Meet Me in the Desert (A Lenten Prayer)

Lord of Lent, Lord of Easter,
As you went into the desert
So do I follow
Putting aside that which distracts me
Grabs at me
Falsely claims me.

To search inside
To confront myself
My best, my worst
My good works and my sins.

And each time, I find you there
To call to me again
With words of challenge and words of mercy.

And as I fall to my knees, in prayer, in fasting
In sacrifice and penitence
Somehow, you have it in yourself to reach out
and gently lift me
To renew me
To claim me as nothing of this world can claim
me.

Meet me in the desert, Lord.
Claim me anew.

Amen.

Lenten prayer from Catholic Relief Services

Into the Desert

I look forward to Lent more and more each year.  I see the desert journey as an opportunity to reflect on my ways, on my steps and missteps. It’s a chance to get back to where I need to be, to readjust my direction according to God’s will. The desert provides an open space free of distractions. It’s up to us of course to eliminate the distractions that present themselves in our day to day walk.

Pope Francis said, “Lent calls us to “give ourselves a ‘shake-up.’” In his homily on Ash Wednesday he said, “With its calls to conversion, Lent comes providentially to rouse us, to shake us from our torpor, from the risk of moving forward [merely] by inertia.”

I need the shakeup. I need to be roused. Already, I feel the energy that comes from refocusing and putting aside all that weighs us. I’ve learned that the penitential practice of giving something up for Lent, may seem like a sacrifice at first, but actually it’s a blessing.  In the end, we are better for the experience. I find that fasting and giving something up makes more room in my life not only for prayer but also for family time and writing.  

As for the prescribed days of abstinence from meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays, I can’t count these days as sacrifice as I crave, year round, the desert dishes served during the Lenten season, starting with nopalitos en salsa.

I do have some challenges ahead of me. By the grace of God, I pray I am roused into action.

A ver que nos espera en estos días en el desierto. 

Sixto Rodriguez

I did not know who he was before this week. Today, I stand inspired by Sixto Rodriguez, a son of a Mexican immigrant who grew up in Detroit. I am moved by his story, by how his words and music traveled without his knowing and resonated with thousands in South Africa.

I spent this weekend listening to his music and watched the documentary “Searching for Sugar Man” by Swedish filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul. Bendjelloul said the documentary was supposed to be a seven-minute feature for Swedish television. What a blessing that the film, which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, introduces us to a man who remained unknown here in the United States. Thanks to this documentary Rodriguez is now being brought to the center stage.

60 Minutes Interview - Rodriguez: The rock icon who didn't know it.

Each time I think about his story or tell others about this legend, I come to tears. Here is a talented poet and musician who remains humble in his new-found fame. Perhaps his story reminds us that our words matter; we never know where they will reach and who they will impact. It’s not about fame and fortune. It’s above moving forward with the life before us.

Searching For Sugar Man Trailer

Our Lady of Lourdes in Río Grande City

Grotto built in 1928 honors the Immaculate Conception of Mary

By Brenda Nettles Riojas

The Valley Catholic

RIO GRANDE CITY – Lourdes in southwestern France draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year as the site where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubiroux, in 1858.

The Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette 18 times. During the ninth apparition, Bernadette, as instructed by the Virgin Mary, dug a hole in the ground with her hands, and a gush of water was released from an unknown spring. She was instructed to drink the water and wash herself there. The site is known around the world for its healing waters. During another apparition, the Virgin Mary identified herself saying, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

Closer to home, Our Blessed Mother draws people west to Starr County where pilgrims come, in smaller groups, to Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto, a replica built in Rio Grande City 70 years after the apparition in France.

While there are no healing waters in a county where drought conditions persist, the man-made setting provides a quiet prayer space. One can choose to kneel in the grotto built on the north side of Immaculate Conception Church or sit on a stone bench shaded by the oak trees nearby.

Our Blessed Mother always in prayer, a rosary over her arm, the seven-foot statue brought from Paris, France stands in a hollow of the grotto. She stands above another statue of the child Bernadette who kneels before the Immaculate Conception. The agave cactus which grows on the concrete formed into the grotto reminds us we’re in south Texas, as does salmon-colored bougainvillea and the lavender periwinkles that surround the area.

A German priest, Father Gustave Gollbach, a missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate who moved to Rio Grande City in 1924 as pastor of Immaculate Conception Church, built the replica in 1927-28.

According to the historical marker, “Father Gustave had dreamed of building a grotto to resemble the shrine of Lourdes in southern France.”

“Father Gustave fashioned the grotto with his own hands, and received help from many including a Baptist minister. It took 14 months of work before the grotto was dedicated on April 27, 1928,” reads the marker.

The grotto replica, which measures 33 feet high and 90 feet wide, cost an estimated $5,000 to construct.

“All of the rocks were brought from the surrounding hills of the petrified forest that once existed near Escobares.”

My visit to the grotto in Rio Grande City, reminded me of my first pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1998. Our group from the Diocese of Brownsville attended Mass at the grotto early one morning and participated in an evening procession and Rosary. As a lapsed Catholic some 15 years ago, my devotion and understanding of Our Blessed Mother grew during that early pilgrimage to the Marian shrines.

I remember wanting more time to sit in silence in Lourdes, but our busy schedule dictated otherwise. In Rio Grande City, I felt blessed to have an entire hour to sit in the grotto to pray and listen to the kiskadees splash in the water while the mocking birds added their own tune to the church bells ringing for evening Mass.

In my head I hummed the tune to “Immaculate Mary.” For me this song, particularly the refrain, which is both soothing and meditative, reminds me of that first pilgrimage to Lourdes.

Immaculate Mary, thy praises we sing;

Who reignest in splendor with Jesus our King.

Ave, ave, ave Maria.

Ave, ave Maria.

Pope Benedict XVI, who visited Lourdes on the 150th anniversary in 2008 said, “Mary teaches us to pray, to make our prayer an act of love for God and an act of fraternal charity.” He said, “A quiet encounter with Bernadette and the Virgin Mary can change a person’s life, for they are here, in Massabielle, to lead us to Christ who is our life, our strength and our light.”
They are in Rio Grande City as well, in a replica made 85 years ago by an Oblate priest who wanted to bring the message of the apparition to south Texas.

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

Walking with Him

“El pan que del cielo baja es comida de viajeros…” da “fuerza en el camino”

Fiesta del Corpus Christi: Secuencia

June opened with the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, and the fire of Christ’s presence continues to guide my days.

Walking in the Eucharistic procession through the downtown streets of Brownsville on June 2 for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi filled me with peace and joy as we, some 400 people, gave witness to Christ’s presence in the Eucharist.

Some of the signs read, “Soy Yo en medio de ustedes” (It is I among you); another read, “Cristo está vivo en la Eucaristía” (Christ is alive in the Eucharist).

The Knights in full regalia; the children dressed in white scattered rose petals before the Blessed Sacrament; the evening never felt the darkness as the choir led us in song and we walked in procession; the matachines danced in celebration.

People peaked from their windows as the procession passed by; some came to their front yard fences; all of them drawn by the power of his presence.

Bishop Daniel E. Flores reminds us, “Dios eterno bajo del cielo para acompañarnos, el quiso estar con nosotros… El señor desea acompañar nuestra peregrinación de la vida.”

Those of us who walked together felt his presence. I am certain his presence impacted us in ways beyond our understanding. One thing I do recognize, the road ahead is less daunting knowing that we do not walk alone.

No Passport Needed

Pilgrimages and retreats help us grow. They take us to unexpected places, some we never envisioned. I’ve traveled to some of the major pilgrimage sites in the world, some religious, some secular. Three weeks ago I embarked on a journey that does not require a passport. It is a pilgrimage that is transforming me day my day.

I began an Ignatian Prayer Adventure, an eight-week retreat provided online by Loyola Press. The retreat is based on The Ignatian Adventure by Kevin O’Brian, a Jesuit priest.

Each morning I can’t wait to wake up to begin the day’s retreat. I find that offering my reflections in the form of poems makes me stay focused on what God wants me to learn.

Here is a draft of a prose poem I wrote on week two, day two –

An April Psalm of Thanksgiving

Sunday morning without rush; the house keeps silent the hour. I want to make my day a psalm of thanksgiving. No matter what may come, “let the day go through you.” Thankful for the music in the wind as it rushes through the palms, the yellow kiskadee who greets me, for open eyes, for the gift of one more day, for second chances, for a third, fourth, 100 more to find my way. He, in all things, my constant guide. I, his work in progress. The gardenias perfume my backyard even without my asking.