In Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish we’re gearing up for our patronal feast. We priests are left behind in a cloud of smoke as the laity click in on their annual routine. Our novenario is 18 days long, and two images of the Virgen are circulating in the homes and trailer park in the four counties which our Parish touches. There will be thousands of fresh roses in the sanctuary and around the statue of Our Lady on the day we celebrate (December 9) and the Feast itself (December 12). Julio Flores has organized his whole family – we speeded up rosary production to give him the 50 he requested.
I still hope to insert something about immigration into the annual Posadas which have already been scheduled. It’s the season of Penance (Communal Reconciliation) services, which limits my personal participation.
Bill Ameche and Ricardo Greeley and Bruce Bavinger and I had a mutual visit in Newton Grove and lunched at Diane’s, one of the two sit-down restaurants in Newton Grove. Bill is a real promoter of Jesuit get-togethers, and they are always renewing and inspiring.
The Cursillo de Cristiandad
Bill Ameche and I had been together just the weekend before for the Cursillo which our Raleigh Diocese team put on for the 17 men from the Asheville Vicariate at the lovely Camp Daniel Boone outside Canton, NC. Bill’s summary: “It’s the First Week.” Well, yes, and no. In a future installment, I’ll lay out my interpretation.
I will have assisted in three Cursillos as spiritual director in only seven weeks by this time next Monday. I’ve been working hard with the Teams to firm up and make more routine the preliminaries (registrations, room assignments, daily schedules, etc.) so that there’s more time during the Three Days for talking with candidates and Team (apart from the 15 hours of Confessions), and sleep. So much is left to the last minute that could be handled ahead of time.
Another 100 men will have had an in-depth encounter with Our Lord, many will have made life-changing decisions and re-enter their ambientes familiares and situaciones del trabajo with a “new look.” The challenge is to help them maintain it and let it grow, and that is the challenge that we will be facing more earnestly.
We are preparing for two Cursillos for Hispanic Women in January and February.
Developments on the “church planting” front
Beulah Hill Christian’s pastor regretfully informed me that we wouldn’t be able to hold our Sunday afternoon Mass in their sanctuary. His Board decided to advance the renovation schedule. I took this disappointment to the Lord, and had just about decided to propose suspending the mission in Four Oaks for the winter months as the only practical option when I received a call from Joey Yow, the Methodist pastor in Four Oaks. He had told me two months ago not to get our hopes up, because their congregation has so many Sunday afternoon activities that he couldn’t see how we could be fitted in regularly.
Joey, pastor at FOUMC for more than 20 years and a colleague and friend of mine for 15 years since I was pastor in Smithfield, had taken the request to prayer and then met a couple of times with his Administrative Board and they decided to”make room” for us. We meet December 4, and are praying for a positive outcome to our covenant-making for an 18 months tenancy. Our mission’s patron is St. Francis Xavier.
Diocesan and Deanery activities
At out last meeting of the priests serving Hispanic community, I made a presentation to some them of the segment which we include in our Parish marriage preparation on Natural Family Planning. Over the years I’ve learned a great deal about NFP as a spirituality of mutuality and responsible parenthood which is ideal for couples who really want their marriage to be “in the Lord” in all aspects. It also undoes machismo .
A dozen years ago on one of my visits to Peru, I looked for the best A/V materials in Spanish and edited them down to a 40 minute presentation which still works to hook the interest of the many Hispanic couples preparing for the sacrament. [Parenthetically, at Fordham (1987-89) I invited couples who were following this spirituality to give witness to alumni couples preparing for marriage at the University Church, and also found a great deal of interest]. My co-presenters at Fordham were my dentist, Charlie (Vinnie’s brother) Potter and his wife, Sheila.
My co-presenter now is Ken McElynn, MD who in excellent colloquial Spanish animates the couples with a gripping power-point presentation contrasting the “culture of life” with the “culture of death” which really speaks to these couples. He does a follow-up session at which he coaches them in the preliminaries of the Billings method.
The presentation I made to the 10 priests was well-received, and we are moving now to have materials provided in Spanish, starting with the Newton Grove Deanery.
I look forward each month to a meeting with a support group of Diocesan priests. for a couple of hours we share about our ministry and personal pilgrimages. I am the Jesuit in the ointment. We travel as many as three hours each way for the meeting and meal. With the exception of Bishop-emeritus Gossman, I have known all of the priests in the group since or before) their ordination, one of them the senior priest of the Diocese, Fr. Paul Byron, since 1946.
Immigration
More raids, more detentions and deportations. That’s the summary. It adds up to more misery - more constant inimical pressure on the whole immigrant community. Now, Senator Dole has convinced local law enforcement is several counties to participate as deputies to the immigration service (ICE) and they are doing their new work to the accompaniment of much publicity which amounts to harassment of the largely Mexican target immigrant community.
Adrián Cerino was signed up for the Cursillo this weekend. He called to say that he couldn’t go. His two brothers, a cousin and a friend, all gainfully employed, were hunting. Someone reported them, and because immigrants can’t legally possess firearms, the sheriff called ICE and they were immediately deported. Adrián in the space of one hour became the guardian of his sister’in’law and nephew.
Terror? Maybe. Misery? Certainly. Justice? ¡Olvidase! Compassion? ¡Olvidase! Reasonable? ¡Olvidase!
Paul Brant, sj
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment