33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Friends,
The times, they are a changing…
This weekend some of the guys from our little community will be heading south for the winter. On Thursday night we’ll have a special supper and give them a blessing. This is a moment of change, not only for them personally, but for the community, as those who stay behind will be moving to a new house, and we don’t yet know if there will be space there to celebrate Mass together. So please pray, as we enter this time of not knowing what comes next.
Oscar Romero said that it is the work of the church to stand with the poor, in order to denounce from the place of the poor the injustice that’s committed against them. He also said that when you do that, you will experience what they experience. And so it is with us. As they move, so shall we, and we’ll take what we get and make the best of it, and find a way to survive. We also share in the worry, watching people we care about make the precarious journey south, praying for them all the way.
Not that it’s not precarious, here. Our friends remind me of those birds that make their nests on cliffs, open to the elements, unprotected. Any wind can knock their whole house apart. You might have seen on the news that a woman was killed in Albion a week or two ago, and her assailant was a man here without documents. Ami Kadar is a migrant advocate who works out of Albion, and is herself an immigrant. Here is what she had to say about the effects of that event on the migrant community:
“… things have been crazy here in Albion. You may have heard: a Honduran immigrant stabbed and killed a woman in the parking lot of Walmart last week, and since then things have been frightening here. The rumours …are that they are going to "clean out" all the immigrants in the area. And they did a good job last week! Another rumour was that ICE was going to have undercover agents at Walmart over the weekend. All this despite the fact that they got the criminal the same day it happened, and he is now in jail!! It's like Mississippi in the 50's!
Can you imagine if a Swede came into Albion and killed someone, do you think they'd come after ME? Or, perhaps by association, my Finnish friend here in town who owns the coffeshop? We all know, of course, they wouldn't! It's infuriating! … there wasn't a Hispanic in sight in Albion, much less Walmart. The Mexican stores were dead.”
In the midst of this atmosphere of fear, we will have a celebration Thursday night. We will say “Adios por ahora” (Goodbye for now) and give our friends a blessing. And we will know that they, and those who stay behind, and all of us, are right where we need to be: in the hands of God.
Please let me know if you are planning to join us on Thursday, as we will be leaving early. Please keep our brothers and sisters in your prayers. May we together step into the light and together transform this crazy world and this filthy, rotten system.
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
Looking ahead to Advent: Lots of churches have a giving tree in the weeks before Christmas. That’s not practical for us, so instead we have a “St Romero’s Church” wish list on Amazon.com. Most of the items on it so far are tools for teaching English as a Second Language, and literacy, as we hope to offer those this winter. One thing that can’t go on the Amazon wish list, but that we will need, is people with some teaching skills who are willing to volunteer an afternoon a week during the winter. Might that be you?
Come join us, any Sunday you like!
_______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friends,
The times, they are a changing…
This weekend some of the guys from our little community will be heading south for the winter. On Thursday night we’ll have a special supper and give them a blessing. This is a moment of change, not only for them personally, but for the community, as those who stay behind will be moving to a new house, and we don’t yet know if there will be space there to celebrate Mass together. So please pray, as we enter this time of not knowing what comes next.
Oscar Romero said that it is the work of the church to stand with the poor, in order to denounce from the place of the poor the injustice that’s committed against them. He also said that when you do that, you will experience what they experience. And so it is with us. As they move, so shall we, and we’ll take what we get and make the best of it, and find a way to survive. We also share in the worry, watching people we care about make the precarious journey south, praying for them all the way.
Not that it’s not precarious, here. Our friends remind me of those birds that make their nests on cliffs, open to the elements, unprotected. Any wind can knock their whole house apart. You might have seen on the news that a woman was killed in Albion a week or two ago, and her assailant was a man here without documents. Ami Kadar is a migrant advocate who works out of Albion, and is herself an immigrant. Here is what she had to say about the effects of that event on the migrant community:
“… things have been crazy here in Albion. You may have heard: a Honduran immigrant stabbed and killed a woman in the parking lot of Walmart last week, and since then things have been frightening here. The rumours …are that they are going to "clean out" all the immigrants in the area. And they did a good job last week! Another rumour was that ICE was going to have undercover agents at Walmart over the weekend. All this despite the fact that they got the criminal the same day it happened, and he is now in jail!! It's like Mississippi in the 50's!
Can you imagine if a Swede came into Albion and killed someone, do you think they'd come after ME? Or, perhaps by association, my Finnish friend here in town who owns the coffeshop? We all know, of course, they wouldn't! It's infuriating! … there wasn't a Hispanic in sight in Albion, much less Walmart. The Mexican stores were dead.”
In the midst of this atmosphere of fear, we will have a celebration Thursday night. We will say “Adios por ahora” (Goodbye for now) and give our friends a blessing. And we will know that they, and those who stay behind, and all of us, are right where we need to be: in the hands of God.
Please let me know if you are planning to join us on Thursday, as we will be leaving early. Please keep our brothers and sisters in your prayers. May we together step into the light and together transform this crazy world and this filthy, rotten system.
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
Looking ahead to Advent: Lots of churches have a giving tree in the weeks before Christmas. That’s not practical for us, so instead we have a “St Romero’s Church” wish list on Amazon.com. Most of the items on it so far are tools for teaching English as a Second Language, and literacy, as we hope to offer those this winter. One thing that can’t go on the Amazon wish list, but that we will need, is people with some teaching skills who are willing to volunteer an afternoon a week during the winter. Might that be you?
Come join us, any Sunday you like!
_______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
No comments:
Post a Comment