Howdy, Y’All!
A reminder that I’m assisting in two parishes in Wilson and Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
I wanted to share my experience of the novenario, the novena of rosaries which leads up to the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the 12th. We’re doing it for the first time in the Rocky Mount parish, meeting in different homes each of the nine nights. The picture is from the first evening, of some of the overflow from the living room where most of the people were. (The young people tend to huddle together at such times, eh?) Our second evening, I didn’t take pictures, but a lot more people were present.
A reminder that I’m assisting in two parishes in Wilson and Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
I wanted to share my experience of the novenario, the novena of rosaries which leads up to the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the 12th. We’re doing it for the first time in the Rocky Mount parish, meeting in different homes each of the nine nights. The picture is from the first evening, of some of the overflow from the living room where most of the people were. (The young people tend to huddle together at such times, eh?) Our second evening, I didn’t take pictures, but a lot more people were present.
What a great experience this is turning into for those taking part in the prayers, and for me! The host family gets a blessing through the presence of regular active church members and by inviting their own neighbors to take part. The blessing for them also is in providing the gathering place and the hospitality, and by having the large image of the Virgin in their house. The image remains there through the night and through the following day. I had hoped that each host would be “leading” the rosary, litany, and the special added prayers for the evening at their home, but we have an excellent leader from the regular weekly rosary group who does all that very well. So call this a beautiful first step that we are getting into different homes in this way and getting to know some folks who would otherwise just have come to church for Mass and then gone home.
A couple of surprises for me. One is my finding out how many people don’t know the rosary at all. Some don’t seem to have a rosary, and they don’t seem to know where to begin if they want to say it. (This points to a possible leadership training goal for next year!) One joven in one house attended the prayer with two rosaries hanging around his neck, but he went through the rosary with his hands empty, and it seemed it didn’t occur to him to use one of the rosaries he was wearing to do the prayer. Or perhaps it did occur to him, but he had no knowledge of what to do with a rosary in his hands! At the same time, I should mention how I saw that many folks do know the rosary very well, and a good number who don’t say the prayers aloud are prayerfully attending while the rosary is being recited. It speaks to me of a prayer life deeply tied to the community and family, and to the celebration of the feasts of December, and how real that prayer life is, even if not fully appropriated.
The other surprise was my realization of how people are carrying very heavy burdens of spirit as they go through these Advent-Guadalupe-Posada days, and how they really are drawing strength from the promise of the prayer journey, and from the encouragement they experience in these evening gatherings. One woman’s son attempted suicide a year ago, and she has shaped much of her life around his recovery—but her son is going nowhere fast in this. She is making all nine evenings of the novenario and will host one of them. Another woman received a seventeen-year-old into her home, and he is in jail now after running her car into another car and causing $5,000 in damages. She already bailed him out once, but can’t afford another bail. She and her husband will be hosting the rosary in a couple of days.
Virgilio Elizondo, the Mexican-American theologian, has noted how the Guadalupe events can be called an “exodus,” the point of the divide in history that Christians often speak of only in reference to Christ. But for Mexicans and many other Hispanics, though Christ is central in their faith, the experience of la Virgencita seems to carry the Christ-event, the re-creation and new birth of a people, and the words come to mind from Peter’s first letter, “Ustedes antes ni siquiera eran pueblo, pero ahora son pueblo de Dios.” (1 Pedro 2, 10) A Mexican liturgical team has written that Advent is a time of waiting on the Lord’s coming, but is also a spent in contemplating Mary, the symbol of expectancy of the coming Christ. My time with the novenario is turning into a discovery of how the Hispanics hold together both of those activities in a way that gives much-needed confidence and hope.
Tonight I will miss the rosary in order to see a Hispanic teenager who has recently told his parents he is gay. After spending some time with him, his parents will join us. The parents came to me first at his suggestion, appearing very shaken by what their son had told them. They were looking for support and help. Thanks to Paul Brant and Bill Ameche for some ideas on how to handle it. I have a Columbian lady, a psychologist, who is willing to help them, but I’ll have to see if they’re interested. Fr. Pat Keane, our Vicar for Hispanics in the Raleigh Diocese, sees ministry to gay people and their families as a need, but says we have nothing in place for such ministry, either for Anglos or Hispanics. And there don’t seem to be support groups for Hispanic parents of gay children around. If anyone has additional suggestions, please let me know.
Be well and blessed in these wonderful days!
A couple of surprises for me. One is my finding out how many people don’t know the rosary at all. Some don’t seem to have a rosary, and they don’t seem to know where to begin if they want to say it. (This points to a possible leadership training goal for next year!) One joven in one house attended the prayer with two rosaries hanging around his neck, but he went through the rosary with his hands empty, and it seemed it didn’t occur to him to use one of the rosaries he was wearing to do the prayer. Or perhaps it did occur to him, but he had no knowledge of what to do with a rosary in his hands! At the same time, I should mention how I saw that many folks do know the rosary very well, and a good number who don’t say the prayers aloud are prayerfully attending while the rosary is being recited. It speaks to me of a prayer life deeply tied to the community and family, and to the celebration of the feasts of December, and how real that prayer life is, even if not fully appropriated.
The other surprise was my realization of how people are carrying very heavy burdens of spirit as they go through these Advent-Guadalupe-Posada days, and how they really are drawing strength from the promise of the prayer journey, and from the encouragement they experience in these evening gatherings. One woman’s son attempted suicide a year ago, and she has shaped much of her life around his recovery—but her son is going nowhere fast in this. She is making all nine evenings of the novenario and will host one of them. Another woman received a seventeen-year-old into her home, and he is in jail now after running her car into another car and causing $5,000 in damages. She already bailed him out once, but can’t afford another bail. She and her husband will be hosting the rosary in a couple of days.
Virgilio Elizondo, the Mexican-American theologian, has noted how the Guadalupe events can be called an “exodus,” the point of the divide in history that Christians often speak of only in reference to Christ. But for Mexicans and many other Hispanics, though Christ is central in their faith, the experience of la Virgencita seems to carry the Christ-event, the re-creation and new birth of a people, and the words come to mind from Peter’s first letter, “Ustedes antes ni siquiera eran pueblo, pero ahora son pueblo de Dios.” (1 Pedro 2, 10) A Mexican liturgical team has written that Advent is a time of waiting on the Lord’s coming, but is also a spent in contemplating Mary, the symbol of expectancy of the coming Christ. My time with the novenario is turning into a discovery of how the Hispanics hold together both of those activities in a way that gives much-needed confidence and hope.
Tonight I will miss the rosary in order to see a Hispanic teenager who has recently told his parents he is gay. After spending some time with him, his parents will join us. The parents came to me first at his suggestion, appearing very shaken by what their son had told them. They were looking for support and help. Thanks to Paul Brant and Bill Ameche for some ideas on how to handle it. I have a Columbian lady, a psychologist, who is willing to help them, but I’ll have to see if they’re interested. Fr. Pat Keane, our Vicar for Hispanics in the Raleigh Diocese, sees ministry to gay people and their families as a need, but says we have nothing in place for such ministry, either for Anglos or Hispanics. And there don’t seem to be support groups for Hispanic parents of gay children around. If anyone has additional suggestions, please let me know.
Be well and blessed in these wonderful days!
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