Are we paying attention yet?

Sometimes I like to hit the snooze button on my alarm in the morning, bargaining for a few extra minutes of sleep. I know I’m not the only one guilty of this habit. Unfortunately, the snoozing, according to scientists, can hinder how we start our day. You’re not really getting extra sleep time, it’s just taking longer to wake up and get the day started.

Pope Francis has been trying to wake us up. Through his actions and his words he is prompting us to live the joy of the Gospel, to respond to the most vulnerable in our midst, to live a life modeled after Christ. But are we paying attention and adjusting our steps accordingly.

“I am counting on you ‘to wake up the world,’” the pope wrote to consecrated men and women in his letter announcing the Year of Consecrated Life. He urged them, during his meeting with superiors general and men’s religious orders, “Be witnesses of a different way of doing things, acting, living! (Show) it’s possible to live differently in this world.”

While he addressed his letter to consecrated men and women, we too can heed his expectations. “Radical evangelical living is not only for religious: it is demanded of everyone,” he said. He adds, “In scanning the horizons of your lives and the present moment, be watchful and alert.”

Given our day-to-day obligations and the countless distractions in our lives, our alertness level to what really matters may be at risk. Not only has modern technology facilitated an overload of information, our own personal interests and short attention spans keep us spinning sometimes in too many directions. “Cada loco con su tema.” This Spanish dicho points to how each person has his own interest. You can see this on the social media sites – Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, Instagram. Most sites are keeping track of what’s trending, and hashtags allow us to search for posts about a specific topic.

God has blessed us with an abundance of options, it is up to each of us to be attentive and selective. We need to pause periodically, wake up from our routine to take an inventory of what gets our attention versus what needs our focus. Are we paying attention to what Pope Francis is saying, to what the Gospels are calling us? Are we taking action or opting instead to hit the snooze button?

I fear we live in a world with walking zombies. Bishop Daniel E. Flores has written and talked about the poverty of indifference and individualism, “a culture that neither hears the cry of the poor, nor sees their suffering. He said, “at the bottom of indifference is an attitude that says: If it does not affect me, I don’t really care.”

In July our communications team took some time to set our goals and objectives for the year. The process helped us examine if our efforts were focused accordingly in carrying out our ministry. I think it is helpful to do this on a personal level as well. I find writing poetry helps me slow down and reflect. My father’s illness also jolted me to a more alert state. I had to tame my workaholic tendencies and focus on my father. I kept reminding myself, “Todo tiene su tiempo. (Ecclesiastes 3)”  

If we are always operating on triage mode, moving from one project to the next, we might find ourselves not pausing at times long enough to pray or pay attention to the people in our lives, or to even take note and give thanks for God’s graces.

The Church in her wisdom gives us the liturgical season and the different feast days to help us refocus our attention throughout the year. Also, Mass and our faith devotions work in the same way, just as Pope Francis’ does with his homilies, his pastoral visits to different countries and his encyclicals. His most recent encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si: On Care of Our Common Home,” released June 18, asks us to consider if we are paying attention to our shared home and if we are doing our part to care for the gift God has given us.

The world is spinning in many directions. It behooves us to wake up, pay attention, and take action when it comes to our faith lives as well as to what is happening in the public square. We need to raise our voices to ensure we respond to the needs in our communities near and far and to maintain religious freedom in our country. Pope Francis wants us to make noise, to evangelize the Good News. We can’t do that if we keep hitting the snooze button.

(Originally published in August 2015 edition of The Valley Catholic newspaper) 

Our never-ending quest for balance

Sitting in a hospital waiting room, we worry, we pray, we try to find distractions; we have time to think, and ultimately our own health and the state of balance in our lives is called into question. 

It is unfortunate a health scare or crisis jolts us into a personal check up on the state of our own lives, and this never-ending quest for balance especially given our tendency to rush from one appointment or task to the next.

In my case, I see it as a quest for the grace to be present in the moment before us with the peace of mind trusting Christ is always at our side. When a loved one is in the hospital, it reminds us life is a gift we must honor.

While my brother and I waited for my father, I observed other families waiting. Everyone put work and other responsibilities aside and were present for each other, present in the moment. Not the best of times, when a loved one is undergoing surgery, but a testament to the power of family coming together to support one another. I can see how these moments contribute to strengthening the bond within a family and I think too, to the healing process of a loved one.

Pope Francis continually reminds us, “The Gospel, radiant with the glory of Christ’s cross, constantly reminds us to rejoice.” But how can we find joy if we are busy with our task-oriented days, caught up in anticipating what comes next? Bishop Daniel E. Flores said, “Sometimes we miss Lent because we’re waiting for Easter.” “Los concentramos en lo que anticipamos (We concentrate on what we anticipate).”

He said, “The Lord wants to teach us that we have to appreciate every moment for what it means. Sometimes we miss the meaning of the moment we’re living, because we’re waiting for the moment that’s going to happen.”

Not only do we miss the moment, we get dizzy in the whirlpool of overwork. Thomas Merton wrote about what he referred to as a modern violence – “activism and overwork.” The word violence startled me. It made me stop to consider the implications.

Merton said, “There is a pervasive form of modern violence to which the idealist...most easily succumbs: activism and over-work. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence.

The frenzy of the activist neutralizes his (or her) work... It destroys the fruitfulness of his (or her)...work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.”

How many of us are guilty of multitasking? Research studies indicate multitasking is not healthy or productive, and can even lower IQ.

Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation, “Evengelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”), writes, “The  problem  is  not  always  an  excess  of  activity,  but  rather  activity  undertaken  badly, without adequate motivation, without a spirituality  which  would  permeate  it  and  make  it  pleasurable. As  a  result,  work  becomes  more  tiring than  necessary,  even  leading  at  times  to  illness. Far from a content and happy tiredness, this is a tense, burdensome, dissatisfying and, in the end, unbearable fatigue.”

So in this never-ending quest to find balance and celebrate the joys in our lives, what steps can we take? The answers are not a mystery – Mass, the Eucharist, prayer, solitude. The challenge is making time for each. As we refocus our energy, we learn to value the moment before us, we value each encounter with one another. 

I find St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Daily Examen helpful to this end. The exercise helps us find God in all things. We can’t do this if we are rushing from project to project, event to event, from phone calls to emails and texts. We don’t even enjoy a sit-down meal sometimes, opting instead to rush through the nearest drive-through restaurant for a fast-food selection.

As we examine the desolations and consolations in our day, we can determine where we need to make adjustments. Hopefully we can do this before a crisis strikes and forces us to make such adjustments.

Pope Francis notes, “What is needed is the ability to cultivate an interior space which can give a Christian meaning to commitment and activity. Without prolonged moments of adoration, of prayerful encounter with the word, of sincere conversation with the Lord, our work easily becomes meaningless; we lose energy as a result of weariness and difficulties, and our fervor dies out. The Church urgently needs the deep breath of prayer…” (262, Evengelii Gaudium)

Just as fasting and detoxification helps remove toxins from our body, we need to find ways to detox ourselves from our overburdened schedules. We need to find time for prayer. Sometimes letting go of the excesses in our day, makes room for what’s important. Less is better than more. As Henry David Thoreau wrote, “I make myself rich, by making my wants few.” I add to this, I make myself rich by slowing the pace and letting God take the lead.  

If we don’t take the necessary steps, we will likely find ourselves forced to take them. As I write this, my father remains in a long-term acute care hospital in ICU, unaware of the complications that transpired after his tumor was removed on April 9. Our family is coming to terms with the shock, and learning just how precious life is.

(Originally published in June 2015 edition of The Valley Catholic newspaper)

The Paschal Triduum & the Altars of Repose

At the start of the Lenten journey, 40 days seemed like a long time. But while they passed too quickly, I look forward now to these holy days of the Paschal Triduum. Each year I marvel at the graces that flow during each of the Holy Week observations.

A year ago I made my first Holy Thursday pilgrimage to seven “Altars of Repose.” Here is a story I wrote about my experience.

Spending time with our Lord: Visit to seven Altars of Repose an ancient tradition

BROWNSVILLE — This past Triduum my husband and I shared a new pilgrimage experience, new to us as it is actually an ancient tradition of visiting seven Altars of Repose on Holy Thursday. The practice is linked to the early Christian custom of visiting sites which were significant to Christ’s Passion.

In Rome, pilgrims visit seven basilicas (St. Peter, St. Paul Outside the Wall, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, St. Lawrence Outside the Walls and St. Sebastian). In recent times, when seven churches are not possible, making it to at least three suffices.

I had heard about the tradition, but had not paid much attention until an intern last year recounted how he and his friends delighted in their visit from one church to the next. Bishop Emeritus Raymundo J. Peña for years practiced the tradition, and Bishop Daniel E. Flores shared photos of his own visits on his blog one year.

Bishop Flores said it gives him great joy to see how the faithful prepare a place to receive the Lord after the Sacrament is taken in procession at the end the Holy Thursday liturgy, and to see young people and families spending time in adoration and prayer. The procession with the Sacrament symbolizes the Lord going out to face the Passion.

For my husband and me it was a grace-filled experience and a perfect start to the Triduum. God’s graces overflowed that evening as we visited the Altars of Repose at seven different churches. We started at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Brownsville and made our way to our home parish St. Anthony Church in Harlingen. My husband and I chose churches that connected us to our families and sacraments. 

Among the churches we visited were Our Lady of Guadalupe Church where I was baptized; St. Joseph Church where my husband received all his sacraments of initiation and St. Luke Church, my parish church until I moved away and where we were married 26 years ago. The pilgrimage filled us with immense joy. We also visited Holy Family Church in Brownsville and St. Benedict Church in San Benito.

As empty nesters we are still adjusting to our children, young adults now, living away from home. I miss our family tradition of walking the Stations of the Cross together on Good Friday and preparing Easter baskets and painting cascarones in the days leading up to Easter.

Our Thursday pilgrimage took us on a nostalgic “This is your life” tour. Fue un recordido de memorias. As we visited the different churches in Brownsville we drove past places bursting with history from our youth and growing years. We drove by both our elementary schools and playgrounds that are nearly gone now; we passed by my husband’s middle school and our high school – Homer Hanna High; we passed by old neighborhoods, favorite hamburger joints, streets where I learned to drive.

Each Altar of Repose afforded us time with Christ, time for prayer, and time to remember the blessings in our lives, and always the Lord was at our side. During our drive time from one church to the next, we shared stories and talked about how some things have changed and how some remain intact.

Some churches felt particularly like home. At Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, where I was baptized, I could hear my mother’s voice. I remember the pews we sat in at the time toward the back of the church. I remember she pointed to the altar and told me Christ was behind the closed doors in the gold tabernacle. “Ahi esta Cristo,” she said. Maybe I was four or five. I remember I puzzled about her comment for a long time, trying in my child’s mind to make sense of what she meant.

I wanted to spend more time in each of the churches, but conscious of the time, we had to move on to make sure we made it to all seven before midnight when Adoration ends on Holy Thursday. Each altar was surrounded with bouquets of flowers and candles that flickered to give light in the darkness. Each carefully prepared and adorned so that the faithful could spend time in silence and meditation before the Lord. No one was sleeping. Everyone was keeping watch in the “Garden of Gethsemane.”

Along the way we saw people we knew who were taking part of the ancient tradition of visiting the different Altars of Repose that evening. You could feel the joy that lifted each of us on our Maundy Thursday pilgrimage.

At St. Luke Church, it was comforting to hear the familiar voice of Helen Vargas, who was leading the children in prayer before the Altar or Repose. It felt like home. Helen was my confirmation teacher and the choir director 32 years ago when I attended there. How beautiful that she continues to teach new generations the traditions of our faith.

When we arrived in Harlingen, we ended at St. Anthony Catholic Church, our home parish where our son and daughter received their sacraments. The Altar of Repose was set up in the original church which is now used as a parish hall and as a cafeteria for the Catholic school. The doors opened out to the street where passing cars could glimpse the glimmering candles before the Blessed Sacrament.

What a blessing to see so many keeping watch with Christ, and continuing the ancient tradition. Our pilgrimage reaffirmed how God has been constant in our lives and remains so. I pray for the grace to honor the days he provides and that I may be constant in my attempts to listen and follow his direction in the days to come. 

(Originally published in May 2014 edition of The Valley Catholic newspaper) 

So many choices: Will "50 Shades" be one of them?

When my daughter was 15 years old, I had to explain to her why I didn’t think the movie “Sex in the City” was appropriate for her to watch. Now that she is a young adult and making her own choices, another movie coming out on Valentine’s Day prompted a conversation about our media selections. It made me think about how careful we are concerning what our children watch, but are we mindful as adults of our own media consumption habits?

How blessed we are that God loved us into being and gives us free will to make our own choices, to shape our own lives. Our journey is paved with choices. “God willed that man should be ‘left in the hand of his own counsel,’ so that he might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him.” CC 1730

To make good choices, we have to exercise prudence. According to St. Augustine, “prudence is love making a right distinction between what helps it towards God and what might hinder it.”

We are confronted in making good choices when it comes to the books we read, the music we listen to and the movies and television programs we watch. I confess I have not been as discerning and selective as I should have been at times. After all it was entertainment I reasoned, a brief detachment from reality. When we draw from a relativism play book based on a catechesis of a secular culture it’s easy to justify our choices.

However, as the rational beings that God created us, we have a responsibility to pay attention to what we feed ourselves, via our reading and viewing selections. Much has been written about how messages in the media can influence the public and the choices we make. Consider the millions spent by advertisers on commercials.

The flood of messages streaming from the airwaves, newsstands and online sites have distorted how a large segment of the population view relationships between men and women and what constitutes a loving union.

On Valentine’s Day, two movies open in theaters — “Old Fashioned” and “Fifty Shades of Grey.” The movie, “Fifty Shades of Grey,” is based on a book by the same name and is the first in a trilogy by E.L James. The book, aimed at female readers, has sold 100 million copies. It includes “explicit scenes and heavy doses of bondage, dominance and sadism.”

One only has to review the countless reviews to gleam the storyline and content of the book and now movie that have led some to refer to it as­ “Mommy Porn.” Not only have reviewers critiqued the quality of the writing, some have raised concerns about the distorted portrayal of relationships.

Nathan Nazario, producer of “Old Fashioned,” said “It surprises me, honestly — in a culture claiming to advance female independence and equality — that so few powerful voices raise questions about ‘Fifty Shades’”. “Behind the rating euphemism ‘unusual’ lies a crippling cultural fear or unwillingness to say any act is potentially harmful.”

The producers of “Old Fashioned” are promoting it as an alternative to “Fifty Shades” and playing up the differences between the two movies in one of the trailers – exploitation vs. innocence; “Unusual behavior” vs. thoughtful behavior. The Motion Picture Association of America rated “Fifty Shades” R for “strong sexual content including dialogue, some unusual behavior and graphic nudity, and for language.” According to a USA Today article (Jan. 9) The “unusual behavior” term, which has not be used before in rating explanations is likely due to the film’s sexual theme of “dominance and submission.”

Rik Swartzwelder, “Old Fashioned” writer, director, and lead actor, questions “Fifty Shades” long-term effects. “What happens when ‘harmless fantasy’ plays out in the real world — in young lives unsure of what lasting love looks like, much less how to get it?” he asks. “Unquestionably, the stories our culture lifts up influence young audiences.”

Swartzwelder’s script sprang from conversations with fellow singles, he says, struggling to pursue “God-honoring” and long-term love in a world fixed on short-term pleasure. 

St. John Paul II addresses the themes of marriage, family, sexuality and love as a gift of self in “Man and Woman He created them, a Theology of the Body” (TOB).There is much to unpack in this series of 129 talks he gave during his Wednesday audiences from 1979 to 1984.

Michael Waldstein in his introduction on TOB, notes, “The sexual revolution does not sufficiently appreciate the value and beauty of sex. It deprives sex of its depth by detaching it from the spousal meaning of the body. It favors the sexual lie, in which the language of radical gift is overlaid by the contrary language of individual autonomy and the use of persons for pleasure.”

Genevieve Kineke, in her book “The Authentic Catholic Woman,” writes, “Among all of the challenges of our fallen world, in this generation the misunderstanding about the God-given gift of human sexuality are paramount, and correcting them is the preeminent battle of our day.”

We have a say in the battle. We can help correct the misunderstanding by arming ourselves with information and by being prudent about our choices.

I remember as a child and well into my teens, my father was always cautious about what we saw on television. Even shows he deemed “appropriate” he felt the need to constantly remind us that what we were watching was fiction. “You know that’s make believe,” he’d say.

So why worry about the media we choose, especially those categorized as fiction?

The “Family Guide for Using Media” from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee for Communication, notes, “The media are so much part of us that to recognize their impact, we must step back and consciously think about how they shape our lives and what they are saying. An intelligent use of media can prevent our being dominated by them and enable us instead to measure them by our standards.”

“In this way, even many messages with which we cannot agree, inevitably coming to us from a diverse constellation of media, will not hurt us. They can even be turned to our benefit by whetting our understanding and articulation of what we believe.”

Just as what we eat matters, so does what we choose to read and watch. Bishop Daniel E. Flores on several occasions has said, “You are what you think about. You want to put the good things in your mind. ...It influences how we look at our priorities.”

These days as we swim against the current of popular culture and as my daughter makes her own decisions, I pray that each of us will discern carefully what we select and think critically about the messages that come across in the content. We must also be cognizant that we speak with our choices and how we spend our money. Our choices send a message as to what we value.

(Originally published in February 2015 edition of The Valley Catholic newspaper) 

Making time to climb a mountain

New Year, new possibilities. As much as I like the start of a New Year and the possibilities it brings, I don’t like how quickly the calendar fills with commitments, sometimes to the point of leaving no room to be still. I can only blame myself and my inability to say no, added to my tendency to fill any extra hours to capacity.

As I begin to mark my calendar this New Year, I want to make certain to include time to retreat and climb a mountain. Jesus taught us to retreat, to go up to a mountain top and find time alone to pray. “But he would withdraw to deserted places to pray.” Luke 5:16

Finding time to be alone is one of the reasons I enjoy camping and hiking. In past years I've had the grace to climb some incredible mountains – Mount Sinai in Egypt, Machu Picchu in Peru, Mount Rose in Nevada. Reaching the summit was challenging but the view of God’s creation and the silence was worth each strained muscle. Not only did each hike help me slow my pace, each helped me set aside distractions from my day-to-day routine. The hikes helped me pay attention, to take in the view. The long climbs also gave me time to think and to pray.

Granted, we do not have any mountains in the Rio Grande Valley, but we can set aside time to claim our own space, our metaphorical mountains, to sit in prayer and silence with God. One of my favorite spaces is in my backyard porch, either early in the morning before anyone wakes up or midmornings on weekends when I can sit and listen to the wind playing with the leaves.

While advances in technology have helped us become more efficient, it feels like all the latest gadgets also serve to keep us on a leash around the clock. Not only are we connected 24 hours a day, information streams in from all directions, making it a noisy world to navigate. Sometimes we have to disconnect, make time to be still, to go on a retreat, even if for a few minutes. Silence, solitude, and space help us become better listeners. In our noisy world, given all our distractions, how can we respond to what God is calling us to if we are not attentive to his direction?

“When messages and information are plentiful, silence becomes essential if we are to distinguish what is important from what is insignificant or secondary,” said Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in his message for World Communications Day in 2012. “Deeper reflection helps us to discover the links between events that at first sight seem unconnected, to make evaluations, to analyze messages; this makes it possible to share thoughtful and relevant opinions, giving rise to an authentic body of shared knowledge. For this to happen, it is necessary to develop an appropriate environment, a kind of ‘eco-system’ that maintains a just equilibrium between silence, words, images and sounds.”

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI also said, “Silence is an integral element of communication; in its absence, words rich in content cannot exist. In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; ideas come to birth and acquire depth; we understand with greater clarity what it is we want to say and what we expect from others; and we choose how to express ourselves.”

Pope Francis reminds us as well, “In the history of salvation, neither in the clamor nor in the blatant, but the shadows and the silence are the places in which God chose to reveal himself to humankind.”

The Annotations to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, note “the more our soul finds itself alone and isolated, the more apt it makes itself to approach and to reach its Creator and Lord, and the more it so approaches him, the more it disposes itself to receive graces and gifts from his Divine and Sovereign Goodness.”

There are different ways to disconnect, different spaces for prayer and silence – hiking outdoors, participating in a contemplative prayer group, signing up for retreat, Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, or taking time to garden. Each of us has to find our own mountain where we can retreat to in this New Year.  So instead of making New Year’s resolutions, this year I am going to focus on scheduling time on my calendar to slow my pace and climb a mountain.

(Originally published in January 2015 edition of The Valley Catholic newspaper) 

La Morenita and her roses

She gifts us roses in December. We serenade her with mañanitas before dawn, matachines dance in the streets in her honor; you can hear the drums and singing as they approach –“La Guadalupana, La Guadalupana, La Guadalupana bajo del Tepeyac.” Why in December, in the midst of Advent and just four days after celebrating the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, do hundreds of thousands gather, sometimes in the rain and cold, throughout Mexico, the United States and other parts of the world to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe?

Desde el cielo una hermosa Mañana, our Blessed Mother, our Virgencita Morena, first appeared almost 500 years ago on Tepeyac to an Indian named Juan Diego, she appeared in 1531 during chaotic times with a message of love and hope. Her message in Nahuatl, the native tongue, changed hearts and restored people’s dignity. Volumes have been written about the significance of the apparitions that occurred Dec. 9 - 12. St. John Paul II, during his papacy declared her Patroness of all America and Star of the first and new evangelization. He even dedicated a chapel in her honor in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Pope Francis, in his message a year ago to the Americas on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, said, “When the image of the Virgin appeared on the tilma of Juan Diego, it was the prophecy of an embrace: Mary’s embrace of all the peoples of the vast expanses of America – the peoples who already lived there, and those who were yet to come.” He said, “Mary’s embrace showed what America – North and South – is called to be: a land where different peoples come together; a land prepared to accept human life at every stage, from the mother’s womb to old age; a land which welcomes immigrants, and the poor and the marginalized, in every age. A land of generosity.”

This December as we reflect on the year and prepare to enter a new year, we witness in these Marian celebrations the joy of celebrating our faith, a joy which overflows and inspires us to share this publicly in the streets in a country that affords us the freedom to express our faith without fear of persecution or death. The procession in Brownsville for the celebration of Our Morenita has become one of my favorites. Sometimes the priests ride on horses carrying a banner with her image leading the matachines and floats with students reenacting the apparitions that occurred in 1531. Most of the parishes in the city participate and converge together from different routes for an outdoor Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on Lincoln Street. 

Our Lady of Guadalupe helps us remember to embrace our faith, trusting in her son to lead us on our daily pilgrimage; she helps us remember to embrace our culture, a culture of life, one strengthened by being true to our beliefs, our heritage, our languages y nuestra tierra. The Star of the New Evangelization, she guides us and encourages us to share the joy of the Gospel, to raise our voice, to show our love, to fight for justice. She who led the way, her image emblazoned on a flag as Father Miguel Hidalgo led the Mexican War of Independence, continues to lead the way to her son.

We have some fights ahead of us when it comes to religious freedom, speaking up for the vulnerable, and speaking up for ourselves. Our Holy Mother, la Morenita de Tepeyac, accompanies us. She who crushes the serpent, proceeds with love. She invites us to do the same. “No se turbe tu corazón” (“Do not let your heart be disturbed.”) Just as she promised Juan Diego, she promises us, “Am I not here, I, who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need anything more? Let nothing else worry you, disturb you.”

I find comfort in lighting a candle before a wooden statue of the Virgencita Morena, carved and painted by an artisan in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. She stands on the window sill in my kitchen. She is a constant companion. The summer I spent in San Miguel she appeared at every turn – she was embroidered with sequins on purses, used as adornment on earrings and pendants, printed on plastic shopping bags, even the landlord’s cat was named Guadalupe. Popular culture has made her an icon beyond the Church walls. She is linked with the Mexican identity, she is linked with her people. Our Blessed Mother will not be ignored. And in her gentle glance, consoles us and draws us to her son.

We honor her not just in December, but year round. December is the culmination of our thanks to the Holy Mother before her son’s long anticipated arrival on Christmas.  Just as she embraces us, we embrace her. We thank her for being our compassionate mother.

(Originally published in December 2014 edition of The Valley Catholic newspaper)

No one walks alone

On the Feast of the Guardian Angels I give thanks to God for never leaving me alone and for the different directions my life has taken throughout my pilgrimage walk.

Twenty-four years ago I became a mother and over the years I have discovered both the joys and the challenges that come from raising two children, now young adults.