Experience Together

People of Mexico express thanks for SSND ministry

What would it be like to return after 20 years? That is a question I asked myself as I journeyed to the small town of Arroyo Encino in the state of Oaxaca where four of us SSNDs had served from 1985 to 1996.This photograph from Sister Leah shows a typical house during the ministry, 1985-96.

An invitation had come two years in a row to visit this particular town of the 15 towns in the parish on May 15, the date of their fiesta patronal (patronal feast) honoring St. Isidore. The welcome I received was amazing.

As I got the hugs, kisses and small gifts of embroidered cloths, I very consciously accepted them in the name of all of us who had served there: Jane Desaulniers and Linda Carmona (1985-94), Rose Daily (1994-96) and me (1985-96). In a larger sense, the gratefulness was for the congregation’s willingness to allow us to serve there. Representatives in each town mentioned how those 11 years were the most active of the parish’s life. They praised the organizational structure that allowed them to come monthly to a parish assembly in the largest town, El Porvenir, for training in various ministries. They said again and again that the seeds we planted had taken root.

There are more sections of paved roads, small stores, lots of cell phones. Each town had refurbished its chapel to receive the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. To a large extent, they abandoned the sowing of beans and corn and planted lime trees for market and a new fruit called the lychee. Sadly, poverty still pinches and forms a jarring contrast to my present comfortable life in San Antonio.

There is an acute shortage of pastoral personnel in Mexico and Latin America’s poor, rural areas. Think what support it would be if some of us offered a few years of our lives to our SSND Province of Latin America and the Caribbean to help “proclaim the good news.”

Story and photos by Sister Leah Couvillion

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