Oct. 28.

A pathway from the parish church leads to the “Cuevita de San Judas Tadeo,” a man-made cave constructed around 1952 to house a statue of St. Jude Thaddeus, one of the twelve apostles.

The small concrete shrine, which measures 33 feet by 25 feet, was built to accommodate the high volume of faithful and the candles they left before the statue inside the church. The parish community at the time was afraid the church might catch fire because of all the candles.

Oratorian Father Leo Francis Daniel said a chapel with a cross was built adjacent to “la cuevita” to remind people that Christ comes first and that St. Jude is an intercessor.

Who knows how many people have come and have kneeled at the entrance of the cave praying before

the saint who gives them hope? Some clues as to the requests and petitions are left behind on two side bulletin boards and wire grids where the faithful pin milagro charms and notes, thank yous and supplications – their hopes and needs left before the saint. They leave photos of sonograms, newborns, soldiers, quinceañeras, homes, and wrecked cars.

One woman left a note asking for prayers for her surgery scheduled this past July. Another left a photo of her home asking St. Jude for his help. “No quiero perder mi casa,” (“I don’t want to lose my home”) it reads.

Norma Ramos of Harlingen visited on a Saturday afternoon at the sun’s peak hour. She has been visiting the “cuevita” for 20 years. She came with her daughter and grandchildren. Her daughter, Gloria, credits her mother for passing on the devotion to St. Jude.

“You pray and your prayers get answered,” Gloria Ramos said.

St. Jude Thaddeus Church, which is under the care of the Oratorian priests, was established in 1950. Each Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. they display a relic of St. Jude and celebrate a Novena Mass and Benediction. The Sunday Mass schedule includes a traditional Latin Mass at 8 a.m.

(Originally published in the October 2012 issue of The Valley Catholic newspaper.)