When Latinos want to pray, don't get in their way!

A year ago last September, Latino parishioners of a local church whose doors were closing came to see me and ask if the Jesuits at Boston College could help them find a new spiritual home. My first reaction was that the parish, St. Ignatius where I've been pastor for the past 18 years didn't have the pastoral resources to respond to the request. Even though I've been working on my Spanish for a few years, I'd never had an immersion experience and was doubtful whether I could really respond in an appropriate way. I told them that I would think and pray about it. (In other words, I wanted to avoid the request :-) But the leaders were persistent and asked me again and told me that they had signed up in the parish but were attending the English liturgies. I took it to prayer again and came up with a solution where we would have Mass in Spanish once a month. This seemed to please the folks and we started with the help of some of the Jesuits from BC from Spanish-speaking countries. We even had a celebration of Guadalupe with a Mariachi Band, presided over by Juan Carlos Henriquez from Mexico.

Given the persistence of the community, however, they asked if we could do more. The next response was to have Liturgies in Spanish alternating with bi-lingual liturgies at Noon. I ordered bi-lingual missalettes and the adventure really had begun. With the arrival of Misael Meza from Colombia who is doing his doctorate at BC in philosophy, a genuine pastoral outreach became a reality. Now we have Mass in Spanish most weeks and a bilingual Mass once a month. We are also beginning to offer other pastoral services to the community which is still small but growing. The leaders who came to ask me about what we could do for them, I invited to join our Pastoral Council so they are actively involved in the life of the parish. This summer they planned a celebration of the variety of "platos y comidas" from their different countries and invited the whole parish. Great celebration! I'm regularly presiding and preaching in Spanish or bi-lingually which is pretty amazing for a gringo who has never had an immersion experience. This fall the parish sponsored an amazing program on the issue of Immigration with a special focus on the challenges facing our Latino brothers and sisters. Beginning in January I have a pastoral associate from Colombia, S.A.who works in one of our parishes coming to work with our community as she learns English. All of this is to say when you say "Digo, Si, Senor" you never know the grace that will come your way.

Robert VerEecke, SJ frvereec@bc.edu