Life’s disruptions: Are we ever ready?

Yes. We all know hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. Before it even begins and throughout the season, we hear the forewarning “Be Prepared.” In our July edition of the newspaper, we ran a full page with a checklist on how to prepare. I wonder how many of us actually went through the list and took steps to get everything in order?

The downpours in June reminded us how vulnerable we are in the Rio Grande Valley to prolonged heavy rainfall. Many families are still recovering from the damages. Some of our parishes and Catholic schools in the Mid-Valley woke up June 20 to flooded buildings. San Martin de Porres School lost everything.

Natural disasters shake us, just as medical emergencies and other unexpected circumstances do. The disruptions in our lives not only shake us; they awaken us to what is truly important –  our families, our friends, our community – people.

Hurricane Dolly in 2008, the first direct hit to our area since Hurricane Beulah in 1967, caused some considerable damage to our home and left us without power for several days. As we made an inventory of the damage, what mattered most was not what we lost, but that we were together and together we could manage. The disruption reminded us as well that we are just passing through this world as pilgrims. We are not taking anything with us when we leave.

While it can be devastating to lose personal belongings when a natural disaster occurs, we learn in time that material things can be replaced. Indeed, God makes all things new.

A year ago, as we waited for Hurricane Harvey to hit, I began to worry. After our experience in 2008, I knew we were not ready. My husband, who lives the Boy Scout motto “Be prepared,” was ready on the survival aspect. However, my concern focused on the documents and photos. They are not all in one quick access location.

We were fortunate this time that the hurricane, a category 4, missed the Rio Grande Valley as it made landfall in other parts of the state. It devastated and displaced thousands of families, leaving behind $125 billion in damage. In the midst of this disaster, we witnessed signs of hope in the way people responded with relief efforts to help those most impacted. We truly do not walk alone, although sometimes it may feel that way.

We never know when a storm will strike us directly, and often times we are unprepared for the landfall of any type of storm, whether a natural disaster, health crisis, tragic accident or home emergency.  However, we can take some precautions, some practical steps to help us during challenging times.

It’s too easy to become complacent, with fingers crossed that the storm will miss us, that we will be spared the disruption in our life. Reality dictates otherwise. Life is messy. I discovered this recently with a leak in my ceiling that required me to remove everything in the room that could get wet. It was certainly an inconvenient disruption, but one that made me pay attention to how I could better organize.

Why not do our part to be a little more prepared to deal with the messy? Why not start by making a personal risk assessment? What are the vulnerable points in your home? Are you in a flood risk area? Do you have adequate insurance? Ask yourself: “If I had to leave my home this instant, what would I take with me? What would I save?” Naturally, the people in our lives are at the top of the list. But what else would you take? What are the essentials you need: medication, prescriptions, vital records, insurance documents? Do you have a Last Will and Testament?

My son and daughter are never comfortable when I remind them before I leave on a trip where to find my Last Will and Testament, but I know it will be helpful should it ever be needed. No, it is not easy to talk about some realities. No, I don’t think we can ever be fully prepared for the crisis that may come. However, we can do our part. We can also rest assured God will remain always at our side and guide us through the storms in our lives, no matter what they may be.

Each year as I get older, I feel the pressure to take action and spend less time worrying about all the things on the check list I don’t have in order. I pray that Mother Nature will be gentle this hurricane season. In the meantime, I have a lot to do.

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

Outpouring of cariño provides space for healing

Some families would arrive in the morning, some in late evening, sometimes in the middle of the night at 3 a.m. The time did not matter; staff at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle-National Shrine was ready to receive the immigrant children and parents who had just been reunified a few hours before at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Bayview.

With open arms and an outpouring of love, the Catholic Church in the Rio Grande Valley provided families with a safe and holy place to reconnect with each other after weeks and months of being separated.

From the first families that arrived on July 13 to the last two on July 30, more than 500 reunited families spent their first nights together, reunified on the basilica grounds.

One child said it would be the first night she would go to sleep without crying now that she was with her mother. One mother from Honduras who was reunified with her son on July 27 after 55 days of being apart did not sleep that first night. She wanted to watch her son sleep and hear his heart beat. "Mi corazón comenzó a palpitar de nuevo,” she said. (My heart began to beat again.)

She recounted the pain of her initial reunification, saying it took nearly an hour for her six-year-old son to hug her at the detention center. “No me toques,” he told her; “no te conozco. Tu me abandonaste.” (Don’t touch me. I don’t know you. You abandoned me.”)

Each child, mother, father who was thankful for their reunification carries at the same time untold traumas because of their separation. As a nation, many of us felt helpless as more than 2,000 immigrant children were separated from their parents as part of the “zero-tolerance” policy.

As soon as the reunification of families began, everyone wanted to do what they could. Here in our diocese we witnessed the Church in action during a critical time. This is an amazing moment in the history of the Church. We focused not on the politics but rather on taking care of our brothers and sisters before us.

The Church response is not new. It is ongoing. Each week since 2012, volunteers pray with children who are living in detention centers for unaccompanied minors. They sit and listen to their hopes and dreams, their prayers to be reunified with their family.  Also, other volunteers help keep the Humanitarian Respite Center in operation. To date, more than 100,000 immigrant men, women and children have found rest at the center, which first opened in 2014 at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen and is now at a temporary site nearby.

“This is a blessed moment, where we have been chosen to care for them, to welcome them, to help them beyond this point in their journey,” said Sister Norma Pimentel, of the Missionaries of Jesus, who has been overseeing the care of newly released immigrants as executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.

From the moment they arrive, it is important to welcome them and care for them, to let them know that they are safe, said Sister Pimentel, who is a licensed professional counselor. “The moment that another human being opens up their heart and their care to them begins a process of healing,” she said. “That human contact is so transformative, and that is what is happening here.”

Witnessing the Church’s response, witnessing the people who turned all their attention to helping the families, helps us to see the light of Christ shine in even the darkest of times.

Their joy was contagious as we witnessed countless embraces between children and their mothers and fathers. Their smiles and laughter gave us hope. We trust in God that that their faith will continue to guide them in the journey ahead.

As we rejoiced with families celebrating their reunions, it was joyful as well to serve. Consuelo Jones from Mission worked from early morning into the evening securing food for each meal. Socorro Ortega and her family drove to San Juan from Brownsville at 5 a.m. to cook breakfast for the families. Parishes and businesses donated meals as well. St. John the Baptist Church in San Juan hosted an outdoor picnic for the families. The youths from the parish organized games and gifts for the children. The abundance of giving from so many in our diocese translated into smiles for the children and their parents. That evening, they cried, they celebrated, they rejoiced.

An added joy, on Friday after the government’s deadline to reunite families, the six-year-old who hesitated to hug his mother at their initial reunification presented her with a yellow Esperanza flower he found after spending the morning with her. He picked it for her just as he used to pick flowers for her when they were in Honduras, she said.

To witness and be a part of this moment in history is the most blessed experience of all my years of working with the Church.

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

What we can do

When Wyne Cler from Denver Colorado heard volunteers were needed, she signed up, booked a flight to McAllen, and came with her 13-year-old daughter Lucy to the Humanitarian Respite Center. She did not know what she would be doing, knew her Spanish was rudimentary, but she knew she wanted to help in any way she could.

As she held and rocked a baby from Honduras in her arms so the mother could rest, Cler said “We have to do this. How can we not come?” She knows what it is like to be an immigrant. Cler was 2 1/2 years old when she came to the United States with her parents as refugees from Vietnam in 1975. “I don’t care what your politics are; we have to do the right thing,” she said.

Retirees Steve, 85, and Ruth Mohyla, 82, from Cypress, Texas also acted on the impulse to help. “We wanted to do something.” The couple drove down to the Rio Grande Valley and heard about the Humanitarian Respite Center at their hotel.

Awakened by the cries of immigrant children who have been separated from their parents, people locally and from different parts of Texas and the United States have stopped what they were doing, some taking time off from work, to take action.

We have all been impacted, shocked that this could happen in our nation, that children could be used as pawns in a deterrence measure that is cruel and unjust. Bishop Daniel E. Flores in an early statement said, “the systematic separation of immigrant parents and children at the border is simply cruel…This nation, for the sake of its soul, must learn to weep with these children, and all the children who are being instrumentalized and commodified in our midst.”

As we cry with the children who must feel lost and alone, we cannot even fathom the long-term damage this is causing them and our nation. It is heartbreaking to hear the cries of children who are calling out for their parents. The cries published by ProPublica are but a glimpse of these dark days. Dr. Amy Cohen, a child psychiatrist who came from Los Angeles and talked to some of the children and mothers, estimates that 90 percent of the people who come through the respite center door have had some type of moderate to severe trauma.

But we find hope in the midst of tragedy. We find it in each other.

A documentarian who came to the border to cover the story, asked some good questions that we see answered here by the response of hundreds, even thousands — “How is God at work in the midst of this crisis? And how can we see that and participate?”

We see it every day. Because of our humanity, we look for ways to help a brother and sister in need. For four years volunteers have helped to keep the Humanitarian Respite Center open. To date, more than 100,000 immigrant men, women and children have found rest at the center, which first opened at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen and is now at a temporary site nearby. Sister Norma Pimentel, with the Missionaries of Jesus, who oversees the work of the respite center as executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, reminds us we are restoring people’s dignity with our simple acts of kindness — with a warm welcome, “Bienvenidos!” a warm meal, a shower, a smile. You can see the transformation occur within minutes.

While at the respite center one evening, a nine-month old baby delighted after a fussy spell when his mother fed him small pieces of carrots and potatoes from a warm bowl of soup. As she first mashed the pieces between her fingers, she told me this was his first warm meal in days. Across the room, a three-year-old boy was taking turns feeding himself and feeding his father with a spoon. Witnessing these simple moments, filled me with joy, and with a renewed energy to do more.

God is certainly at work daily through the volunteers from here in the Rio Grande Valley who help year round and from the volunteers who are coming from Los Angeles, Laredo, Dallas, Kansas City, Toledo Ohio, New York City, New Jersey and countless other locations. They all have come in response to a spontaneous desire to help in some way.

We are witnessing “an extra measure of cariños and solidarity as an expression of support” said one volunteer coordinator. This is evident in the overwhelming response from people from across the nation, via donations, prayers and volunteering.

Four years ago, when Sister Norma asked the parish priest to borrow the parish hall for a few days, no one imagined it would continue this long. The days, weeks, months ahead are filled with uncertainty in regard to the different immigration realities, but we cannot lose hope. In the words of Bishop Flores, we must continue “as a community to pray for families and children affected by this enforcement policy, and that our country’s laws be crafted and administered with human compassion.”

What we are doing, taking action with our prayers and fasting, by speaking up and contacting our leaders, by staying informed, by donating, by volunteering, is the visible reality of God at work in our midst.

Even children of all ages are doing what they can. One group of children from San Francisco sent a bundle of cards with hand drawn pictures and messages. “Sending love from San Francisco” read one written in crayons. An older child wrote, “les quería enviar un cariño mensaje de apoyo y solidaridad....Todo el país está pensando en ustedes y no les van a dejar solos.” “Eres bienvenido aquí. Estamos contigo.”

At a prayer vigil on June 20, Bishop Flores said, “We recognize that God puts us on the road that other people travel so that we might help them. That is the spirit of this walk. That God puts us really today on the road that helps to be servants of those who walk....”

A nine-year-old from Dallas, Sean Bertram, who came with his father to the respite center, served water his first day to thirsty immigrants who had just arrived. He said it was his first volunteer experience, and his best decision ever. “It’s the least I can do,” he said. His example reminds us all that we can each do something.

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

Not just Workin’ for a Livin’

During these summer months, we start thinking more about vacation days, looking for ways to take a break from work. Some companies even adjust for summer hours or close for a few weeks.

Year round, advertisers try to tempt us with images of rest and leisure. They want us to imagine ourselves near the beach, idle, holding a cold drink. They paint inactivity as an ideal moment we should constantly pursue.

While we consider our vacation options this summer, as these opportunities certainly afford us periods to recharge our batteries and spend more time with family, I think we can also consider the blessings of work both at home and in our professional occupations. After all, the reality of work continues no matter the month.

Rather than looking at work as drudgery or an obligation we try to escape, St. Josemaria Escrivá, whose feast day we observe on June 26, taught that work can be a path to holiness.  “Work is a gift from God,” he said. “It is something to be sanctified and something which sanctifies.” (Christ is Passing By, 47).

The founder of Opus Dei (Latin for “Work of God”) said, “Work is part and parcel of man’s life on earth. It involves effort, weariness, exhaustion: signs of the suffering and struggle which accompany human existence and which point to the reality of sin and the need for redemption. But in itself work is not a penalty or a curse or a punishment.”

He further notes, “It makes no sense to classify men differently, according to their occupation, as if some jobs were nobler than others. Work, all work, bears witness to the dignity of man, to his dominion over creation. It is an opportunity to develop one’s personality. It is a bond of union with others, the way to support one’s family, a means of aiding in the improvement of the society in which we live and in the progress of all humanity” (Christ is Passing By, 47).

Among our Catholic devotions, there are a variety of novenas, a nine-day prayer period, to ask God for a specific intention. a “novena for work” to St. Josemaria offers some good points to consider. The focus for each of the nine days is reflected in the titles: 1. Work as a path to holiness; 2. Work done for love of God; 3. Working with order and constancy; 4. Well-finished work; 5. All honest work is dignified; 6. Work done in company with God, and with rectitude of intention; 7. Maturing in virtue though work; 8. Work as service, a help for others; and 9. Apostolate through work.

The selection from his writings and intention each day offer a closer look at the value of the work we do. They remind us of the power of prayer, love and sacrifice.

Reading further, here are a few of his words on the subject:

“Sanctity is not for a privileged few. The Lord calls all of us. He expects love from all of us — from everyone, wherever they are; from everyone, whatever their state in life, their profession or job. For the daily life we live, apparently so ordinary, can be a path to sanctity: it is not necessary to abandon one’s place in the world in order to search for God … because all the paths of the earth can be the occasion for an encounter with Christ” (Letter 24-III-1930, no. 2).

“Let us work. Let us work a lot and work well, without forgetting that prayer is our best weapon. That is why I will never tire of repeating that we have to be contemplative souls in the middle of the world, who try to convert their work into prayer.” (Furrow, Work, Chap. 15, 497)

“It is no good offering to God something that is less perfect than our poor human limitations permit. The work that we offer must be without blemish and it must be done as carefully as possible, even in its smallest details, for God will not accept shoddy workmanship. 'Thou shalt not offer anything that is faulty,' Holy Scripture warns us, 'because it would not be worthy of him.' For that reason, the work of each one of us, the activities that take up our time and energy, must be an offering worthy of our Creator. It must be operatio Dei, a work of God that is done for God: in short, a task that is complete and faultless.” (Friends of God, Working for God, 47)

“We acquire the style of contemplative souls, in the midst of our daily work! Because we become certain that he is watching us, while he asks us to conquer ourselves anew: a little sacrifice here, a smile there for someone who bothers us, beginning the least pleasant but most urgent job first, carefulness in little details of order, perseverance in the fulfilment of our duty when it would be so easy to abandon it, not leaving for tomorrow what should be finished today: and all this, to please him, Our Father God!”  (Friends of God, Working for God, 67)

St. Josemaria’s writings are reinvigorating, placing work in a new light. While we are “workin’ for a livin’" as intoned in the 1980’s song by Huey Lewis and the News, our work can also sanctify us. No matter how monotonous or challenging, our prayers direct our approach. And this makes all the difference, filling each task with joy.

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

While we wait, a word on patience, time

Pedir, confiar y esperar” (Ask, trust and wait). Father Ignacio Luna, one of our retired priests who recently published a collection of poetry, opens his poem “3 Virtudes,” with these key words. The last word, esperar, makes me stumble.

Our addiction to immediacy pushes us towards impatience. We have an aversion to waiting. Hence, the growing tide of fast foods, overnight deliveries and on-demand videos. We have fed a microwave culture, and allowed it to ensnare us.

Daily we are caught in moments of waiting, waiting for something to occur or waiting at times for God to respond to our prayers. In a world that continually pushes for speed and efficiency, patience seems to get lost in the rush.

Waiting, however, helps us cultivate patience. We can choose to get agitated when confronted with a delay, or we can opt instead to reframe the moment. Consider the purpose for the extra time.

For example, no one likes to wait in line, but we wait when we deem something worthy enough of our time.  In April, on our last day in Rome after attending a seminar for church communication offices, we wanted to visit the Vatican and pray inside St. Peter’s Basilica. The line seemed endless. It curved like a river with thousands of people. It took an hour and a half before we cleared security to walk inside the basilica. It was certainly worth the wait to enter the largest Catholic Church in the world.

After our visit, I realized that the waiting provided us with time to talk to people, to share stories. It allowed time for the encounter with one another, with people we might have seen in passing but never stopped to get to know like the newlyweds from Ohio  on their honeymoon and the family from Poland. A young man, Bartłomiej, was holding a spot for his elderly parents who were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. His mother was confirmed by Father Karol Wojtyła in Poland, St. John Paul II when he was a priest.

During Lent, we were waiting for Easter, anticipating the Resurrection. Lent gave us time to prepare ourselves through prayer, almsgiving and fasting for the special feast day.

Patience is not an excuse to sit idle. During the wait-time, there is likely something we can begin doing. Also, special graces may be occurring of which we may not be fully aware. Just as we can’t see all the work roots undertake beneath the soil, a transformation may be occurring, or something may be taking shape beyond our knowing, beyond what we can see.

In May, the month of Mary, we can take some lessons from our Blessed Mother. Saint Alphonsus Liguori, in his book The Glories of Mary reminds us, “God gave us the Blessed Virgin Mary as a model of all virtues, but more especially as an example of patience.”

As a mother, I also have a growing appreciation for St. Monica, who prayed for 17 years for the conversion of her son St. Augustine of Hippo. St. Monica never gave up on her loved ones, as her prayers also led to the conversion of her husband and her mother-in-law.

In reference to the word esperar, Father Luna writes in his poem, “…espera sin desesperar / la respuesta divina, / pues Dios sabe en qué / momento, nos da lo pedido.” (waiting without despair the divine response, God knows the moment in which he will grant what was asked.)

With these words, he reminds we need to trust a response will come in God’s time frame. As much as we like to set our own deadlines, we need to recognize there is a value to waiting.

It may be helpful to remember this in our day-to-day undertakings.

“When will you make an end?” asks Pope Julius II of Michelangelo in the movie, The Agony and the Ecstasy. Impatient for the completion of the Sistine Chapel, the pope pressured the artist to hurry. Michelangelo’s response: “When I’m finished.”

Indeed, a masterpiece can’t always be rushed. Michelangelo’s frescos, on the famous ceiling that now draws more than 20,000 visitors each day, were unveiled four years after he started his work. Consider the community at Sacred Heart Parish in Hidalgo. They spent 13 years to raise and save money for their new church which should be completed by June.

While we may not have been commissioned for something as grand as the Sistine Chapel or to build a church, anything worth doing well requires patience and time. This includes our personal growth and our relationships with others. We are all a work in progress. Perhaps learning to be patient with ourselves, others, and God is part of the journey.

In his prayer “Patient Trust,” the late Jesuit Priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin notes, “Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.”

He ends: “Give our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.”

We can also take a cue from the parable of the persistent widow and remember “to pray always without becoming weary.” (Luke 18: 1-8)

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

How one year turned into a 20-year pilgrimage

Twenty years ago, my son was in first grade, my daughter in preschool. I was content working for a school district at the time and taking graduate classes, on track with the 10 and 20-year-plan I outlined for my family and myself. However, God had other plans. I did not realize at the time, but he was calling me home, back to the Church. His accomplice, my husband who faxed in my résumé to the diocese, helped me pay attention.

When I started in 1998, I did not know what to expect. I thought I would try it out for a year. Fast forward to 2018 where April 6 marks the 20-year anniversary of my first day on the job. But the word “job” no longer fits, as the journey taught me that my work here is a ministry. Likewise, these years have served as ongoing catechesis and provided some life-changing lessons.

Learning to surrender ranks as one of the most impactful lessons. Connected to this came lessons in patience and humility. Also, I count the gift of each encounter with the people in our diocese which continually reinforces the intricate ways God connects us to one another. 

The pilgrimage continues and I still have much more to learn. For now, I leave you with two poems from my manuscript titled Somewhere Between Surrender.

The Painter Stirs Each Moment

He paints pink oleanders in my backyard, blends

greens into shade, into palms, basil, bougainvillea,

adds salmon into the mix. He stirs blues of the sky

with grays, oranges, pinks. He creates colors we

try to name, gives light, whispers his directions.

The path sometimes blurs in my eyes. He wakes

me with aromas peppered with spice, the perfume

of gardenias, the voice of love, the cries of my

babies gone now, making their own ways,

the premonitions afloat en el Rio Grande

with songs from la frontera.

Mixed media on canvas. Los consejos de mi mama,

la industria de mi abuela, the chess moves my

father tried to teach me, the birdhouses I painted

with mis pequeños, their laughter a contagious tint.

He holds some colors in reserve. Offers hues we

might not dare. He gifts the lizards their own

paintbrush, these chameleons that scale my

porch screens. He, the master painter, in the light

of the Resurrection. I, his apprentice, his groupie,

his skinned-kneed child. I paint with bloodied palms,

color all over the page. I cannot sing, hold a tune,

tantas las canciones, but I write, try to capture

lightning on the page, try to end the hunger, try

to keep from catching fire, catch daylight, answers,

hear the symphony of the hours in each moment.

A Work in Progress

Our expectations falter, critical selves of missteps

and falls. He picks us up, trusts us, again

and again and again. He wants to hear our laughter, cheers

us on, wipes our tears. Abba, I am your work in progress.

Yet you deliver surprises with a bouquet of red

kalanchoes wrapped in Sunday comics.

He does not count promises, disappointments; he picks

us up, gathers our dandelion florets scattered by

day's wind, nudges us in the direction, through hikes

in el Valle's wild, witness the gold blooms on the huisache.

If cactus flowers bring spring to the desert,

I offer my day, my poems, in prayer, in thanksgiving. Ni

el frio de Abril, ni la inquietud del miedo me quita

el ánimo. I wake each day for you Lord, incomplete I look

to discover your work in progress, your surprises, todas

tus maravillas. I surrender. May my pilgrimage walk

give witness to his love.

Look! Where are you focusing your lens?

Lately I have been looking back at photos from recent trips and some from years past. I enjoy this traveling back in time. This practice helps me tickle a memory awake and see again what I might have rushed through when I originally snapped the picture.

The opportunity to see again helps me count the blessing of a moment beyond what was captured by the camera. Each image emerges as a line in a poem or in a story. Sometimes I am also surprised by what I see in the photo that was not the focus at the time. With this comes the recognition that we don’t always see everything that stands before us.

Alexandra Horowitz, in her book On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes, notes, “The world is wildly distracting.” We simply can’t take it all in, so we learn to see without really seeing. She adds, “Expertise changes what you see and hear, and it even changes what you can attend to.”

Consider your own focus from day to day. After a long weekend, we often have to refocus ourselves on our work and the week ahead. Where your focus lies determines what you will see. Consider as well that our lens can get blurry as we proceed on autopilot or in a rush, and we may not always see what stands in front of us.

Lent, which calls us to spiritual growth as we walk together as community to Easter, helps us pay attention to where we point our lens. During this Lenten season, we can refocus our eyes on our faith life, on the people in our lives and those in need; and on the blessings we sometimes take for granted.

Pope Francis in his Message for Lent said, “Lent summons us, and enables us, to come back to the Lord wholeheartedly and in every aspect of our life.”

In essence, it helps us focus, look more closely. It’s healthy to pause from the rush that can take us off track. Bishop Mario Avilés, who led a Lenten Retreat for our diocesan staff in February, cautioned us to be mindful of what we do and what we see. We have to be careful, he said, with thorns on the path that can choke our faith life and our relationship with others.

Speaking about the reality of sin, Pope Francis reminds us in his Lenten Message, “In order to confound the human heart, the devil, who is ‘a liar and the father of lies’ (Jn 8:44), has always presented evil as good, falsehood as truth. That is why each of us is called to peer into our heart to see if we are falling prey to the lies of these false prophets. We must learn to look closely, beneath the surface, and to recognize what leaves a good and lasting mark on our hearts, because it comes from God and is truly for our benefit.”

Almsgiving, one of the spiritual practices of Lent, provides us as well with an opportunity to see through another’s eyes, or through their perspective to gain a better understanding of what others might be dealing with.

In his homily on Ash Wednesday, Bishop Daniel E. Flores emphasized that during Lent we walk together towards the Cross and the Resurrection. To walk together, he said,  means we are connected to each other. Those connections are deep and imply some responsibilities to one another.

While the grain of the world has always been individualistic, Bishop Flores said, the clarion call of the Lenten season is to be people of mercy. Mercy is being able to respond to the person in need next to you, just as Jesus responded.

Ultimately, Lent is about refocusing our lives as Christians upon the connections we have. Starting with prayer, he said. “Prayer connects us to God. If we aren’t praying and asking God for help, how can we be of any good and use to anybody else?”

Bishop Flores added that almsgiving is “recognizing that what I have is not just for me alone, that I have a responsibility to use the goods that God puts in my possession for the good of other people.” It is “about that sense of giving of yourself, not just about material things, but of the time you have, and the support you give each other. He advises us to more conscious about how we treat each other, starting with family and friends.

The Holy Father tells us as well, “Love can also grow cold in our own communities.” He reminds us, that in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, he “sought to describe the most evident signs of this lack of love: selfishness and spiritual sloth, sterile pessimism, the temptation to self-absorption, constant warring among ourselves, and the worldly mentality that makes us concerned only for appearances, and thus lessens our missionary zeal.”

By focusing on the people in our lives, we can prevent love from growing cold in our communities, and it might help us see something we might be missing. We might also try to see through another person’s perspective – an elderly family member or someone in our community in need.

As we begin to pay more attention on where we focus our lens, we may gain a better vantage point to recognize and appreciate the everyday moments in our lives, and maybe to see with the eyes of a child and their sense of wonder. Consider too the value of looking with all our senses, not just our eyes.

Indeed, Lent is a time for fasting, almsgiving and prayer. It is also a time to count our blessings. How often do we thank the Lord for the graces in our lives?

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