17th Sunday in Ordinary time
Friends,
There is a photo going around on facebook. Perhaps you’ve seen it: at the top there is a family saying grace before dinner. The caption says, “Thanks, Jesus, for this food.” And at the bottom there is a photo of a Mexican farm worker out in the field, saying “De nada.” You’re welcome.
I don’t know any farm workers named Jesús, but I sure as heck know people who have been working up to 84 hours a week to put food on all of our tables. As we read again this week the story of the loaves and fishes that fed five thousand families, it’s a good moment to think about being co-creators with God. Our work, and the miracle of God’s creation: together, they feed the world.
Capo and I planted a garden in my back yard this Spring. He did about twenty times as much work as I did, and much neater, in the same amount of time. This past weekend we ate our first tomato. What a miracle it is, how one tiny seed becomes a plant, all that DNA doing its job of mapping out the directions to unfold a living creature, one molecule at a time; and fruit grows, and is ripened by the sun, and at last, we eat it.
Actually, something else had already taken the first bite! – which is a reminder that all this miraculous growth isn’t just for us. We share this world with a myriad of living creatures, and we have a responsibility to take care of it and treat it well.
It is troubling to wonder if the drought we are experiencing now has been brought on, or at least made worse, by human activity.
A lot of Biblical commentators believe that the miracle of the loaves and fishes was that people were inspired to share what they already had. I like that explanation, because inspiring us to share what we have is a miracle we need. We don’t need God to do magic. The world is full of magic already. We ought to be walking around with our jaws dropped in wonder. There is enough for everyone, and if the story of the feeding of the five thousand tells us anything, it’s that God wants us to have what we need – wants everybody to have what we need. We need to share our resources, and be aware that the world is not just for us. Every life is precious. North American life… Mexican life… Central and South American life… Indian life… Asian life… African life… European life. Plant life and animal life and ocean life. Birds and butterflies and even those gol-darn bugs. We need each other.
The miracle we need – besides the miracle of rain – is the miracle of each of us realizing that the lives of people everywhere are as precious as our own. We are all connected, every living thing. May we have the gift of awe. May we be unafraid to share. May our hands be open, and may all be fed.
Love and light to all
Chava
___________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, July 22, 2012
16th Sunday in Ordinary time
Friends,
There are several lovely things to share with you this week.
First – you probably already know this – Bishop Clark turned 75 this week. I want to take this opportunity to say how grateful I am that he has been our bishop for the past several decades. He has taken courageous stands on issues that have touched all our lives. He has helped to make the world a better place. May God bless him with all good things.
This past weekend was the Pride Parade. Spiritus Christi, Immanuel Baptist, Mary Magdalene and St Romero’s walked together: four woman-led churches! There were other churches in the parade, as well. It is important that we be a presence there, because there is a lot of hating in the name of God going on, especially on Goodman St. I actually heard someone preaching, “Hate is in the Bible!” So it’s important that we bring God’s love and acceptance, God’s delight in all persons, to the Pride Parade each year.
More good news: this past Sunday at St Romero’s we had four new people. As usual, at about five minutes to eleven I was wondering if this was going to be the week nobody showed up, and then, tada! in came several people, including four newcomers. A woman came over from Southview Towers, a young man found us on the internet, and two more women heard of us at St Joe’s. Hooray!
All is well at Iglesia de San Romero, as well. This week it was raining as we began the Mass, so we moved it to the bodega, aka the barn, which worked really well. We’ve had some new folks there, too. I’m happy to tell you that on the day it was so terribly hot this week, at least one crew was told it was too hot to work and to take the day off. Please pray for everybody working in the fields this time of year. Imagine planting cabbage or picking cucumbers for 12 or 14 hours a day in this weather. It boggles the mind, and yet is the reality of our friends.
And finally, a check came in the mail this week: a tithing check from Spiritus Christi. Thank you, Spiritus, for remembering us, your little sister church! The moral support means at least as much as the money.
Here is a story in closing. One of “my” floors at the nursing home had its summer picnic this week. It was lovely to spend time relaxing with the elders. There was one woman I didn’t recognize. I went over to introduce myself. She told me, apologetically, that she wasn’t from that floor! And said, in a conspiratorial whisper, “I’m crashing the party!”
May each of us have the spunk to crash a party when we’re pushing 90.
Stay cool. I will share with you our family motto: Ice cream is always a good idea.
Love and light to all
Chava
____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friends,
There are several lovely things to share with you this week.
First – you probably already know this – Bishop Clark turned 75 this week. I want to take this opportunity to say how grateful I am that he has been our bishop for the past several decades. He has taken courageous stands on issues that have touched all our lives. He has helped to make the world a better place. May God bless him with all good things.
This past weekend was the Pride Parade. Spiritus Christi, Immanuel Baptist, Mary Magdalene and St Romero’s walked together: four woman-led churches! There were other churches in the parade, as well. It is important that we be a presence there, because there is a lot of hating in the name of God going on, especially on Goodman St. I actually heard someone preaching, “Hate is in the Bible!” So it’s important that we bring God’s love and acceptance, God’s delight in all persons, to the Pride Parade each year.
More good news: this past Sunday at St Romero’s we had four new people. As usual, at about five minutes to eleven I was wondering if this was going to be the week nobody showed up, and then, tada! in came several people, including four newcomers. A woman came over from Southview Towers, a young man found us on the internet, and two more women heard of us at St Joe’s. Hooray!
All is well at Iglesia de San Romero, as well. This week it was raining as we began the Mass, so we moved it to the bodega, aka the barn, which worked really well. We’ve had some new folks there, too. I’m happy to tell you that on the day it was so terribly hot this week, at least one crew was told it was too hot to work and to take the day off. Please pray for everybody working in the fields this time of year. Imagine planting cabbage or picking cucumbers for 12 or 14 hours a day in this weather. It boggles the mind, and yet is the reality of our friends.
And finally, a check came in the mail this week: a tithing check from Spiritus Christi. Thank you, Spiritus, for remembering us, your little sister church! The moral support means at least as much as the money.
Here is a story in closing. One of “my” floors at the nursing home had its summer picnic this week. It was lovely to spend time relaxing with the elders. There was one woman I didn’t recognize. I went over to introduce myself. She told me, apologetically, that she wasn’t from that floor! And said, in a conspiratorial whisper, “I’m crashing the party!”
May each of us have the spunk to crash a party when we’re pushing 90.
Stay cool. I will share with you our family motto: Ice cream is always a good idea.
Love and light to all
Chava
____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Bulletin for Sunday, July 15, 2012
15th Sunday in Ordinary time
Friends,
What a joy it was, a week ago, to tell our Mexican community about Librada Paz winning the Robert F Kennedy Foundation’s Human Rights Award. Librada was there, with her baby son, Axel, and her parents who were visiting from Mexico. I showed them the newspaper article and said, “Nuestra Librada es famosa!” Our Librada is famous!
The best thing, though, was telling them that at the same time as the great honor for Librada, the RFK Foundation is sending a message about them: their value, the value of their lives and of the work they do. What a beautiful thing it was to be able to say that to people who suffer in the ways that they do: You are not forgotten. There was a young man who was not able to be at Mass on Thursday. I saw him on Friday night and explained it to him. He listened, and as he understood what I was saying, a beautiful smile crossed his face.
The award does have teeth in it. It’s not just “Yay, wonderful you, hooray” --- there is a six year commitment to aid in getting a comprehensive farmworker rights bill passed in Albany, that comes with it.
I do not like to talk about my own experience of poverty. The stigma is so great that I can still feel it, today. I remember sitting in my caseworker’s office, waiting for something or other, and fiercely reminding myself of all that was good and strong and beautiful in my life – my kids, especially. The hardest thing about being down in the muck is feeling that all you deserve is muck. How much harder is it for people in their position? How hard is it to believe you are a person of worth and dignity?
That’s a big part of our job as church: to help each other see our worth and dignity, to see what’s best in each other, to believe in possibility. To give hope and vision when it seems impossible to hope or to see a better future.
Another part of our job as church is to work to make that better future possible. Librada’s RFK award is cause for celebration, not just because we’re so proud of her, but because it gives us hope that that better future might, indeed, be possible. May it be so.
This coming Saturday is the Rochester Pride Parade! We’ll be marching with Mary Magdalene Church. Meet at the corner of Park and Brunswick at 3 pm if you’d like to march, too!
And as always, come join us any Sunday at 11 at St Joe’s, or any Thursday, leaving St Joe’s at 6:30, coming home about 10:30.
Love and light to all
Chava
Here’s a quote from a great movie:
“Accepting our powerlessness and our extreme poverty, is an invitation, an urgent appeal to create with others relationships not based on power.
Recognizing my weaknesses, I accept those of others. I can bear them, make them mine, in imitation of Christ. Such an attitude transforms us for our mission.
Weakness in itself is not a virtue, but the expression of a fundamental reality which must constantly be refashioned by faith, hope and love.
The apostle’s weakness is like Christ’s, rooted in the mystery of Easter, and the strength of the spirit.
It is neither passivity nor resignation. It requires great courage and incites one to defend justice and truth and to denounce the temptation of force and power.”
- “Of Gods and Men”
___________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friends,
What a joy it was, a week ago, to tell our Mexican community about Librada Paz winning the Robert F Kennedy Foundation’s Human Rights Award. Librada was there, with her baby son, Axel, and her parents who were visiting from Mexico. I showed them the newspaper article and said, “Nuestra Librada es famosa!” Our Librada is famous!
The best thing, though, was telling them that at the same time as the great honor for Librada, the RFK Foundation is sending a message about them: their value, the value of their lives and of the work they do. What a beautiful thing it was to be able to say that to people who suffer in the ways that they do: You are not forgotten. There was a young man who was not able to be at Mass on Thursday. I saw him on Friday night and explained it to him. He listened, and as he understood what I was saying, a beautiful smile crossed his face.
The award does have teeth in it. It’s not just “Yay, wonderful you, hooray” --- there is a six year commitment to aid in getting a comprehensive farmworker rights bill passed in Albany, that comes with it.
I do not like to talk about my own experience of poverty. The stigma is so great that I can still feel it, today. I remember sitting in my caseworker’s office, waiting for something or other, and fiercely reminding myself of all that was good and strong and beautiful in my life – my kids, especially. The hardest thing about being down in the muck is feeling that all you deserve is muck. How much harder is it for people in their position? How hard is it to believe you are a person of worth and dignity?
That’s a big part of our job as church: to help each other see our worth and dignity, to see what’s best in each other, to believe in possibility. To give hope and vision when it seems impossible to hope or to see a better future.
Another part of our job as church is to work to make that better future possible. Librada’s RFK award is cause for celebration, not just because we’re so proud of her, but because it gives us hope that that better future might, indeed, be possible. May it be so.
This coming Saturday is the Rochester Pride Parade! We’ll be marching with Mary Magdalene Church. Meet at the corner of Park and Brunswick at 3 pm if you’d like to march, too!
And as always, come join us any Sunday at 11 at St Joe’s, or any Thursday, leaving St Joe’s at 6:30, coming home about 10:30.
Love and light to all
Chava
Here’s a quote from a great movie:
“Accepting our powerlessness and our extreme poverty, is an invitation, an urgent appeal to create with others relationships not based on power.
Recognizing my weaknesses, I accept those of others. I can bear them, make them mine, in imitation of Christ. Such an attitude transforms us for our mission.
Weakness in itself is not a virtue, but the expression of a fundamental reality which must constantly be refashioned by faith, hope and love.
The apostle’s weakness is like Christ’s, rooted in the mystery of Easter, and the strength of the spirit.
It is neither passivity nor resignation. It requires great courage and incites one to defend justice and truth and to denounce the temptation of force and power.”
- “Of Gods and Men”
___________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Bulletin for Sunday, July 8, 2012
14th Sunday in Ordinary time
Friends,
Back in 2008 or 9, Spiritus Christi sponsored an evening on Immigration Reform. Marilu Aguilar organized it, and brought in some great speakers, including Wally Ruehle. Among the speakers that night was a young woman named Librada Paz. I remember her talk better than any of the others (sorry, Wally!) because she spoke from her own experience, having come here undocumented as a teenager from Mexico. I particularly remember her story of needing to go to the hospital and being afraid to go because of the risk of getting turned in to immigration.
Our paths crossed again in October, 2010, when she and I were both part of a group from the Presbytery of Genesee Valley and Rural and Migrant Ministries that toured some fields and met some farmworkers. It was that night that the dream of coming back to offer Mass in Spanish was born. If Librada hadn’t given me her email address and said to contact her in the Spring, our little Migrant church would not have happened. The following June, she and I spent an evening driving around Elba and Clarendon, meeting people and asking if they would like a Mass, until finally we were invited to come and celebrate at the location where we now meet weekly.
My Spanish was good enough to preach and celebrate the Mass, at that point. I depended on Librada for all other communication. She still helps with translation, now, when I get stuck. (which still happens a lot!)
In September when two of our guys were taken by la migra, she and I worked together to find where they were, and together visited Santiago when he was in detention. She was the person I called for directions when I went to get them out, because I didn’t know my way around Batavia, and she came to Mass to celebrate their return that week. She even videotaped the guys talking about their experience, to document it for Rural and Migrant Ministries. She has been tireless in walking with us, even through her pregnancy, and now she has brought her beautiful baby son, Axel, to our Thursday Mass.
Iglesia de San Romero would not exist without Librada’s help, all along the way.
So, it is with great joy that I tell you that Librada Paz has been named the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation’s Award for Human Rights, this year, for her work with farm workers.
Congratulations, Librada. What a wonderful, wonderful thing! Gracias por todos tu trabajar por nuestra hermanos y hermanos quien trabajan tan duro en los campos. Dios te bendiga, siempre! Thank you for all your work for our brothers and sisters who work so hard in the fields. God bless you, always!
Love and light to all
Chava
Here’s a link to an article in the New York Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/amazing-journey-librada-paz-u-s-scary-desert-trek-degree-citizenship-wins-rfk-award-aiding-farm-workers-article-1.1107498?localLinksEnabled=false
...and a photo of Librada and baby Axel is attached
___________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friends,
Back in 2008 or 9, Spiritus Christi sponsored an evening on Immigration Reform. Marilu Aguilar organized it, and brought in some great speakers, including Wally Ruehle. Among the speakers that night was a young woman named Librada Paz. I remember her talk better than any of the others (sorry, Wally!) because she spoke from her own experience, having come here undocumented as a teenager from Mexico. I particularly remember her story of needing to go to the hospital and being afraid to go because of the risk of getting turned in to immigration.
Our paths crossed again in October, 2010, when she and I were both part of a group from the Presbytery of Genesee Valley and Rural and Migrant Ministries that toured some fields and met some farmworkers. It was that night that the dream of coming back to offer Mass in Spanish was born. If Librada hadn’t given me her email address and said to contact her in the Spring, our little Migrant church would not have happened. The following June, she and I spent an evening driving around Elba and Clarendon, meeting people and asking if they would like a Mass, until finally we were invited to come and celebrate at the location where we now meet weekly.
My Spanish was good enough to preach and celebrate the Mass, at that point. I depended on Librada for all other communication. She still helps with translation, now, when I get stuck. (which still happens a lot!)
In September when two of our guys were taken by la migra, she and I worked together to find where they were, and together visited Santiago when he was in detention. She was the person I called for directions when I went to get them out, because I didn’t know my way around Batavia, and she came to Mass to celebrate their return that week. She even videotaped the guys talking about their experience, to document it for Rural and Migrant Ministries. She has been tireless in walking with us, even through her pregnancy, and now she has brought her beautiful baby son, Axel, to our Thursday Mass.
Iglesia de San Romero would not exist without Librada’s help, all along the way.
So, it is with great joy that I tell you that Librada Paz has been named the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation’s Award for Human Rights, this year, for her work with farm workers.
Congratulations, Librada. What a wonderful, wonderful thing! Gracias por todos tu trabajar por nuestra hermanos y hermanos quien trabajan tan duro en los campos. Dios te bendiga, siempre! Thank you for all your work for our brothers and sisters who work so hard in the fields. God bless you, always!
Love and light to all
Chava
Here’s a link to an article in the New York Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/amazing-journey-librada-paz-u-s-scary-desert-trek-degree-citizenship-wins-rfk-award-aiding-farm-workers-article-1.1107498?localLinksEnabled=false
...and a photo of Librada and baby Axel is attached
___________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Bulletin for Sunday, July 1, 2012
Thirteenth week in ordinary time
Friends,
Here’s a quote from Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff:
"To adopt the place of the poor is our first deed of solidarity with them. This act is accomplished by making an effort to view reality from their perspective. And when we view reality from their perspective, that reality simply must be transformed."
I turned to Boff this week, looking for help in knowing how to pastor this little group of people whose lives are so heavy with injustice, poverty, work and seemingly intractable problems.
As I preached at Iglesia de San Romero this past week, a sermon I preached at the nursing home and on Sunday at St Romero’s, as well, I watched the faces of the people listening. A preacher can often tell when what they’re saying is hitting home. Eyes light up, heads nod. I love it when that happens. Well, it wasn’t happening this time! My message could be summed up as, “you are special, unique and precious just as you are” and I got the feeling it just wasn’t feeding them. One man sat slumped against the side of a car, the weight of his life almost visible on his shoulders. After Mass he kindly thanked me for coming. My presence – our presence – is worth something just as it is. It’s a sign of hope, proof that they are not absolutely forgotten.
But I was discontented and found myself carrying the question: how does one minister to people in this impossible situation? Our experience of church needs to be more than just frosting in their lives. It needs to be bread for the journey.
So I turned to Leonardo Boff. His book, “When Theology Listens to the Poor,” has a chapter entitled “How Ought We to Celebrate the Eucharist in a World of Injustice?” How do we make the celebration of the Mass itself an act of justice? In that chapter I found this: “true worship of God is realized... in the building of a community of sisters and brothers”
Ultimately it occurred to me that perhaps the way to serve this community is the way one builds any community. Show up! Bring your weakness as well as your strength. Laugh together. Forgive. Hang in there. Act justly, love tenderly, walk humbly with your God... and keep working on your Spanish.
Yesterday in Buffalo I found another answer to that question. The guys are in yet another difficult situation, with the government demanding one thing and their boss demanding another. I introduced the guys to the English expression, “between a rock and a hard place.” As we worked to find a solution, I said to the man, “Do you see their predicament?” and he nodded. He is bound by the rules he is upholding, but in that moment I detected a spark of sympathy.
It seems to me that moments like that are as much an experience of church as what we do around the altar. But they would not happen if we were not also gathered around the altar. The food for the soul we receive at Mass is also an invisible thread of caring - a bit of gluten! – that stretches and binds us together. Yeast, we are. Little, hidden – and life-giving. May it be so, may it be so.
Love and light to all
Chava
Please join us, any time you like: Sundays at 11 in the city, Thursdays at 8 in the country, leaving St Joe’s at 6:30. Donations of cookies for our social time after Mass are welcome, but what we’d like most is you!
___________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friends,
Here’s a quote from Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff:
"To adopt the place of the poor is our first deed of solidarity with them. This act is accomplished by making an effort to view reality from their perspective. And when we view reality from their perspective, that reality simply must be transformed."
I turned to Boff this week, looking for help in knowing how to pastor this little group of people whose lives are so heavy with injustice, poverty, work and seemingly intractable problems.
As I preached at Iglesia de San Romero this past week, a sermon I preached at the nursing home and on Sunday at St Romero’s, as well, I watched the faces of the people listening. A preacher can often tell when what they’re saying is hitting home. Eyes light up, heads nod. I love it when that happens. Well, it wasn’t happening this time! My message could be summed up as, “you are special, unique and precious just as you are” and I got the feeling it just wasn’t feeding them. One man sat slumped against the side of a car, the weight of his life almost visible on his shoulders. After Mass he kindly thanked me for coming. My presence – our presence – is worth something just as it is. It’s a sign of hope, proof that they are not absolutely forgotten.
But I was discontented and found myself carrying the question: how does one minister to people in this impossible situation? Our experience of church needs to be more than just frosting in their lives. It needs to be bread for the journey.
So I turned to Leonardo Boff. His book, “When Theology Listens to the Poor,” has a chapter entitled “How Ought We to Celebrate the Eucharist in a World of Injustice?” How do we make the celebration of the Mass itself an act of justice? In that chapter I found this: “true worship of God is realized... in the building of a community of sisters and brothers”
Ultimately it occurred to me that perhaps the way to serve this community is the way one builds any community. Show up! Bring your weakness as well as your strength. Laugh together. Forgive. Hang in there. Act justly, love tenderly, walk humbly with your God... and keep working on your Spanish.
Yesterday in Buffalo I found another answer to that question. The guys are in yet another difficult situation, with the government demanding one thing and their boss demanding another. I introduced the guys to the English expression, “between a rock and a hard place.” As we worked to find a solution, I said to the man, “Do you see their predicament?” and he nodded. He is bound by the rules he is upholding, but in that moment I detected a spark of sympathy.
It seems to me that moments like that are as much an experience of church as what we do around the altar. But they would not happen if we were not also gathered around the altar. The food for the soul we receive at Mass is also an invisible thread of caring - a bit of gluten! – that stretches and binds us together. Yeast, we are. Little, hidden – and life-giving. May it be so, may it be so.
Love and light to all
Chava
Please join us, any time you like: Sundays at 11 in the city, Thursdays at 8 in the country, leaving St Joe’s at 6:30. Donations of cookies for our social time after Mass are welcome, but what we’d like most is you!
___________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, June 24, 2012
Feast of John the Baptist
Friends,
Did you ever see “Lilies of the Field”? That’s the Sidney Poitier movie from the early sixties, about a man who stops to ask some nuns for water for his car and ends up building them a church. (It’s the movie that gave us the great song, “Amen”). The community served by the nuns is mostly Mexican. Until they get that church, their altar is the back of a truck, with a priest in full pre-Vatican II vestments celebrating, and everyone standing around.
I thought of that movie last week at our first Migrant Mass of the year, because our altar was a board resting on the back of a truck! Last year we used a big crate resting on some upended buckets, but we couldn’t find any buckets last Thursday. A couple of the guys are rebuilding a truck, and we decided that was the best surface to use (another option being the trunk of my car). Flat surface, white tablecloth: tada! It’s an altar.
There was time before Mass began to hang out and talk to people while others were finishing supper. The boy in the community showed me how he’s learned to ride a bike. I met a couple of new young men and had a chance to look at the garden. Not everyone could be there. Librada had another commitment, I couldn’t reach Michael who usually comes in from the city with me, and Santiago was working (until dusk, most evenings lately). So, it was just me and the guys, a chance to be church again after the long winter.
Like last year, we all stood through the Mass, right by the garden with its tomato and chili pepper plants. Birds were singing, and there was a bit of a breeze. The cards with the Mass parts that Caryl Marchand laminated for us last year still serve. Our chalice is a wooden ciborium with a lid, to keep the bugs out. We sang two new songs, and everyone picked them up pretty quickly. At the end, everybody clapped, and then we had brownies. It was lovely.
Tonight we will leave again from St Joe’s at 6:30, as we intend to do every Thursday. You are always welcome to join us. Tonight we’ll have the cookies that Karen and Mike Reimringer dropped off at my house yesterday. Last week the guys said we might move to the storage barn near the house, so I guess for now that’s where we will worship.
We come together to remember who we are: beloved children of God. We come together to remember that God is always with us. We come together to support each other in the hard times, and laugh together in the good times. Laughter – always lots of laughter. I pray that it will be life-giving for all who come.
And one of these days, maybe Sidney Poitier will show up and build us a church! Amen!
Love and light to all
Chava
PS I was asked to join a planning committee for the Rural and Migrant Ministries annual “Harvesting Justice” dinner, to be held at Temple B’rith Kodesh in November (date TBA). I’m wondering if some of the folks who are so skilled at putting on events like ordinations might like to help out that day. It’s a one afternoon and evening commitment, setting tables, decorating, helping in the kitchen, and clean-up. Likely a weekday in mid-November. Is that something you might like to do? Let me know and I’ll start gathering names to contact when we have more full details.
People have asked if the DREAM act is good news for our folks. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like any of them will fit the requirements of being under 30, having been brought here before age 16, and being a high-school graduate. But congratulations to the daring young people who risked their own well-being to bring about this change.
You are always welcome at St Romero’s: Sunday Mass at 11 am at St Joe’s, Migrant Mass leaving St Joe’s at 6:30 on Thursday nights.
“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” – Mahatma Gandhi
__________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friends,
Did you ever see “Lilies of the Field”? That’s the Sidney Poitier movie from the early sixties, about a man who stops to ask some nuns for water for his car and ends up building them a church. (It’s the movie that gave us the great song, “Amen”). The community served by the nuns is mostly Mexican. Until they get that church, their altar is the back of a truck, with a priest in full pre-Vatican II vestments celebrating, and everyone standing around.
I thought of that movie last week at our first Migrant Mass of the year, because our altar was a board resting on the back of a truck! Last year we used a big crate resting on some upended buckets, but we couldn’t find any buckets last Thursday. A couple of the guys are rebuilding a truck, and we decided that was the best surface to use (another option being the trunk of my car). Flat surface, white tablecloth: tada! It’s an altar.
There was time before Mass began to hang out and talk to people while others were finishing supper. The boy in the community showed me how he’s learned to ride a bike. I met a couple of new young men and had a chance to look at the garden. Not everyone could be there. Librada had another commitment, I couldn’t reach Michael who usually comes in from the city with me, and Santiago was working (until dusk, most evenings lately). So, it was just me and the guys, a chance to be church again after the long winter.
Like last year, we all stood through the Mass, right by the garden with its tomato and chili pepper plants. Birds were singing, and there was a bit of a breeze. The cards with the Mass parts that Caryl Marchand laminated for us last year still serve. Our chalice is a wooden ciborium with a lid, to keep the bugs out. We sang two new songs, and everyone picked them up pretty quickly. At the end, everybody clapped, and then we had brownies. It was lovely.
Tonight we will leave again from St Joe’s at 6:30, as we intend to do every Thursday. You are always welcome to join us. Tonight we’ll have the cookies that Karen and Mike Reimringer dropped off at my house yesterday. Last week the guys said we might move to the storage barn near the house, so I guess for now that’s where we will worship.
We come together to remember who we are: beloved children of God. We come together to remember that God is always with us. We come together to support each other in the hard times, and laugh together in the good times. Laughter – always lots of laughter. I pray that it will be life-giving for all who come.
And one of these days, maybe Sidney Poitier will show up and build us a church! Amen!
Love and light to all
Chava
PS I was asked to join a planning committee for the Rural and Migrant Ministries annual “Harvesting Justice” dinner, to be held at Temple B’rith Kodesh in November (date TBA). I’m wondering if some of the folks who are so skilled at putting on events like ordinations might like to help out that day. It’s a one afternoon and evening commitment, setting tables, decorating, helping in the kitchen, and clean-up. Likely a weekday in mid-November. Is that something you might like to do? Let me know and I’ll start gathering names to contact when we have more full details.
People have asked if the DREAM act is good news for our folks. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like any of them will fit the requirements of being under 30, having been brought here before age 16, and being a high-school graduate. But congratulations to the daring young people who risked their own well-being to bring about this change.
You are always welcome at St Romero’s: Sunday Mass at 11 am at St Joe’s, Migrant Mass leaving St Joe’s at 6:30 on Thursday nights.
“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” – Mahatma Gandhi
__________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Bulletin for Sunday, June 17, 2012
11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Friends,
Here are some things that Jesus never said. “The kingdom of God is like an army.” or, “The reign of God is like a government.” Nope. Jesus used images of surprise – the kingdom of God is like a treasure found in a field! – and persistence. The kingdom of God is like the most annoying weed you can think of! In Jesus’ time, that was mustard. Perhaps now he would say it’s like dandelions, or even poison ivy. Just when you think it’s all gone, poof! It’s back again. The reign of God is like little seeds, scattered in a field. Or like yeast, hidden in some dough. Littleness, hiddenness, persistence.
Those are great images for us to carry at St Romero’s, as we begin our second season of Masses with our migrant community. We began at this point last year, too: June 16, 2011. We celebrated the Mass together, standing in a parking lot, all summer long. In September, two things happened at once: the community moved to a bigger house where we could worship inside, and two of our guys got taken by immigration. In the fall we worshiped, standing around a picnic table in the new house, and our community went deeper as we dealt together with the realities of undocumented people and began our ministry of accompaniment, walking with the guys who were now in the system. In November, about half of the community went to Florida, and most of the others moved to a tiny house. We stopped having Mass, but continued Religious Education. Since April, everyone has been back, but working long hours because it’s planting season. They are now scattered over two houses.
This Thursday night, June 14, we’ll start celebrating Mass together again, back at the original location. I begin this year with a lot more knowledge of the reality of their lives: the monotony, the incredibly hard work, the fear of la migra, the conditions that they live in. I give them a lot of credit for showing up week after week last year, to worship with this gringa priest who knew so little. I’m still a pretty frustrating pastor, I think: my Spanish has improved a lot, but listening comprehension is another story. Luckily, there’s usually someone around who can translate. Please pray for us as we begin anew.
…and if you like, join us! Let me know if you’re coming and we’ll meet at St Joe’s to carpool. What, driving an hour each way to stand through a Mass with people you don’t know in a language you can’t understand, while swatting mosquitoes, doesn’t appeal to you? If you’d like to participate in a different way, we could also use cookies each week for our social time after Mass!
This past year, you who read this bulletin have been wonderful. You have been the extended community, the yeast hidden in the dough. Your prayers and encouragement mean a great deal. You have given practical help – I think of Martin and Linda, driving everybody in to my house for our Christmas Eve Mass – or those who helped with things, like Caryl, Linda, Lynne & Marianne, Karen & Mike, Kevin, Deb and others, who gave paint, beds, shelves, a crock pot - or the folks from the Methodist Church in Churchville who made cookies last year – and all the people who have given money, that pays for the phone our guys use to report in each month, and for gas and religious ed materials. Most of all, Librada, who patiently translated conversation after conversation last year. I’m sure I haven’t listed everyone, or everything you’ve given or done, but thank you, so much.
Every Thursday morning last summer, I woke up in a panic. “What am I doing?!” I would ask myself. “I don’t speak Spanish!” And every Thursday night, I drove home, happy. We are little, we are hidden, we live and worship in precarious conditions, but all is well. All is well. Pray for us as we go forth, please.
Love and light to all
Chava
We are also sending prayers for Gustavo Monzone, a Guatemalan man living in Mexico. We met Gus in Las Vegas last October at the Catholic Worker National Gathering. He worked at the Los Angeles Catholic Worker for a time. He was also in this country without documents. A Catholic parish in Los Angeles was helping him with the process to stay here legally, when they found out that he was gay, and dropped him in a flash. Gus was deported, and has been working at a Catholic Worker House in Mexico ever since. Just recently we got the news that Gus is dealing with a brain tumor. Please pray for this beautiful man, who has so much to give the world.
We continue to worship Sunday mornings at St Joe’s at 11. It’s always a surprise, who will be there. Maybe you, one of these weeks? We’d love to see you.
And happy Father’s Day to all the Dads!
_________________________________________________
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,
Here are some things that Jesus never said. “The kingdom of God is like an army.” or, “The reign of God is like a government.” Nope. Jesus used images of surprise – the kingdom of God is like a treasure found in a field! – and persistence. The kingdom of God is like the most annoying weed you can think of! In Jesus’ time, that was mustard. Perhaps now he would say it’s like dandelions, or even poison ivy. Just when you think it’s all gone, poof! It’s back again. The reign of God is like little seeds, scattered in a field. Or like yeast, hidden in some dough. Littleness, hiddenness, persistence.
Those are great images for us to carry at St Romero’s, as we begin our second season of Masses with our migrant community. We began at this point last year, too: June 16, 2011. We celebrated the Mass together, standing in a parking lot, all summer long. In September, two things happened at once: the community moved to a bigger house where we could worship inside, and two of our guys got taken by immigration. In the fall we worshiped, standing around a picnic table in the new house, and our community went deeper as we dealt together with the realities of undocumented people and began our ministry of accompaniment, walking with the guys who were now in the system. In November, about half of the community went to Florida, and most of the others moved to a tiny house. We stopped having Mass, but continued Religious Education. Since April, everyone has been back, but working long hours because it’s planting season. They are now scattered over two houses.
This Thursday night, June 14, we’ll start celebrating Mass together again, back at the original location. I begin this year with a lot more knowledge of the reality of their lives: the monotony, the incredibly hard work, the fear of la migra, the conditions that they live in. I give them a lot of credit for showing up week after week last year, to worship with this gringa priest who knew so little. I’m still a pretty frustrating pastor, I think: my Spanish has improved a lot, but listening comprehension is another story. Luckily, there’s usually someone around who can translate. Please pray for us as we begin anew.
…and if you like, join us! Let me know if you’re coming and we’ll meet at St Joe’s to carpool. What, driving an hour each way to stand through a Mass with people you don’t know in a language you can’t understand, while swatting mosquitoes, doesn’t appeal to you? If you’d like to participate in a different way, we could also use cookies each week for our social time after Mass!
This past year, you who read this bulletin have been wonderful. You have been the extended community, the yeast hidden in the dough. Your prayers and encouragement mean a great deal. You have given practical help – I think of Martin and Linda, driving everybody in to my house for our Christmas Eve Mass – or those who helped with things, like Caryl, Linda, Lynne & Marianne, Karen & Mike, Kevin, Deb and others, who gave paint, beds, shelves, a crock pot - or the folks from the Methodist Church in Churchville who made cookies last year – and all the people who have given money, that pays for the phone our guys use to report in each month, and for gas and religious ed materials. Most of all, Librada, who patiently translated conversation after conversation last year. I’m sure I haven’t listed everyone, or everything you’ve given or done, but thank you, so much.
Every Thursday morning last summer, I woke up in a panic. “What am I doing?!” I would ask myself. “I don’t speak Spanish!” And every Thursday night, I drove home, happy. We are little, we are hidden, we live and worship in precarious conditions, but all is well. All is well. Pray for us as we go forth, please.
Love and light to all
Chava
We are also sending prayers for Gustavo Monzone, a Guatemalan man living in Mexico. We met Gus in Las Vegas last October at the Catholic Worker National Gathering. He worked at the Los Angeles Catholic Worker for a time. He was also in this country without documents. A Catholic parish in Los Angeles was helping him with the process to stay here legally, when they found out that he was gay, and dropped him in a flash. Gus was deported, and has been working at a Catholic Worker House in Mexico ever since. Just recently we got the news that Gus is dealing with a brain tumor. Please pray for this beautiful man, who has so much to give the world.
We continue to worship Sunday mornings at St Joe’s at 11. It’s always a surprise, who will be there. Maybe you, one of these weeks? We’d love to see you.
And happy Father’s Day to all the Dads!
_________________________________________________
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
Bulletin for Sunday, June 10, 2012
Feast of Corpus Christi
Friends,
How ironic that as we celebrate the feast of the Body of Christ – Corpus Christi – you and me and all of us who together are the church – as well as the meal we share as Jesus said to, the meal that binds us Christians together all throughout the world, in our different understandings of God and Eucharist and church – we are many, we are varied, but we are also one body ----- how ironic that we celebrate this feast at a time when the church in Rome is in what looks to me like a meltdown. “All hell breaks loose in the Vatican,” read a recent headline in the National Catholic Reporter. Nuns in this country are under pressure to conform, very much as we were pressured in 1998, with painful decisions to be made. And just this week, the Vatican announced the notification of Sr. Margaret Farley, who wrote a book called “Just Love: a Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics,” causing her book to go overnight from obscurity to the Amazon top-twenty bestsellers list. (Reminding me of my Mom, Mary Doyle-Feder, who as a teenager used the annual Catholic list of banned books as her reading list!) You realize the average age of American nuns is over 70? They are bullying old women! - Our brothers in Rome seem to be flailing around, trying to control the Spirit, who goes where She will –and they are making things worse and worse.
All of this brings to mind something Jim Callan said in August 1998, after he was fired – by the same people – over much the same issues. Jim said, “Things aren’t breaking down, they’re breaking through!” – and that’s true now, too. Hang on, church, it’s going to be a bumpy ride --- but there is life at the end of it. God is here in the mess. All is well.
So here’s my prayer. I’m praying for the nuns, these days, for integrity and courage and insight and wisdom, all of which they already have in spades. May they be fearless and strong. And I’m praying for the church. The worldwide church, all of us who love Jesus and are trying – missteps, mistakes and all – to follow him. MAY WE BE RENEWED! May we become truly a church of the poor. May we value love and solidarity over security. May we fearlessly follow Jesus, who did warn us that we’d be persecuted. May we let go of our stuff and our power and see the world through the eyes of our brothers and sisters who have so little stuff, so little power. May we recognize that the church is all of us, not just the Catholics. May we be truly a church of equals, a church that can transform the world. May it be so.
Meanwhile at St Romero’s. we continue on our tiny, obscure and trusting-God-every-step-of-the-way way. All is well, even when all is fuzzy and unclear. Our brothers and sisters in the migrant community are back to working 12 hours a day planting cabbage, after several days off due to rain. The cabbage seedlings are in heavy boxes with nails and wires that tear at fingers and bruise legs. Please keep them in your prayers. And me, on the road. My car, after heroically making the hour-each-way trip countless times in the past year, is letting me know that it is feeling every inch of its 149,000 miles. God is good, all the time, and our little church will unfold as God is dreaming, one day at a time.
Blessings on this feast of Corpus Christi to all, all, all of the Body of Christ. May we all be the church God dreams of. Amen!
Love and light to all
Chava
_________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friends,
How ironic that as we celebrate the feast of the Body of Christ – Corpus Christi – you and me and all of us who together are the church – as well as the meal we share as Jesus said to, the meal that binds us Christians together all throughout the world, in our different understandings of God and Eucharist and church – we are many, we are varied, but we are also one body ----- how ironic that we celebrate this feast at a time when the church in Rome is in what looks to me like a meltdown. “All hell breaks loose in the Vatican,” read a recent headline in the National Catholic Reporter. Nuns in this country are under pressure to conform, very much as we were pressured in 1998, with painful decisions to be made. And just this week, the Vatican announced the notification of Sr. Margaret Farley, who wrote a book called “Just Love: a Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics,” causing her book to go overnight from obscurity to the Amazon top-twenty bestsellers list. (Reminding me of my Mom, Mary Doyle-Feder, who as a teenager used the annual Catholic list of banned books as her reading list!) You realize the average age of American nuns is over 70? They are bullying old women! - Our brothers in Rome seem to be flailing around, trying to control the Spirit, who goes where She will –and they are making things worse and worse.
All of this brings to mind something Jim Callan said in August 1998, after he was fired – by the same people – over much the same issues. Jim said, “Things aren’t breaking down, they’re breaking through!” – and that’s true now, too. Hang on, church, it’s going to be a bumpy ride --- but there is life at the end of it. God is here in the mess. All is well.
So here’s my prayer. I’m praying for the nuns, these days, for integrity and courage and insight and wisdom, all of which they already have in spades. May they be fearless and strong. And I’m praying for the church. The worldwide church, all of us who love Jesus and are trying – missteps, mistakes and all – to follow him. MAY WE BE RENEWED! May we become truly a church of the poor. May we value love and solidarity over security. May we fearlessly follow Jesus, who did warn us that we’d be persecuted. May we let go of our stuff and our power and see the world through the eyes of our brothers and sisters who have so little stuff, so little power. May we recognize that the church is all of us, not just the Catholics. May we be truly a church of equals, a church that can transform the world. May it be so.
Meanwhile at St Romero’s. we continue on our tiny, obscure and trusting-God-every-step-of-the-way way. All is well, even when all is fuzzy and unclear. Our brothers and sisters in the migrant community are back to working 12 hours a day planting cabbage, after several days off due to rain. The cabbage seedlings are in heavy boxes with nails and wires that tear at fingers and bruise legs. Please keep them in your prayers. And me, on the road. My car, after heroically making the hour-each-way trip countless times in the past year, is letting me know that it is feeling every inch of its 149,000 miles. God is good, all the time, and our little church will unfold as God is dreaming, one day at a time.
Blessings on this feast of Corpus Christi to all, all, all of the Body of Christ. May we all be the church God dreams of. Amen!
Love and light to all
Chava
_________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Bulletin for Sunday, June 3, 2012
Feast of the Holy Trinity
Friends,
Pentecost at St Romero’s, 2012:
Before heading out to church on Sunday morning I had a feeling I should check my email. There was a note from Don Monefeldt, asking about the future of St Romero’s. Will we become solely a migrant church, leaving the church in the city behind? That question has been at the back of my mind, too, so I talked to God about it, as I often do. “If it’s just Michael and me at church again today, Lord, I’m going to take that as a sign that it’s time to move out to the country.” Even Capo hasn’t been coming to church lately, as he’s so tired from planting cabbage 72 or more hours a week.
So, off I went to St Joe’s. I tried to get in the back door and my key didn’t work, so I went around front. Still no luck. Ah. The locks have been changed. And no sign of Michael. Is this my sign? Along comes Fernando, though, wanting church. I see that the upstairs windows are open, so I holler up: “Marc? Jen? Bobby? José? Tom? Can anyone come down and open the door?” I’m thinking that I’ll just share a prayer with Fernando and call it a morning, but along comes José, who lets us in and joins us for Mass. Another man comes in at the end. As usual, it’s a lovely little Mass. I really love being pastor of a small church where it’s possible to know everyone.
After Mass I tell José about the email and the question in my mind, and telling God that if it’s just Michael and me I’ll take it as a sign. José laughs and apologizes for being part of my mixed message from God!
What I feel in my spirit is simply to pray with open hands, asking God for direction, and to keep on going, one day at a time. Meanwhile, back at the rancho, we haven’t started Mass yet. We went to Buffalo on Tuesday. There is pressure for the guys to get Mexican passports. We’re waiting for a document to arrive from Mexico, and then we will take a trip to NYC to visit the Mexican consulate. We will need a place to stay in New York, so if you know anyone who might be willing to put up two very nice men and a priest for a night, we’d appreciate hearing about it.
This Saturday, Fr Enrique Cadena will be in town celebrating both his 30th anniversary of priesthood, and his 60th birthday with a Mass at Perinton Park in Fairport at 5. Enrique was a very important part of the events at Corpus Christi in 1998. His creativity changed our habits of worship: it was he who first invited the congregation to say the words of consecration. May his vision of equality be the reality of the church!
Love and light to all
Chava
“One can make an offering of the self to God. This is far different from offering one's special talents, as important as that may be. It is more than the offering of resources, however great or limited they may be. It is to offer one's self: to put at the disposal of Life one's life, not merely one's needs, one's demands, one's frustrations, one's unresolved problems. This is to say to Life, ‘Here I am, I put myself at your disposal to be where I am--all of me. To do, where I am, with all of me. To respond to life where I am without bargaining or bartering.’”
Howard Thurman, “The Inward Journey”
_________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friends,
Pentecost at St Romero’s, 2012:
Before heading out to church on Sunday morning I had a feeling I should check my email. There was a note from Don Monefeldt, asking about the future of St Romero’s. Will we become solely a migrant church, leaving the church in the city behind? That question has been at the back of my mind, too, so I talked to God about it, as I often do. “If it’s just Michael and me at church again today, Lord, I’m going to take that as a sign that it’s time to move out to the country.” Even Capo hasn’t been coming to church lately, as he’s so tired from planting cabbage 72 or more hours a week.
So, off I went to St Joe’s. I tried to get in the back door and my key didn’t work, so I went around front. Still no luck. Ah. The locks have been changed. And no sign of Michael. Is this my sign? Along comes Fernando, though, wanting church. I see that the upstairs windows are open, so I holler up: “Marc? Jen? Bobby? José? Tom? Can anyone come down and open the door?” I’m thinking that I’ll just share a prayer with Fernando and call it a morning, but along comes José, who lets us in and joins us for Mass. Another man comes in at the end. As usual, it’s a lovely little Mass. I really love being pastor of a small church where it’s possible to know everyone.
After Mass I tell José about the email and the question in my mind, and telling God that if it’s just Michael and me I’ll take it as a sign. José laughs and apologizes for being part of my mixed message from God!
What I feel in my spirit is simply to pray with open hands, asking God for direction, and to keep on going, one day at a time. Meanwhile, back at the rancho, we haven’t started Mass yet. We went to Buffalo on Tuesday. There is pressure for the guys to get Mexican passports. We’re waiting for a document to arrive from Mexico, and then we will take a trip to NYC to visit the Mexican consulate. We will need a place to stay in New York, so if you know anyone who might be willing to put up two very nice men and a priest for a night, we’d appreciate hearing about it.
This Saturday, Fr Enrique Cadena will be in town celebrating both his 30th anniversary of priesthood, and his 60th birthday with a Mass at Perinton Park in Fairport at 5. Enrique was a very important part of the events at Corpus Christi in 1998. His creativity changed our habits of worship: it was he who first invited the congregation to say the words of consecration. May his vision of equality be the reality of the church!
Love and light to all
Chava
“One can make an offering of the self to God. This is far different from offering one's special talents, as important as that may be. It is more than the offering of resources, however great or limited they may be. It is to offer one's self: to put at the disposal of Life one's life, not merely one's needs, one's demands, one's frustrations, one's unresolved problems. This is to say to Life, ‘Here I am, I put myself at your disposal to be where I am--all of me. To do, where I am, with all of me. To respond to life where I am without bargaining or bartering.’”
Howard Thurman, “The Inward Journey”
_________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friday, May 25, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, May 27, 2012
Pentecost
Friends,
Have you heard of the 19th Annotation, the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola? One spends nine months praying intensely under the guidance of an experienced Ignatian pray-er. The experience is offered locally through the Mercy Prayer Center. If this disciplined way of growing closer to God tugs at your heart, give them a call.
I’ve just finished the 19th, myself. I am not the best advertisement for the Ignatian Exercises, though, When I applied a year ago, I knew it would be a challenge, committing to an hour of prayer a day --- and that was before my hours at work changed, and our adventure with La Migra happened in September, and then, lo and behold, the life change of becoming and having a significant other. If the 19th were a class, I’d be getting a D.
Every time I say that, though, someone at the Prayer Center says, “You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.” That has been very freeing, and as the 19th finished up, with me about three months behind, I decided to start looking at the experience of failure. For many years I’ve been achieving things, climbing hurdles. An A student. It’s been pretty fun, organizing, making things happen.
Now, however, things are different. Over and over again in our little migrant church, I make a plan – a good plan! And over and over again, my plans don’t work. The unforeseen factor in the equation is the unpredictable nature of their lives. Plans change suddenly. Work schedules, living arrangements. This is why they travel light.
Our little church needs to travel light, too. It’s not about a worship schedule, a religious ed program, even a building (at this time. I’m still hoping). It’s just about being there, building community, loving – in the moment and consistently – taking opportunities. Guerilla community, low to the ground. It takes a different skill set than the one that got me through divinity school.
So that’s the gift of the 19th for me: awareness that it’s time to change, time to put up the oars and quit trying to steer the boat. This little boat is anchored in God’s love and mercy, and that really is enough. Both the English church and the Spanish church – may they be whatever God is dreaming.
While we’re on the topic of failure, I’ll tell you that I am finally writing thank you notes for the donations that came in at Christmas!! We were given $1,274.81 in generous donations for the migrant church at that time, plus some things like paint, ESL materials and a gas card. I apologize for being so late in those thank you’s. We tithed on that money, buying $130 worth of Spanish Bibles for patients at Strong Hospital.
Come and join us for Mass on Pentecost! If you bring a dish to pass, we can sit and have breakfast together, afterwards. And Happy Birthday to our big sister community, Spiritus Christi. Isn’t God amazing? What a wonderful journey we are on.
Love and light to all
Chava
Come and join Karen Keenan and Tom Moore down by the riverside on Monday, May 28 at 9 am, for a Memorial in Time of War: Remembrance and Hope. This annual service at the Sister Cities Bridge in remembrance of the victims of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is always a peaceful, gentle, centering time and an affirmation of life and the unity of all.
__________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friends,
Have you heard of the 19th Annotation, the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola? One spends nine months praying intensely under the guidance of an experienced Ignatian pray-er. The experience is offered locally through the Mercy Prayer Center. If this disciplined way of growing closer to God tugs at your heart, give them a call.
I’ve just finished the 19th, myself. I am not the best advertisement for the Ignatian Exercises, though, When I applied a year ago, I knew it would be a challenge, committing to an hour of prayer a day --- and that was before my hours at work changed, and our adventure with La Migra happened in September, and then, lo and behold, the life change of becoming and having a significant other. If the 19th were a class, I’d be getting a D.
Every time I say that, though, someone at the Prayer Center says, “You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.” That has been very freeing, and as the 19th finished up, with me about three months behind, I decided to start looking at the experience of failure. For many years I’ve been achieving things, climbing hurdles. An A student. It’s been pretty fun, organizing, making things happen.
Now, however, things are different. Over and over again in our little migrant church, I make a plan – a good plan! And over and over again, my plans don’t work. The unforeseen factor in the equation is the unpredictable nature of their lives. Plans change suddenly. Work schedules, living arrangements. This is why they travel light.
Our little church needs to travel light, too. It’s not about a worship schedule, a religious ed program, even a building (at this time. I’m still hoping). It’s just about being there, building community, loving – in the moment and consistently – taking opportunities. Guerilla community, low to the ground. It takes a different skill set than the one that got me through divinity school.
So that’s the gift of the 19th for me: awareness that it’s time to change, time to put up the oars and quit trying to steer the boat. This little boat is anchored in God’s love and mercy, and that really is enough. Both the English church and the Spanish church – may they be whatever God is dreaming.
While we’re on the topic of failure, I’ll tell you that I am finally writing thank you notes for the donations that came in at Christmas!! We were given $1,274.81 in generous donations for the migrant church at that time, plus some things like paint, ESL materials and a gas card. I apologize for being so late in those thank you’s. We tithed on that money, buying $130 worth of Spanish Bibles for patients at Strong Hospital.
Come and join us for Mass on Pentecost! If you bring a dish to pass, we can sit and have breakfast together, afterwards. And Happy Birthday to our big sister community, Spiritus Christi. Isn’t God amazing? What a wonderful journey we are on.
Love and light to all
Chava
Come and join Karen Keenan and Tom Moore down by the riverside on Monday, May 28 at 9 am, for a Memorial in Time of War: Remembrance and Hope. This annual service at the Sister Cities Bridge in remembrance of the victims of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is always a peaceful, gentle, centering time and an affirmation of life and the unity of all.
__________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Bulletin for Sunday, May 20, 2012
7th Sunday of Easter
Friends,
Here’s a quote from St Francis de Sales:
"Love the poor and love poverty, for it is by such love that we become truly poor. As the Scripture says, we become like the things we love. If you love the poor you will share their poverty and be poor like them. If you love the poor be often with them. Be glad to see them in your own home and to visit with them in theirs. Be glad to talk to them and be pleased to have them near you in church, on the street, and elsewhere. Be poor in conversing with them and speak to them as their companions do, but be rich in assisting them by sharing some of your more abundant goods with them."
You know what he’s talking about, right? COMMUNITY! Knowing and loving the people we serve so well that we become friends, equals, One. That’s the prayer Jesus offers in the Gospel this week: that we might be one, in the way that Jesus and God the Creator are one. We Christians, we believers in the trinity, believe in a God whose very nature is relationship. When we are in relationship, loving, knowing, Being together, we are sharing in the Godness of God. And what’s the point of all this? That our joy might be complete, Jesus said.
Yesterday we had a joyful day out at Iglesia de San Romero. As we arrived back home from Buffalo, a call came, telling the guys not to report to work. Their spots in the field had been filled by others that morning. A week ago that would have been bad news, but the weather has improved and they’ve been working steadily since last Wednesday. (until dusk, on Saturday. Left home a bit after 7 am, arrived back a bit before 9pm, red-eyed from the chemicals in the fields). Now, an unexpected day off is a treat. “Let’s make lunch!” Capo said. “But first I have to visit my friends.”
A minute later he was draped over the side of the bridge like an 8-year-old boy, trying to see the fish in the stream below. We could hear a bull frog, and saw dragonflies – big blue ones – and butterflies and lots of small fish, but none of the big ones he was looking for. We went in and made a stir-fry (burned a stir-fry. I was cooking), and the three of us sat and ate together.
Their lives are hard. They deal with injustice all the time, and loneliness, and monotony. They work harder than anyone should have to, and still are desperately poor. But in the middle of all that – in the middle of unjust truths and ugly realities – there are fish in the stream, and butterflies, and roosters crowing in the neighbor’s yard.
Later we went for a walk with the little boy in the community. We joked and laughed, and when the others came home, we helped clear ground for a vegetable garden, and had supper together. We heard each other’s stories. We got caught up on the news, heard the worries, the concerns for each other. Life is precarious, and hard. But we’re in it together.
On the way home I stopped to visit Librada and her four month old baby, Axel. Axel has enormous brown eyes and seems quite delighted with the world. When we start celebrating Mass – after the cabbage is planted, probably early June – I hope young Axel will be a part of our community, too.
Life is hard. On a day like this one, it is easy to see that it is also quite wonderful.
Love and light to all
Chava
That young man who was crossing the desert is safe, but disappointed. He was apprehended by la migra after a day and a night in the desert, and is now back in Mexico. Please keep him and all migrants in your prayers.
If all this information lately has you itching to do something about it, perhaps you would be interested in joining those heading to Albany on Monday, May 21 to rally and talk to legislators about farm worker rights. Send me a note if you want more information, and I’ll tell you how to get in touch with the group. There is power in numbers! Your presence will make a difference.
Come join us, any Sunday. This week I thought it had happened at last: five past eleven and no one there. Then two of our staff from St Joe’s came in, and in the end we had a lovely Mass. You are always welcome.
____________________________________________________
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,
Here’s a quote from St Francis de Sales:
"Love the poor and love poverty, for it is by such love that we become truly poor. As the Scripture says, we become like the things we love. If you love the poor you will share their poverty and be poor like them. If you love the poor be often with them. Be glad to see them in your own home and to visit with them in theirs. Be glad to talk to them and be pleased to have them near you in church, on the street, and elsewhere. Be poor in conversing with them and speak to them as their companions do, but be rich in assisting them by sharing some of your more abundant goods with them."
You know what he’s talking about, right? COMMUNITY! Knowing and loving the people we serve so well that we become friends, equals, One. That’s the prayer Jesus offers in the Gospel this week: that we might be one, in the way that Jesus and God the Creator are one. We Christians, we believers in the trinity, believe in a God whose very nature is relationship. When we are in relationship, loving, knowing, Being together, we are sharing in the Godness of God. And what’s the point of all this? That our joy might be complete, Jesus said.
Yesterday we had a joyful day out at Iglesia de San Romero. As we arrived back home from Buffalo, a call came, telling the guys not to report to work. Their spots in the field had been filled by others that morning. A week ago that would have been bad news, but the weather has improved and they’ve been working steadily since last Wednesday. (until dusk, on Saturday. Left home a bit after 7 am, arrived back a bit before 9pm, red-eyed from the chemicals in the fields). Now, an unexpected day off is a treat. “Let’s make lunch!” Capo said. “But first I have to visit my friends.”
A minute later he was draped over the side of the bridge like an 8-year-old boy, trying to see the fish in the stream below. We could hear a bull frog, and saw dragonflies – big blue ones – and butterflies and lots of small fish, but none of the big ones he was looking for. We went in and made a stir-fry (burned a stir-fry. I was cooking), and the three of us sat and ate together.
Their lives are hard. They deal with injustice all the time, and loneliness, and monotony. They work harder than anyone should have to, and still are desperately poor. But in the middle of all that – in the middle of unjust truths and ugly realities – there are fish in the stream, and butterflies, and roosters crowing in the neighbor’s yard.
Later we went for a walk with the little boy in the community. We joked and laughed, and when the others came home, we helped clear ground for a vegetable garden, and had supper together. We heard each other’s stories. We got caught up on the news, heard the worries, the concerns for each other. Life is precarious, and hard. But we’re in it together.
On the way home I stopped to visit Librada and her four month old baby, Axel. Axel has enormous brown eyes and seems quite delighted with the world. When we start celebrating Mass – after the cabbage is planted, probably early June – I hope young Axel will be a part of our community, too.
Life is hard. On a day like this one, it is easy to see that it is also quite wonderful.
Love and light to all
Chava
That young man who was crossing the desert is safe, but disappointed. He was apprehended by la migra after a day and a night in the desert, and is now back in Mexico. Please keep him and all migrants in your prayers.
If all this information lately has you itching to do something about it, perhaps you would be interested in joining those heading to Albany on Monday, May 21 to rally and talk to legislators about farm worker rights. Send me a note if you want more information, and I’ll tell you how to get in touch with the group. There is power in numbers! Your presence will make a difference.
Come join us, any Sunday. This week I thought it had happened at last: five past eleven and no one there. Then two of our staff from St Joe’s came in, and in the end we had a lovely Mass. You are always welcome.
____________________________________________________
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
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, May 13, 2012
6th Sunday of Easter
Friends,
My best friend Allene says that she likes to tell people about me. She tells them about things I’ve done that she thought were brave, like being a single Mom, or going to El Salvador or becoming a priest. Then comes the punch line: "And she’s afraid of BUGS!"
In my visits out in the migrant community these days, that is probably my greatest everyday challenge. Not just because I’m scared of bugs (and I am. Flying insects can turn me into a quivering jelly!) but because nobody else is. "Close the door!" I’ll say. "Bugs are coming in!" and everybody looks at me like that’s the silliest thing they’ve ever heard. Of course there are bugs. They’re part of the world. You live with them. I squashed a flying insect last night and Capo said, "Pobre animale." Poor animal.
Some cultural differences are fun, or freeing. Like the Mexican attitude toward bodily fluids and sounds. They’re neither funny nor embarrassing. Like insects, they’re just part of life. Early on in my relationship with this community I found that any time I asked to use the bathroom, somebody would tell me to wait, run off to their room, come back and matter-of-factly hand me a roll of toilet paper. No embarrassment, it’s just what one obviously needs in there.
If you’ve ever lived in another country, you may know the feeling of culture shock. It’s like being under water and not knowing which way is up. Traveling back and forth to Elba, sometimes I feel like I’m a missionary who gets to go home each day. Slowly I’m learning. Learning Spanish, for one thing, but also learning what’s helpful and what’s not. Things, for instance. There is a reason for the lack of things in their lives. I asked someone if he wanted to have a dresser, instead of keeping all his clothes in plastic bags. He explained that at any moment the farmer could tell them they have to move. They need not to own bulky, heavy things, and what they do own needs to fit in a car.
Right now the community is in a very lean time. They are now in their third week of hardly working, because the fields have been too wet to plant. People earned less than $90 last week, and so far, this week is the same. But nobody, so far, is looking for help. One simply eats plain food, like eggs and beans. One keeps sharing what one has. They’ve been through this before and they know how to do it.
I am feeling a pull to be there more. The idea of a house (a Catholic Worker type house! With a space for worship and a resource room for sharing information and a place to store furniture people might donate, and… whatever it turns out to be) – if that idea is meant to be, it will unfold in time. But soon, this month, I intend to start spending my Thursdays out there. Like the pull I felt last year to start celebrating Mass out there, it will unfold as God dreams. I will write and work on advocacy stuff like contacting lawyers, and hopefully connect with people who are home during the day. I can do some cooking and maybe have a communal dinner, and celebrate Mass in the evening. We’ll see.
I just have to get used to the bugs.
Love and light to all
Chava
PS People have asked about the young man I mentioned in last week’s bulletin, who was crossing the desert. We do not yet know how he is doing, because with the low incomes there is no money to buy phone cards to call Mexico. Please keep him in your prayers. Here’s another story, though: last Sunday we were praying for a teenage girl, the granddaughter of someone in the nursing home who had run away from home. We’ve been praying for her and for all runaways. I’m happy to tell you she is back at home. Pray, pray, pray: lift each other in prayer and become part of that sacred stream of loving energy. Like Jesus said, stay connected to the vine and Wowie! Look at the fruit.
"When I have money, I get rid of it quickly, lest it find a way into my heart."
- John Wesley
____________________________________________________
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,
My best friend Allene says that she likes to tell people about me. She tells them about things I’ve done that she thought were brave, like being a single Mom, or going to El Salvador or becoming a priest. Then comes the punch line: "And she’s afraid of BUGS!"
In my visits out in the migrant community these days, that is probably my greatest everyday challenge. Not just because I’m scared of bugs (and I am. Flying insects can turn me into a quivering jelly!) but because nobody else is. "Close the door!" I’ll say. "Bugs are coming in!" and everybody looks at me like that’s the silliest thing they’ve ever heard. Of course there are bugs. They’re part of the world. You live with them. I squashed a flying insect last night and Capo said, "Pobre animale." Poor animal.
Some cultural differences are fun, or freeing. Like the Mexican attitude toward bodily fluids and sounds. They’re neither funny nor embarrassing. Like insects, they’re just part of life. Early on in my relationship with this community I found that any time I asked to use the bathroom, somebody would tell me to wait, run off to their room, come back and matter-of-factly hand me a roll of toilet paper. No embarrassment, it’s just what one obviously needs in there.
If you’ve ever lived in another country, you may know the feeling of culture shock. It’s like being under water and not knowing which way is up. Traveling back and forth to Elba, sometimes I feel like I’m a missionary who gets to go home each day. Slowly I’m learning. Learning Spanish, for one thing, but also learning what’s helpful and what’s not. Things, for instance. There is a reason for the lack of things in their lives. I asked someone if he wanted to have a dresser, instead of keeping all his clothes in plastic bags. He explained that at any moment the farmer could tell them they have to move. They need not to own bulky, heavy things, and what they do own needs to fit in a car.
Right now the community is in a very lean time. They are now in their third week of hardly working, because the fields have been too wet to plant. People earned less than $90 last week, and so far, this week is the same. But nobody, so far, is looking for help. One simply eats plain food, like eggs and beans. One keeps sharing what one has. They’ve been through this before and they know how to do it.
I am feeling a pull to be there more. The idea of a house (a Catholic Worker type house! With a space for worship and a resource room for sharing information and a place to store furniture people might donate, and… whatever it turns out to be) – if that idea is meant to be, it will unfold in time. But soon, this month, I intend to start spending my Thursdays out there. Like the pull I felt last year to start celebrating Mass out there, it will unfold as God dreams. I will write and work on advocacy stuff like contacting lawyers, and hopefully connect with people who are home during the day. I can do some cooking and maybe have a communal dinner, and celebrate Mass in the evening. We’ll see.
I just have to get used to the bugs.
Love and light to all
Chava
PS People have asked about the young man I mentioned in last week’s bulletin, who was crossing the desert. We do not yet know how he is doing, because with the low incomes there is no money to buy phone cards to call Mexico. Please keep him in your prayers. Here’s another story, though: last Sunday we were praying for a teenage girl, the granddaughter of someone in the nursing home who had run away from home. We’ve been praying for her and for all runaways. I’m happy to tell you she is back at home. Pray, pray, pray: lift each other in prayer and become part of that sacred stream of loving energy. Like Jesus said, stay connected to the vine and Wowie! Look at the fruit.
"When I have money, I get rid of it quickly, lest it find a way into my heart."
- John Wesley
____________________________________________________
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
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, April 29, 2012
4th Sunday of Easter
Friends,
This afternoon at the nursing home I did a worship service up on one of the dementia floors, as I do every week. At the end of the service I went around, collecting song sheets and wishing each person peace. When I said “God bless you” to one of the women, she responded, “I bless you!” It was a sweet moment. She used to say things like that a lot, but in recent months she has grown more and more quiet. So everything she says now is a treasure.
How good if we can remember to treasure every moment with those we love, every moment we have. The weather lately has been a good reminder of that. One day we were basking in the glory of the magnolias: the next day there was a frost and they all turned brown. One day the lilacs were opening in Highland Park: the next day they were covered with snow. I drove by this morning and the street was lined with broken branches, pruned from the lilacs by very busy parks people the day before. If this Spring doesn’t teach us to enjoy the moment, I don’t know what will!
One day I had my calendar out and was explaining a complicated plan to Santiago, for a day about three weeks in the future. “If this happens, we’ll do this, but if the other thing happens, we’ll do that.” My calendar is full of appointments and things I must do. He looked at the confusing mess of dates and names in a bemused sort of way and said, very quietly, “You make a lot of plans.”
I’ve been thinking of that ever since, and have become aware of how it feels to have “a lot of plans.” This might not be true for everyone, but for me, when I look at all those entries in my calendar I feel stressed and worried. It actually feels better when things are open. Are you familiar with the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator? That’s been used a lot in ministry in recent decades, along with the Enneagram. People who are “P”s on the Meyers-Briggs are more comfortable when things are open; people who are “J”s are more comfortable when things are decided. Cultures have personalities, too, and ours is a “J” culture. As a culture, we like to have plans and to know what’s going to happen. Latin America, on the other hand, is a “P” culture, with a different attitude toward time. I think our cultures have a lot to learn from each other.
Here are some things I’ve learned this winter. You don’t have to have an agenda for a date. It’s okay to just sit and be. When you live close to the earth, your plans are easily changed by weather. Sometimes the most important thing in the world is simply whether your beloved’s cup of tea is warm enough. And you can have a whole phone conversation about nothing at all.
At St Romero’s today, we don’t know what the future holds. Our city church is tiny. Our migrant church will begin celebrating Mass together eventually, when planting time is over and people have time to do something besides eat, sleep and work. But all is well. Right this minute, in this very moment, all is absolutely well. Thanks be to God!
Love and light to all,
Chava
______________________________________________
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,
This afternoon at the nursing home I did a worship service up on one of the dementia floors, as I do every week. At the end of the service I went around, collecting song sheets and wishing each person peace. When I said “God bless you” to one of the women, she responded, “I bless you!” It was a sweet moment. She used to say things like that a lot, but in recent months she has grown more and more quiet. So everything she says now is a treasure.
How good if we can remember to treasure every moment with those we love, every moment we have. The weather lately has been a good reminder of that. One day we were basking in the glory of the magnolias: the next day there was a frost and they all turned brown. One day the lilacs were opening in Highland Park: the next day they were covered with snow. I drove by this morning and the street was lined with broken branches, pruned from the lilacs by very busy parks people the day before. If this Spring doesn’t teach us to enjoy the moment, I don’t know what will!
One day I had my calendar out and was explaining a complicated plan to Santiago, for a day about three weeks in the future. “If this happens, we’ll do this, but if the other thing happens, we’ll do that.” My calendar is full of appointments and things I must do. He looked at the confusing mess of dates and names in a bemused sort of way and said, very quietly, “You make a lot of plans.”
I’ve been thinking of that ever since, and have become aware of how it feels to have “a lot of plans.” This might not be true for everyone, but for me, when I look at all those entries in my calendar I feel stressed and worried. It actually feels better when things are open. Are you familiar with the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator? That’s been used a lot in ministry in recent decades, along with the Enneagram. People who are “P”s on the Meyers-Briggs are more comfortable when things are open; people who are “J”s are more comfortable when things are decided. Cultures have personalities, too, and ours is a “J” culture. As a culture, we like to have plans and to know what’s going to happen. Latin America, on the other hand, is a “P” culture, with a different attitude toward time. I think our cultures have a lot to learn from each other.
Here are some things I’ve learned this winter. You don’t have to have an agenda for a date. It’s okay to just sit and be. When you live close to the earth, your plans are easily changed by weather. Sometimes the most important thing in the world is simply whether your beloved’s cup of tea is warm enough. And you can have a whole phone conversation about nothing at all.
At St Romero’s today, we don’t know what the future holds. Our city church is tiny. Our migrant church will begin celebrating Mass together eventually, when planting time is over and people have time to do something besides eat, sleep and work. But all is well. Right this minute, in this very moment, all is absolutely well. Thanks be to God!
Love and light to all,
Chava
______________________________________________
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
Bulletin for Sunday, April 22, 2012
3rd Sunday of Easter
Friends,
This morning in Buffalo, checking in at Immigration with the guys, I had a little surprise. We got on the elevator, and for the first time, I wasn’t the one standing by the buttons, so I asked one of the guys to do it. He hesitated, touched the circled number next to the button and asked, “This one?” It had never occurred to me that knowing how to use an elevator was a skill our guys might not have. So after that I made a point of always asking one of them to press the buttons.
Are you aware of the power you have? Power to come and go as you please, power to accomplish what needs to be accomplished in your life, knowing how to get things done, knowing how to use the basic stuff around you. That’s called cultural capital. When I’m in El Salvador, I’m like a baby. My friends take me everywhere, deal with all the little things necessary to get things done. But when people come to this country without documents, they don’t have anyone to take care of stuff or show them the ropes. They just survive as best they can.
What does it do to a person, to live like that year after year? You might start to believe that you are less than the people you see around you. You might start to believe that you’re not very intelligent, or that you’re a “dirty Mexican.” You might have a hard time recognizing the gifts and talents that you have.
One of the tasks of a pastor is to call forth the gifts in the community; to recognize and identify and celebrate what people have to give. So right now I want to tell you about one of the really amazing things I see in the migrant church, and that is their physical strength. Do you know what they’re doing right now? They’re planting onions, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Bent over, seven people follow a tractor. They’ve got about 100 onions in their left hand, and with their right they grab an onion and plant it. Capo estimates he plants 40 per minute. And everybody has to go at that rate so they all stay together. All this while bent over. I don’t think I could do it for ten minutes, and they do it for twelve hours. At that rate, each person must be planting about 20,000 onions a day. I think that’s absolutely amazing. They have pushed their bodies to a point where they can perform marvels of stamina and endurance.
For many years I worked as a research technician at the U of R. The doctors I worked with had pushed their mental abilities to great extremes, and accomplished wonderful things. They make important contributions to the common good, and for that they receive respect, honor, and quite a bit of money. How is it that people who use their minds so well are lauded and paid well – and people who push their bodies to extremes for entertainment are lauded and paid well – but people who push their bodies to extremes in order to provide us all with food are at the bottom of the social ladder, and paid minimum wage?
They taught us in Divinity School to “preach the questions, not the answers.” So today I will simply share with you these questions that I’m carrying, in hopes that you will carry them, too. Let’s be bothered by these questions. Let’s let them nag at our souls, until we are forced to do something about them, and maybe turn over some tables and point out just how wrong things are. We’ve got to get mad enough – to care enough – to love enough – to push our own creativity to extremes and find a way to change this filthy, rotten system.
Love and light to all
Chava
“ The migrants have no lobby. Only an enlightened, aroused and perhaps angered public opinion can do anything about the migrants. The people you have seen have the strength to harvest your fruit and vegetables. They do not have the strength to influence legislation. Maybe we do.”
-Edward R. Murrow’s final words at the end of the documentary “Harvest of Shame,” 1960
PS I came home from Buffalo to find two kitchen chairs, a crockpot and a cardboard dresser on my front porch --- thank you, Caryl Marchand! We could still really use a shelf unit or two if anybody’s got one. And a kitchen table, as it turns out. But the bathroom floor is painted at last!
Friends,
This morning in Buffalo, checking in at Immigration with the guys, I had a little surprise. We got on the elevator, and for the first time, I wasn’t the one standing by the buttons, so I asked one of the guys to do it. He hesitated, touched the circled number next to the button and asked, “This one?” It had never occurred to me that knowing how to use an elevator was a skill our guys might not have. So after that I made a point of always asking one of them to press the buttons.
Are you aware of the power you have? Power to come and go as you please, power to accomplish what needs to be accomplished in your life, knowing how to get things done, knowing how to use the basic stuff around you. That’s called cultural capital. When I’m in El Salvador, I’m like a baby. My friends take me everywhere, deal with all the little things necessary to get things done. But when people come to this country without documents, they don’t have anyone to take care of stuff or show them the ropes. They just survive as best they can.
What does it do to a person, to live like that year after year? You might start to believe that you are less than the people you see around you. You might start to believe that you’re not very intelligent, or that you’re a “dirty Mexican.” You might have a hard time recognizing the gifts and talents that you have.
One of the tasks of a pastor is to call forth the gifts in the community; to recognize and identify and celebrate what people have to give. So right now I want to tell you about one of the really amazing things I see in the migrant church, and that is their physical strength. Do you know what they’re doing right now? They’re planting onions, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Bent over, seven people follow a tractor. They’ve got about 100 onions in their left hand, and with their right they grab an onion and plant it. Capo estimates he plants 40 per minute. And everybody has to go at that rate so they all stay together. All this while bent over. I don’t think I could do it for ten minutes, and they do it for twelve hours. At that rate, each person must be planting about 20,000 onions a day. I think that’s absolutely amazing. They have pushed their bodies to a point where they can perform marvels of stamina and endurance.
For many years I worked as a research technician at the U of R. The doctors I worked with had pushed their mental abilities to great extremes, and accomplished wonderful things. They make important contributions to the common good, and for that they receive respect, honor, and quite a bit of money. How is it that people who use their minds so well are lauded and paid well – and people who push their bodies to extremes for entertainment are lauded and paid well – but people who push their bodies to extremes in order to provide us all with food are at the bottom of the social ladder, and paid minimum wage?
They taught us in Divinity School to “preach the questions, not the answers.” So today I will simply share with you these questions that I’m carrying, in hopes that you will carry them, too. Let’s be bothered by these questions. Let’s let them nag at our souls, until we are forced to do something about them, and maybe turn over some tables and point out just how wrong things are. We’ve got to get mad enough – to care enough – to love enough – to push our own creativity to extremes and find a way to change this filthy, rotten system.
Love and light to all
Chava
“ The migrants have no lobby. Only an enlightened, aroused and perhaps angered public opinion can do anything about the migrants. The people you have seen have the strength to harvest your fruit and vegetables. They do not have the strength to influence legislation. Maybe we do.”
-Edward R. Murrow’s final words at the end of the documentary “Harvest of Shame,” 1960
PS I came home from Buffalo to find two kitchen chairs, a crockpot and a cardboard dresser on my front porch --- thank you, Caryl Marchand! We could still really use a shelf unit or two if anybody’s got one. And a kitchen table, as it turns out. But the bathroom floor is painted at last!
__________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Monday, April 16, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, April 15, 2012
2nd Sunday of Easter
Friends,
Good News! Our friends arrived safely from Florida on Easter Sunday afternoon. On Good Friday evening, those of us who were here for the winter shared a fish supper and prayed for their safe passage. It’s lovely to see them again, and to say, “We were praying for you!”
Now we are adjusting to having the community spread over two locations, as most people are back in the house where they were last summer. As people change residences, once again we are cleaning and painting. Last night I went in and painted before folks got home from work, and tomorrow morning I am hoping to finally achieve the dream of painting the bathroom floor.
It is so easy to focus on what is lacking (and later in this bulletin I will give you a list!) but here is a story that points out what they have. One of the guys arrived from Florida without a blanket, so Capo gave him one of his. But he didn’t just give him “one of” his blankets. He gave the best one. The great big thick soft white one that can be folded over to make two blankets. Now he’s making do with a couple of throws and an old army blanket I had in my trunk. Do you have the ability to give away the best thing you own? I don’t.
Seems to me that a measure of wealth – inner wealth – is what you can give away.
As furniture and things are being spread over two houses, some needs are opening up. The guys found some kitchen chairs and a shelf unit by the side of the road and took them home… but when they got the stuff in the house and examined it, there were signs of bedbugs, so out it all went, again. If you have any old furniture you’re looking to share, here are some things they can use: two kitchen chairs, a night stand, a shelf unit. A crock pot would make their lives easier because they could come home at 8 pm to dinner being ready. And last night I forgot and drank the water from the tap. Faugh! It was the worst tasting water I ever drank. One of those water purifiers that fits over the tap would save them having to carry in water from an outside source – they fill this great big container and two of the guys carry it in.
It will be a while before we figure out a new Mass schedule for the migrant church. Right now everyone is getting home close to 8 and still need to cook, eat and shower, six days a week, so we may need to wait until the schedule eases up to have an evening Mass. Right now it’s just lovely to all be together again. Several of us ate dinner together, last night: “The family, together,” Capo said. And my Spanish has improved to where I even understood parts of the conversation. Woo hoo!
SO MUCH to be grateful for. Come join us for Mass at St Romero’s this Sunday... we’ll be upstairs at 11, because Sarah and Kevin will be having their pancake breakfast for Haiti on the first floor... $5, all you can eat. After Mass we’ll all go down and eat together... come join us!
Rachael Morlock, who has been my right hand for the past year since Eli left (and who sends this bulletin each week, saving me at least an hour at the computer) is leaving St Joe’s. We are ever so sorry to see her go, but so grateful to have had her with us, gracing us with her gentle presence this past year and more. She will be moving on to work at the new café at the Spiritus Christi housing project on West Main Street. God bless you, Rachael. You will be a light, wherever you go.
Love and light to all
Chava
"The immigrant who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the immigrant as yourself, for you were immigrants in the land of Egypt."
Leviticus 19:34
__________________________________________________
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
Bulletin for Sunday, April 8, 2012
Easter Sunday
Friends,
Today is Good Friday, one of the holiest days of the year. For priests it’s also one of the busiest. When I got home from work after two beautiful services at the nursing home (bringing the cross around to each person there, for them to venerate, was one of the holiest things I’ve ever experienced. So much love in so many people) and decorating the chapel for Easter, I was tired and chose to lie down for an hour. When I woke up I suddenly realized – I don’t know the name for the feeling – dismay? Horror? that our friends in the migrant church, who started planting onions this morning at 7:30, still had hours to go. And with nothing like my ability to stop and take a rest when they need one. They expect to have to work on Easter. Having lost two men to deportation last week, they are short of workers, and everyone else has to make up the difference. For the foreseeable future they expect to be working 12 hour days, seven days a week. "If you don’t like it," they were told, "you can look for work someplace else."
I had hoped to bring them in to the "Seven Last Words" at Spiritus, tonight, but they won’t be home until 8. So, I’m bringing over a fish fry, and we’ll observe Good Friday with supper together and prayers for those who are on the road.
This morning there were two "Stations of the Cross" around downtown, visiting the places in our city where the poor are crucified daily. One was led by St Joe’s, the other by the GRCC (Greater Rochester Community of Churches, of which we are a member).
If we could do a Stations of the Cross for Migrant Farmworkers, here’s what it might look like:
We would start at their damp and tiny house, and notice the enormous jug of clean water that the guys filled at some source outside the house and carried in together, because they don’t trust the water from the tap to drink or cook with. We would notice the lack of privacy, the torn up linoleum, the bare concrete floor in the bathroom, the shower orange with something that won’t come off with hard scrubbing (I tried). We would repent that we accept such housing for our brothers and sisters.
Our second station would be just 200 feet from the house, where two of the guys were stopped by immigration officers last week, four or five cars surrounding them when they pulled out of the driveway. Our men were allowed to leave, because they are already in the system and have court dates. We would pray for the men the ICE officers had expected to catch, that they are safe and well wherever they are, and we would repent of causing our sisters and brothers to live in fear.
Third, we would go to the bodega where our folks punch in at 7:30 am and out at 7:30 pm, and recognize how our government’s removal of two of their number has made their already hard lives even harder. We would repent a system that sees such captures as accomplishments and does not count the human cost.
We would go to the fields, and for a while we would work. We would bend over, planting onions, until our muscles ached and we wept with recognition of the daily realities of our friends, the work that they do that puts food on our tables.
For our fifth station we would go to the migrant health clinic in Brockport, and learn that medication that used to be available for free, now requires a social security number. We would repent the meanness of our government that would deny necessary medication to those without documents. We would repent our ignorance of the indignities faced by our sisters and brothers.
We would go to the Mexican grocery store and ask how often they routinely overcharge their customers, as I was overcharged when I was there. Are they profiting from the simplicity of people who would never think of challenging a receipt as I did? We would weep for the vulnerability of our sisters and brothers, for the ease with which they are exploited.
Seventh, we would stop by Walmart, and repent of the economic systems that have the poor in our country buying products made by the exploited poor in other countries. We would question the systems that keep us all bound, and ask God for help in breaking out of them.
Our eighth station would take us to Buffalo, on the journey that those in the Alternatives to Detention System must take every second week. We would experience the humiliation of proving, yet again, that we are cooperating with the system that oppresses us, showing ID, answering questions, trying to communicate with officials who don’t speak our language.
While in Buffalo we would stop by a school, and grieve for our sisters and brothers who never received basic education, who live with the shame of their ignorance, and weep for the loss of human potential.
Tenth, we would go to immigration court. We would see the fear as people wait to hear their fate, feel the hearts pounding, the anxiety in the breath of each person as they wait to see the judge. We would repent our complicity in a system that excludes those who now try to do exactly what our own ancestors did, to come to the land of opportunity to find a better life.
For our eleventh station we would stop by the little store where the guys and I get coffee after checking in at the immigration office, and, like Jesus having his face wiped by Veronica, give thanks for the little moments of respite that give us the strength to go on.
Twelfth, we would go back to work, to be yelled at for missing time when we went to Buffalo. We would feel the powerlessness of workers with no recourse, no voice, no union, no leverage. We would recommit ourselves to standing with workers, to justice for those who are excluded from labor laws as are farm workers.
We would work again beside our brothers and sisters, and listen to their stories. We would hear of separation from families, of funerals missed, of grandchildren never seen. We would repent of ever summing up the lives of other people with terms like "illegals," and ask for help in seeing the human face of every person.
Our fourteenth station would be at the grocery store. We would stand in the produce section and realize that every vegetable, every fruit, was planted and picked by human hands, most of them likely undocumented.
We would repent our indifference, our blindness, and recognize the holiness of each person and of the work of their hands.
And at the last we would pray and ask, how do we turn this system around and create a way that is life-giving, respectful of human dignity and worth, a system where everyone has reasonable hours, opportunities for rest, a decent place to live, education and health care. How do we get our sisters and brothers down from the cross?
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
Join us for Mass Easter morning at 11! If you like, bring something to share for breakfast after Mass.
This Wednesday, April 11, the documentary "After I Pick the Fruit" will be shown at the Sisters of St Joseph Motherhouse on French Rd in Pittsford at 7 pm
Next Sunday, April 15, pancake breakfast for Haiti Catholic Worker program. Mass will be upstairs at St Joe’s. Come and get breakfast and then come to Mass, or vice versa! $5 per person, all you can eat. See you there!
___________________________________________________
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,
Today is Good Friday, one of the holiest days of the year. For priests it’s also one of the busiest. When I got home from work after two beautiful services at the nursing home (bringing the cross around to each person there, for them to venerate, was one of the holiest things I’ve ever experienced. So much love in so many people) and decorating the chapel for Easter, I was tired and chose to lie down for an hour. When I woke up I suddenly realized – I don’t know the name for the feeling – dismay? Horror? that our friends in the migrant church, who started planting onions this morning at 7:30, still had hours to go. And with nothing like my ability to stop and take a rest when they need one. They expect to have to work on Easter. Having lost two men to deportation last week, they are short of workers, and everyone else has to make up the difference. For the foreseeable future they expect to be working 12 hour days, seven days a week. "If you don’t like it," they were told, "you can look for work someplace else."
I had hoped to bring them in to the "Seven Last Words" at Spiritus, tonight, but they won’t be home until 8. So, I’m bringing over a fish fry, and we’ll observe Good Friday with supper together and prayers for those who are on the road.
This morning there were two "Stations of the Cross" around downtown, visiting the places in our city where the poor are crucified daily. One was led by St Joe’s, the other by the GRCC (Greater Rochester Community of Churches, of which we are a member).
If we could do a Stations of the Cross for Migrant Farmworkers, here’s what it might look like:
We would start at their damp and tiny house, and notice the enormous jug of clean water that the guys filled at some source outside the house and carried in together, because they don’t trust the water from the tap to drink or cook with. We would notice the lack of privacy, the torn up linoleum, the bare concrete floor in the bathroom, the shower orange with something that won’t come off with hard scrubbing (I tried). We would repent that we accept such housing for our brothers and sisters.
Our second station would be just 200 feet from the house, where two of the guys were stopped by immigration officers last week, four or five cars surrounding them when they pulled out of the driveway. Our men were allowed to leave, because they are already in the system and have court dates. We would pray for the men the ICE officers had expected to catch, that they are safe and well wherever they are, and we would repent of causing our sisters and brothers to live in fear.
Third, we would go to the bodega where our folks punch in at 7:30 am and out at 7:30 pm, and recognize how our government’s removal of two of their number has made their already hard lives even harder. We would repent a system that sees such captures as accomplishments and does not count the human cost.
We would go to the fields, and for a while we would work. We would bend over, planting onions, until our muscles ached and we wept with recognition of the daily realities of our friends, the work that they do that puts food on our tables.
For our fifth station we would go to the migrant health clinic in Brockport, and learn that medication that used to be available for free, now requires a social security number. We would repent the meanness of our government that would deny necessary medication to those without documents. We would repent our ignorance of the indignities faced by our sisters and brothers.
We would go to the Mexican grocery store and ask how often they routinely overcharge their customers, as I was overcharged when I was there. Are they profiting from the simplicity of people who would never think of challenging a receipt as I did? We would weep for the vulnerability of our sisters and brothers, for the ease with which they are exploited.
Seventh, we would stop by Walmart, and repent of the economic systems that have the poor in our country buying products made by the exploited poor in other countries. We would question the systems that keep us all bound, and ask God for help in breaking out of them.
Our eighth station would take us to Buffalo, on the journey that those in the Alternatives to Detention System must take every second week. We would experience the humiliation of proving, yet again, that we are cooperating with the system that oppresses us, showing ID, answering questions, trying to communicate with officials who don’t speak our language.
While in Buffalo we would stop by a school, and grieve for our sisters and brothers who never received basic education, who live with the shame of their ignorance, and weep for the loss of human potential.
Tenth, we would go to immigration court. We would see the fear as people wait to hear their fate, feel the hearts pounding, the anxiety in the breath of each person as they wait to see the judge. We would repent our complicity in a system that excludes those who now try to do exactly what our own ancestors did, to come to the land of opportunity to find a better life.
For our eleventh station we would stop by the little store where the guys and I get coffee after checking in at the immigration office, and, like Jesus having his face wiped by Veronica, give thanks for the little moments of respite that give us the strength to go on.
Twelfth, we would go back to work, to be yelled at for missing time when we went to Buffalo. We would feel the powerlessness of workers with no recourse, no voice, no union, no leverage. We would recommit ourselves to standing with workers, to justice for those who are excluded from labor laws as are farm workers.
We would work again beside our brothers and sisters, and listen to their stories. We would hear of separation from families, of funerals missed, of grandchildren never seen. We would repent of ever summing up the lives of other people with terms like "illegals," and ask for help in seeing the human face of every person.
Our fourteenth station would be at the grocery store. We would stand in the produce section and realize that every vegetable, every fruit, was planted and picked by human hands, most of them likely undocumented.
We would repent our indifference, our blindness, and recognize the holiness of each person and of the work of their hands.
And at the last we would pray and ask, how do we turn this system around and create a way that is life-giving, respectful of human dignity and worth, a system where everyone has reasonable hours, opportunities for rest, a decent place to live, education and health care. How do we get our sisters and brothers down from the cross?
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
Join us for Mass Easter morning at 11! If you like, bring something to share for breakfast after Mass.
This Wednesday, April 11, the documentary "After I Pick the Fruit" will be shown at the Sisters of St Joseph Motherhouse on French Rd in Pittsford at 7 pm
Next Sunday, April 15, pancake breakfast for Haiti Catholic Worker program. Mass will be upstairs at St Joe’s. Come and get breakfast and then come to Mass, or vice versa! $5 per person, all you can eat. See you there!
___________________________________________________
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
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, April 1, 2012
Palm Sunday
Friends,
Have you seen the night sky these past couple of weeks? There are two very bright stars, one directly above the other, and this week they’ve been hanging out with the crescent moon. Actually, they’re not stars… I went on line and googled "sky tonight" and learned that the big one is Venus, and the smaller one (because it’s so much farther away) is Jupiter. It’s been breathtaking, watching them all week. Isn’t it amazing that something as familiar as the night sky can change so dramatically? It gives me hope, looking at the sky like that. The universe is so vast. I love to look at those stars and just feel the awe and wonder.
Another thing that gave me hope this week was seeing the number of people who marched to protest the killing of Trayvon Martin. As I was finishing up at work on Sunday, I checked the internet and people were posting photos of all the people downtown wearing hoodies. It made me think of Mister Rogers, who used to say that when he was a boy and there was a fire or other disaster, his mother would say, "Look for the people who are helping." So look for the people who are standing up to protest injustice.
It’s easy to get to despairing at the ugliness and injustice in the world. As we head into Holy Week, we remember that our God walked with us and took on that ugliness and injustice, suffering and dying from it. But never forget that we are an Easter people! We believe that love is stronger than death. We believe that as bad as it gets, life wins in the end. Love wins. So don’t despair. Look at the hope in the stars, in people walking for justice, in the internet connections that help us to know what’s going on in the world so quickly.
We commemorated another cause for hope this past Sunday at St Romero’s, with our Mass and potluck in observance of the 32nd anniversary of the assassination of Oscar Romero in San Salvador, El Salvador in 1980. Before he died, Monsenor Romero said, "If they kill me, I will rise again in the Salvadoran people," and it was true. Everywhere you go in El Salvador, there are murals of him on the walls, statues in the parks. His name is synonymous with "we care about the poor." I find hope in his willingness to speak the truth about what was happening in his country, and to stand with the suffering people, even though he knew he would die for it. May his memory continue to inspire us to work for justice for the forgotten people.
We do not yet have firm plans for Holy Week, other than 11 am Masses on Palm Sunday and Easter. Last year we met on Holy Thursday in the upper room over at the bakery for Mass and foot washing. If you are interested in doing that this year, please send me a note. If two or more want to be there, we’ll make it happen.
Have a blessed Holy Week. May you go deeper with God, and be more deeply your own, true self.
Love and light to all
Chava
There will be a pancake breakfast to raise money for Sarah and Kevin’s Catholic Worker meal program in Borgne, Haiti, on Sunday, April 15 from 9-1 at St Joe’s. All you can eat, $5. Come and have a wonderful time and support this lovely ministry. We will worship upstairs that day, so come on to Mass and then to the pancake breakfast!
The documentary "After I Pick the Fruit" will be shown at the Sisters of St Joseph Motherhouse on Wednesday, April 11 at 7 pm. Nancy Ghertner of Sodus filmed a number of women farmworkers over ten years. Come see this powerful documentary.
_____________________________________________________
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,
Have you seen the night sky these past couple of weeks? There are two very bright stars, one directly above the other, and this week they’ve been hanging out with the crescent moon. Actually, they’re not stars… I went on line and googled "sky tonight" and learned that the big one is Venus, and the smaller one (because it’s so much farther away) is Jupiter. It’s been breathtaking, watching them all week. Isn’t it amazing that something as familiar as the night sky can change so dramatically? It gives me hope, looking at the sky like that. The universe is so vast. I love to look at those stars and just feel the awe and wonder.
Another thing that gave me hope this week was seeing the number of people who marched to protest the killing of Trayvon Martin. As I was finishing up at work on Sunday, I checked the internet and people were posting photos of all the people downtown wearing hoodies. It made me think of Mister Rogers, who used to say that when he was a boy and there was a fire or other disaster, his mother would say, "Look for the people who are helping." So look for the people who are standing up to protest injustice.
It’s easy to get to despairing at the ugliness and injustice in the world. As we head into Holy Week, we remember that our God walked with us and took on that ugliness and injustice, suffering and dying from it. But never forget that we are an Easter people! We believe that love is stronger than death. We believe that as bad as it gets, life wins in the end. Love wins. So don’t despair. Look at the hope in the stars, in people walking for justice, in the internet connections that help us to know what’s going on in the world so quickly.
We commemorated another cause for hope this past Sunday at St Romero’s, with our Mass and potluck in observance of the 32nd anniversary of the assassination of Oscar Romero in San Salvador, El Salvador in 1980. Before he died, Monsenor Romero said, "If they kill me, I will rise again in the Salvadoran people," and it was true. Everywhere you go in El Salvador, there are murals of him on the walls, statues in the parks. His name is synonymous with "we care about the poor." I find hope in his willingness to speak the truth about what was happening in his country, and to stand with the suffering people, even though he knew he would die for it. May his memory continue to inspire us to work for justice for the forgotten people.
We do not yet have firm plans for Holy Week, other than 11 am Masses on Palm Sunday and Easter. Last year we met on Holy Thursday in the upper room over at the bakery for Mass and foot washing. If you are interested in doing that this year, please send me a note. If two or more want to be there, we’ll make it happen.
Have a blessed Holy Week. May you go deeper with God, and be more deeply your own, true self.
Love and light to all
Chava
There will be a pancake breakfast to raise money for Sarah and Kevin’s Catholic Worker meal program in Borgne, Haiti, on Sunday, April 15 from 9-1 at St Joe’s. All you can eat, $5. Come and have a wonderful time and support this lovely ministry. We will worship upstairs that day, so come on to Mass and then to the pancake breakfast!
The documentary "After I Pick the Fruit" will be shown at the Sisters of St Joseph Motherhouse on Wednesday, April 11 at 7 pm. Nancy Ghertner of Sodus filmed a number of women farmworkers over ten years. Come see this powerful documentary.
_____________________________________________________
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
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, March 18, 2012
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Friends,
Do you get sick time? When you’re ill, are you able to take time off from work?
Like many underemployed people, I don’t get paid sick time – but I am allowed to make up the time if I have to take a sick day, so I don’t lose pay. It’s not perfect, but at times like this morning when I felt ill at work, I’m able to go home and rest, knowing that my coworkers at the nursing home will cover me, and that I can make up the time by going in early and staying late over the next couple of weeks.
Not so our friends in the migrant ministry. Capo called at nine tonight, saying they had just got home. He’s been sick since last week, and just worked a thirteen and a half hour day, on his feet all day, while sick. "It’s okay," he said. But it’s not okay.
This past Sunday we heard about Jesus turning over the money changers tables in the temple. The system in the temple, like so many systems, weighed heavy on the poor. Some tried to address the problem by such methods as limiting the amount that could be charged for a dove – the sacrifice most used by the poor. Jesus, however, saw the big picture. The whole system had to go. I understand his anger.
Dorothy Day said, "Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system." We have a filthy, rotten system that’s putting food on our tables. How are we going to turn over the tables and create a more just system?
It’s easy to forget about farm workers. They live way out in the country, isolated in little shacks that you could drive by without noticing. I grew up in this area – in farm country, Hilton – and yet in the past year I’ve been visiting places I never even heard of. Elba, Stafford, Clarendon – the food we eat is grown in places like these, planted and tended and picked by hidden hands, washed and packaged by people standing up working ten and twelve hour days, earning so little it would make you cry. There is something profoundly wrong with this system.
I wish I could end this bulletin with some action we could do that would turn over those tables and bring about transformation. There are things we can do, letters we can write, marches we can participate in. But I think the first thing is just starting to care. Starting to get mad. Let’s get set on fire and heal this filthy, rotten system. Those are our brothers and sisters out there, growing and picking and packing that food. Let’s get set on fire with love and get to work bringing healing.
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
Join us for a special commemorative Mass and Pot luck lunch for the 32nd anniversary of the martyrdom of our own Saint, Oscar Romero, on Sunday, March 25, 11 am at St Joe’s.
____________________________________________________
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,
Do you get sick time? When you’re ill, are you able to take time off from work?
Like many underemployed people, I don’t get paid sick time – but I am allowed to make up the time if I have to take a sick day, so I don’t lose pay. It’s not perfect, but at times like this morning when I felt ill at work, I’m able to go home and rest, knowing that my coworkers at the nursing home will cover me, and that I can make up the time by going in early and staying late over the next couple of weeks.
Not so our friends in the migrant ministry. Capo called at nine tonight, saying they had just got home. He’s been sick since last week, and just worked a thirteen and a half hour day, on his feet all day, while sick. "It’s okay," he said. But it’s not okay.
This past Sunday we heard about Jesus turning over the money changers tables in the temple. The system in the temple, like so many systems, weighed heavy on the poor. Some tried to address the problem by such methods as limiting the amount that could be charged for a dove – the sacrifice most used by the poor. Jesus, however, saw the big picture. The whole system had to go. I understand his anger.
Dorothy Day said, "Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system." We have a filthy, rotten system that’s putting food on our tables. How are we going to turn over the tables and create a more just system?
It’s easy to forget about farm workers. They live way out in the country, isolated in little shacks that you could drive by without noticing. I grew up in this area – in farm country, Hilton – and yet in the past year I’ve been visiting places I never even heard of. Elba, Stafford, Clarendon – the food we eat is grown in places like these, planted and tended and picked by hidden hands, washed and packaged by people standing up working ten and twelve hour days, earning so little it would make you cry. There is something profoundly wrong with this system.
I wish I could end this bulletin with some action we could do that would turn over those tables and bring about transformation. There are things we can do, letters we can write, marches we can participate in. But I think the first thing is just starting to care. Starting to get mad. Let’s get set on fire and heal this filthy, rotten system. Those are our brothers and sisters out there, growing and picking and packing that food. Let’s get set on fire with love and get to work bringing healing.
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
Join us for a special commemorative Mass and Pot luck lunch for the 32nd anniversary of the martyrdom of our own Saint, Oscar Romero, on Sunday, March 25, 11 am at St Joe’s.
____________________________________________________
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
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, March 11, 2012
3rd Sunday in Lent
Friends,
We had some good news, yesterday.
Back in September, two of the guys from our Migrant Ministry were picked up by immigration and detained. The first, Capo, was awakened at one in the morning and taken from the house where he was staying. The second, a young man of 19, was part of a traffic stop about a week later. 11 people were in a van, and our young friend was driving. There is no way for undocumented people to get a driver’s license in New York State, so he was ticketed for driving without one, as well as driving a vehicle with a lapsed registration. Both of those are misdemeanors, and would give him a criminal record.
Last month both men had their first appearances in immigration court, and the young man had a first appearance in a local town court for the traffic violations. He was given time to contact the public defender, and we were to come back this week.(Imagine how scary this is, being a teenager in a foreign country, working hard, doing the best you can, knowing little of the language, and having to go to court with the possibility of jail, when all you’re trying to do is survive).
So, yesterday morning I got up early and drove out to get the guys, and we headed to the town court for his appearance before driving on to Buffalo for their bi-weekly check in. Capo napped in the car while we went in and waited, and waited. Finally we got to talk to the public defender. (The court provided an interpreter). And then a miracle occurred. After talking with the prosecuting attorney, the man came back with a reduced charge: a parking violation, no criminal record, no jail time. Just a fine, which we paid. (He paid most of it himself, and St Romero’s covered the rest).
There were two things that probably influenced this, we were told in Buffalo, later. One was that at this point, the only likely outcomes for him are deportation or voluntary departure, so the local courts often let things go. The other is that I was with him. Having his pastor along says he’s a person of good character, with stable relationships in the community. And you were with him, too, with your prayers and donations and words of support that help keep this ministry going. We made a difference, together.
After that, the three of us went on to Buffalo, after stopping for gas and coffee. It is still a cause for celebration when I get there without getting lost. Every other week we go for a ten minute meeting. This time we learned that there is a push on nationally for everyone that’s in the system like they are to get passports. So, unless the Mexican Consulate is coming to this area some time soon, we’ll be making a trip to New York City. "How far is it to New York?" Capo asked. "About five hours," the man answered. "Oh!" Capo said, turning to me. "So you should be able to get there in twenty hours!"
Ha, ha.
More coffee, then the drive home. We noticed the brown trees, and realized that soon they will be turning green. We’ve driven through fall and winter, and now the spring. Nobody had money for lunch, so we went home and had eggs, beans and tortillas in the little house that does look better now that it’s got some fresh paint. Getting buggy with the warmer weather, and the furnace is still awful, but it’s a pleasanter place to be.
Thank you for all you have done to help us. Your prayers and donations (this week someone is giving a much-needed bed and a bookshelf, thank you, thank you!) and moral support are so needed, and so valued. As Mother Teresa said, what we do is just a drop in the ocean; but if that drop were not in the ocean, it would be missed.
Still wanted: a house for this ministry. I’m already gathering books for the library.
March 24 will be the 32nd anniversary of the assassination of Monsenor Romero. Shall we mark it with a pot luck lunch? – after Mass on Sunday, March 25. We do miss our after-Mass breakfast. It would be lovely to have some music that day, too, if anyone would like to volunteer.
Blessings on your Lent! May it be a time of growth and new life for you.
And the crocuses are blooming!
Love and light to all
Chava
"A stuttering prophet will be the voice of God, a barren old lady will become the mother of a nation, a shepherd boy will become their king, and a homeless baby will lead them home."
~ Shane Claiborne, Jesus for President
_____________________________________________________
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,
We had some good news, yesterday.
Back in September, two of the guys from our Migrant Ministry were picked up by immigration and detained. The first, Capo, was awakened at one in the morning and taken from the house where he was staying. The second, a young man of 19, was part of a traffic stop about a week later. 11 people were in a van, and our young friend was driving. There is no way for undocumented people to get a driver’s license in New York State, so he was ticketed for driving without one, as well as driving a vehicle with a lapsed registration. Both of those are misdemeanors, and would give him a criminal record.
Last month both men had their first appearances in immigration court, and the young man had a first appearance in a local town court for the traffic violations. He was given time to contact the public defender, and we were to come back this week.(Imagine how scary this is, being a teenager in a foreign country, working hard, doing the best you can, knowing little of the language, and having to go to court with the possibility of jail, when all you’re trying to do is survive).
So, yesterday morning I got up early and drove out to get the guys, and we headed to the town court for his appearance before driving on to Buffalo for their bi-weekly check in. Capo napped in the car while we went in and waited, and waited. Finally we got to talk to the public defender. (The court provided an interpreter). And then a miracle occurred. After talking with the prosecuting attorney, the man came back with a reduced charge: a parking violation, no criminal record, no jail time. Just a fine, which we paid. (He paid most of it himself, and St Romero’s covered the rest).
There were two things that probably influenced this, we were told in Buffalo, later. One was that at this point, the only likely outcomes for him are deportation or voluntary departure, so the local courts often let things go. The other is that I was with him. Having his pastor along says he’s a person of good character, with stable relationships in the community. And you were with him, too, with your prayers and donations and words of support that help keep this ministry going. We made a difference, together.
After that, the three of us went on to Buffalo, after stopping for gas and coffee. It is still a cause for celebration when I get there without getting lost. Every other week we go for a ten minute meeting. This time we learned that there is a push on nationally for everyone that’s in the system like they are to get passports. So, unless the Mexican Consulate is coming to this area some time soon, we’ll be making a trip to New York City. "How far is it to New York?" Capo asked. "About five hours," the man answered. "Oh!" Capo said, turning to me. "So you should be able to get there in twenty hours!"
Ha, ha.
More coffee, then the drive home. We noticed the brown trees, and realized that soon they will be turning green. We’ve driven through fall and winter, and now the spring. Nobody had money for lunch, so we went home and had eggs, beans and tortillas in the little house that does look better now that it’s got some fresh paint. Getting buggy with the warmer weather, and the furnace is still awful, but it’s a pleasanter place to be.
Thank you for all you have done to help us. Your prayers and donations (this week someone is giving a much-needed bed and a bookshelf, thank you, thank you!) and moral support are so needed, and so valued. As Mother Teresa said, what we do is just a drop in the ocean; but if that drop were not in the ocean, it would be missed.
Still wanted: a house for this ministry. I’m already gathering books for the library.
March 24 will be the 32nd anniversary of the assassination of Monsenor Romero. Shall we mark it with a pot luck lunch? – after Mass on Sunday, March 25. We do miss our after-Mass breakfast. It would be lovely to have some music that day, too, if anyone would like to volunteer.
Blessings on your Lent! May it be a time of growth and new life for you.
And the crocuses are blooming!
Love and light to all
Chava
"A stuttering prophet will be the voice of God, a barren old lady will become the mother of a nation, a shepherd boy will become their king, and a homeless baby will lead them home."
~ Shane Claiborne, Jesus for President
_____________________________________________________
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
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, March 4, 2011
2nd Sunday in Lent
Friends,
There is a famous Black theologian who was a great influence on Martin Luther King. When I was in divinity school I devoured everything of his that I could find, because it was food for my mind and my soul. One thing about his writing bothered me, though. He was brilliant in recognizing the oppression of Black people and in seeing that Jesus stands with the disinherited: but at the same time I saw in his writing a constant, unconscious sexism. He could see clearly the wrong that was done to people because of the color of their skin, but it seemed to me that he did not see the assumptions he had about the natural order of the world as it pertains to men and women.
When I saw that, I wondered --- in another fifty years, when people look back at us, now, what will be glaringly obvious to them, that we can’t even see? What prejudices do I have that I’m not aware of?
In feminism it’s the same thing! White women began the feminist movement in the 1960’s. Pretty soon, women of color were saying, "hey! This looks different to us! You have to hear our voices, too!" and so the womanist movement was born. Latina women, too, had a different perspective; theirs is called mujerista theology. But there was more awareness to come. In a book called "Sexuality and the Black Church: a Womanist Perspective," Kelly Brown Douglas challenged the Black church to grow in its attitude toward homosexuality. There’s always someone else to be included.
So who are we leaving out, now? What attitudes are we not even aware of? Who is next to open our eyes to their exclusion?
I think the next barrier is classism.
Last week, someone posted something on Facebook that said, " Feeling ugly? Go chill in Walmart for 2 hours. You’ll feel a LOT better." Even a few months ago, that wouldn’t have bothered me. But I’ve been spending a lot of time in Walmart, lately. Walmart is where the poor people shop, because whatever you need, it’s probably there, and at a price less than other places. It’s where you go to look for bottled water if you don’t trust the water coming out of the tap in the shack the farmer is letting you use for the winter. It’s where you go to look for rubber gloves to protect your hands while you’re washing and sorting potatoes each day in the bodega, or for baby clothes to send to your sister in Mexico. And in my case, it’s where you might go to look for a comal so you can cook tortillas… a comal that will be lined with pieces cut from a Walmart bag so the tortillas don’t stick.
So with that new awareness, I noticed in a way that I wouldn’t have before, the offhandedness with which we educated, middle class people laugh at people with less education and experience. People were "liking" that post who would never laugh at a joke about gay people or Black people, or women. A friend of mine who is a Presbyterian minister says that she goes to Walmart to pray. She walks around, looking at people and praying for them. I like that. Given the people that Jesus chose to hang out with 2,000 years ago, I think it’s actually a pretty safe bet that if Jesus were in Upstate New York right now, these are the people he would be talking to. The people on the bottom, those people he said were blessed and would inherit the earth.
…those people who work ten hours a day, six days a week, doing work people who are born here won’t do, living in unhealthy spaces, then getting punished for being here. Please pray this week as we head again to immigration court. Wednesday, the young man in our community who was detained in September will go before the judge, most likely to get a date to reappear some time in 2013. He also has a court appearance next week related to the traffic stop at which he was taken by the border patrol. He’s carrying more responsibility and worry than any teenager ought to have.
So pray, please.
Blessings and peace to you. May your Lent be a time of growth and new life!
Love and light to all
Chava
____________________________________________________
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,
There is a famous Black theologian who was a great influence on Martin Luther King. When I was in divinity school I devoured everything of his that I could find, because it was food for my mind and my soul. One thing about his writing bothered me, though. He was brilliant in recognizing the oppression of Black people and in seeing that Jesus stands with the disinherited: but at the same time I saw in his writing a constant, unconscious sexism. He could see clearly the wrong that was done to people because of the color of their skin, but it seemed to me that he did not see the assumptions he had about the natural order of the world as it pertains to men and women.
When I saw that, I wondered --- in another fifty years, when people look back at us, now, what will be glaringly obvious to them, that we can’t even see? What prejudices do I have that I’m not aware of?
In feminism it’s the same thing! White women began the feminist movement in the 1960’s. Pretty soon, women of color were saying, "hey! This looks different to us! You have to hear our voices, too!" and so the womanist movement was born. Latina women, too, had a different perspective; theirs is called mujerista theology. But there was more awareness to come. In a book called "Sexuality and the Black Church: a Womanist Perspective," Kelly Brown Douglas challenged the Black church to grow in its attitude toward homosexuality. There’s always someone else to be included.
So who are we leaving out, now? What attitudes are we not even aware of? Who is next to open our eyes to their exclusion?
I think the next barrier is classism.
Last week, someone posted something on Facebook that said, " Feeling ugly? Go chill in Walmart for 2 hours. You’ll feel a LOT better." Even a few months ago, that wouldn’t have bothered me. But I’ve been spending a lot of time in Walmart, lately. Walmart is where the poor people shop, because whatever you need, it’s probably there, and at a price less than other places. It’s where you go to look for bottled water if you don’t trust the water coming out of the tap in the shack the farmer is letting you use for the winter. It’s where you go to look for rubber gloves to protect your hands while you’re washing and sorting potatoes each day in the bodega, or for baby clothes to send to your sister in Mexico. And in my case, it’s where you might go to look for a comal so you can cook tortillas… a comal that will be lined with pieces cut from a Walmart bag so the tortillas don’t stick.
So with that new awareness, I noticed in a way that I wouldn’t have before, the offhandedness with which we educated, middle class people laugh at people with less education and experience. People were "liking" that post who would never laugh at a joke about gay people or Black people, or women. A friend of mine who is a Presbyterian minister says that she goes to Walmart to pray. She walks around, looking at people and praying for them. I like that. Given the people that Jesus chose to hang out with 2,000 years ago, I think it’s actually a pretty safe bet that if Jesus were in Upstate New York right now, these are the people he would be talking to. The people on the bottom, those people he said were blessed and would inherit the earth.
…those people who work ten hours a day, six days a week, doing work people who are born here won’t do, living in unhealthy spaces, then getting punished for being here. Please pray this week as we head again to immigration court. Wednesday, the young man in our community who was detained in September will go before the judge, most likely to get a date to reappear some time in 2013. He also has a court appearance next week related to the traffic stop at which he was taken by the border patrol. He’s carrying more responsibility and worry than any teenager ought to have.
So pray, please.
Blessings and peace to you. May your Lent be a time of growth and new life!
Love and light to all
Chava
____________________________________________________
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
Monday, February 27, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, February 26, 2011
1st Sunday in Lent
Friends,
Yesterday in the dining room at St Joe’s we celebrated what Rachael said was the most hilarious Ash Wednesday service she’d ever attended. I forgot to distribute the ashes after the homily, one of the guys offered as his suggestion for ways to observe Lent that we go to the library and get all the free stuff we can, and at the end, Rachael got a fit of the giggles. Wonder why!
I’m glad we had a joyful Ash Wednesday Mass because I think Lent is great. It’s a chance to strip down, get rid of whatever is keeping us from being our truest and best selves, and grow closer to God. Lent gives me the kind of feeling that I get from cleaning out a closet. Doesn’t it feel great when you get rid of a lot of stuff you don’t need, and things are clean and orderly again?
This Lent, as we practice the disciplines of fasting, prayer and almsgiving that hopefully help us to grow and to be more fully alive, I invite you to look outside yourself and to be aware of the ways that we as a society need to grow. Look at our dependence on oil, and what that is doing to our planet, both in destruction of the environment and in the wars in the middle east. Look at the way that we in the first world use so much of the earth’s resources, and the price people in other parts of the world pay for our excess. And with the awareness we have at St Romero’s because of our migrant ministry, perhaps this Lent is a good time to examine and work to change the terrible system that has people working ten hour days, six days a week, for heartbreakingly little money, terrible living conditions, and on top of all that, getting punished for being here. Along with our personal repentance and turning to God, let’s look at how we as a society need to turn around.
Following Jesus is about a whole lot more than feeling good about our own relationship with God. We’ve got to transform the world. Like Dorothy Day said, the whole problem with the world is our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system. Let’s repent that acceptance, and work for change. Here’s God’s word on that:
"Is not this the fast I choose:
To loose the bonds of injustice,
To undo the thongs of the yoke,
To let the oppressed go free,
And to break every yoke?"
Isaiah 58:6
A blessed Lent to you. May it be a time of life, growth and transformation!
Love and light to all
Chava
Here are some ideas for Lenten reading:
"The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. Also "Jesus for President."
"Jesus and Nonviolence" by Walter Wink
"Becoming Who You Are" by James Martin
If you’d like some meaty Biblical scholarship, "Come Out, My People!" by Wes Howard-Brook or "Parables as Subversive Speech" by William Herzog
And finally, an excellent and very readable book by one of the leading Black theologians of our time, James Cone, on one of the most terrible and most overlooked occurrences in American history:
"The Cross and the Lynching Tree."
Have a blessed Lent, and come visit us, any Sunday!
__________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friends,
Yesterday in the dining room at St Joe’s we celebrated what Rachael said was the most hilarious Ash Wednesday service she’d ever attended. I forgot to distribute the ashes after the homily, one of the guys offered as his suggestion for ways to observe Lent that we go to the library and get all the free stuff we can, and at the end, Rachael got a fit of the giggles. Wonder why!
I’m glad we had a joyful Ash Wednesday Mass because I think Lent is great. It’s a chance to strip down, get rid of whatever is keeping us from being our truest and best selves, and grow closer to God. Lent gives me the kind of feeling that I get from cleaning out a closet. Doesn’t it feel great when you get rid of a lot of stuff you don’t need, and things are clean and orderly again?
This Lent, as we practice the disciplines of fasting, prayer and almsgiving that hopefully help us to grow and to be more fully alive, I invite you to look outside yourself and to be aware of the ways that we as a society need to grow. Look at our dependence on oil, and what that is doing to our planet, both in destruction of the environment and in the wars in the middle east. Look at the way that we in the first world use so much of the earth’s resources, and the price people in other parts of the world pay for our excess. And with the awareness we have at St Romero’s because of our migrant ministry, perhaps this Lent is a good time to examine and work to change the terrible system that has people working ten hour days, six days a week, for heartbreakingly little money, terrible living conditions, and on top of all that, getting punished for being here. Along with our personal repentance and turning to God, let’s look at how we as a society need to turn around.
Following Jesus is about a whole lot more than feeling good about our own relationship with God. We’ve got to transform the world. Like Dorothy Day said, the whole problem with the world is our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system. Let’s repent that acceptance, and work for change. Here’s God’s word on that:
"Is not this the fast I choose:
To loose the bonds of injustice,
To undo the thongs of the yoke,
To let the oppressed go free,
And to break every yoke?"
Isaiah 58:6
A blessed Lent to you. May it be a time of life, growth and transformation!
Love and light to all
Chava
Here are some ideas for Lenten reading:
"The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. Also "Jesus for President."
"Jesus and Nonviolence" by Walter Wink
"Becoming Who You Are" by James Martin
If you’d like some meaty Biblical scholarship, "Come Out, My People!" by Wes Howard-Brook or "Parables as Subversive Speech" by William Herzog
And finally, an excellent and very readable book by one of the leading Black theologians of our time, James Cone, on one of the most terrible and most overlooked occurrences in American history:
"The Cross and the Lynching Tree."
Have a blessed Lent, and come visit us, any Sunday!
__________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Monday, February 20, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, February 19, 2011
7th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Friends,
With all the snow we had on Sunday morning, I didn’t think anyone would show up for Mass. Surprise! We had most of our usual folks plus someone new. Annie and Mike O’Reilly were there, all the way from Coneseus!
As we drove up South Ave under the bridge, Capo said "Isn’t that our friend from church?" I was surprised to see one of our regular guys trudging through the snow, thinking the weather was too awful for him to be out in. He is a man who often mentions his brushes with the law. He’s in and out of jail, he says, and has a testy relationship with the police. I never understood it, and wondered what he was doing to get in trouble.
I would have stopped to pick him up but that underpass isn’t a safe spot for stopping. So we went on to St Joe’s and found the parking lot clear, thanks most likely to Rich who works so hard to keep St Joe’s running smoothly. Coming around to the front door, what do we see in the block ahead but our friend, standing in the middle of the intersection at South and Mt Hope, waving his arms and yelling for all he’s worth at the people driving by: "SLOW THE F*** DOWN!!! SLOW THE F*** DOWN!"
On the one hand, it was a public service. And on the other, now I get the in-and-out-of-jail thing. By the time he made it in to Mass, he was calm and there was no hint of what we’d just seen outside.
So that’s one of the things I love about St Romero’s. You just never know what’s going to happen on Sunday morning.
In this week’s Gospel, we see people taking apart a roof to make a hole to get someone in to Jesus. There’s something glorious about those times we jump over barriers for love. Our God does it all the time, trying to get to us. How wonderful when we do it, trying to get to God. And though I don’t recommend standing in the middle of an intersection, waving your arms and shouting at people, how wonderful to break out of our predictable normal to help in whatever way we can. Jesus seems to have accepted that moment of breaking through barriers and destruction of property with total equanimity! I’ll bet all he looked at was the love.
And friends, please do drive carefully in the snow. You are worth so much more than getting someplace on time.
Love and light to all
Chava
"This is what God says, "Forget about what's happened;
don't keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new.
It's bursting out! Don't you see it?
There it is! I'm making a road through the desert,
rivers in the wasteland"
Isaiah 43:18-19 (The Message).
Ash Wednesday Mass with distribution of ashes, Wednesday February 22, 4:30 pm in the St Joe’s dining room. Come celebrate the start of Lent with us!
____________________________________________________
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,
With all the snow we had on Sunday morning, I didn’t think anyone would show up for Mass. Surprise! We had most of our usual folks plus someone new. Annie and Mike O’Reilly were there, all the way from Coneseus!
As we drove up South Ave under the bridge, Capo said "Isn’t that our friend from church?" I was surprised to see one of our regular guys trudging through the snow, thinking the weather was too awful for him to be out in. He is a man who often mentions his brushes with the law. He’s in and out of jail, he says, and has a testy relationship with the police. I never understood it, and wondered what he was doing to get in trouble.
I would have stopped to pick him up but that underpass isn’t a safe spot for stopping. So we went on to St Joe’s and found the parking lot clear, thanks most likely to Rich who works so hard to keep St Joe’s running smoothly. Coming around to the front door, what do we see in the block ahead but our friend, standing in the middle of the intersection at South and Mt Hope, waving his arms and yelling for all he’s worth at the people driving by: "SLOW THE F*** DOWN!!! SLOW THE F*** DOWN!"
On the one hand, it was a public service. And on the other, now I get the in-and-out-of-jail thing. By the time he made it in to Mass, he was calm and there was no hint of what we’d just seen outside.
So that’s one of the things I love about St Romero’s. You just never know what’s going to happen on Sunday morning.
In this week’s Gospel, we see people taking apart a roof to make a hole to get someone in to Jesus. There’s something glorious about those times we jump over barriers for love. Our God does it all the time, trying to get to us. How wonderful when we do it, trying to get to God. And though I don’t recommend standing in the middle of an intersection, waving your arms and shouting at people, how wonderful to break out of our predictable normal to help in whatever way we can. Jesus seems to have accepted that moment of breaking through barriers and destruction of property with total equanimity! I’ll bet all he looked at was the love.
And friends, please do drive carefully in the snow. You are worth so much more than getting someplace on time.
Love and light to all
Chava
"This is what God says, "Forget about what's happened;
don't keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new.
It's bursting out! Don't you see it?
There it is! I'm making a road through the desert,
rivers in the wasteland"
Isaiah 43:18-19 (The Message).
Ash Wednesday Mass with distribution of ashes, Wednesday February 22, 4:30 pm in the St Joe’s dining room. Come celebrate the start of Lent with us!
____________________________________________________
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
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, February 12, 2011
6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Friends,
“The Only Solution is Love.” That’s the slogan on one of my favorite Catholic Worker t-shirts and I absolutely believe it to be true. How are we going to heal the world unless we just love each other? Forgive, leap over our differences, find the person on the other side… and take the adventure that you find there. Quit hanging on to what we’ve got and give our open hands to God. Let God lead.
This week, God’s been leading me into court rooms. A new experience for the guys, and for me. On Friday when Capo and I walked into the waiting room outside of the immigration court in Buffalo, we encountered a roomful of anxious-looking people, all waiting for a hearing, as we were. We stood by the door, waiting for what seemed an awfully long time. Finally the door opened and a group of people came out. Among them was a young woman who looked at Capo with recognition and apparent relief. She was the cousin of someone in our community, and I had been trying unsuccessfully to find her in the system. Now we could tell her cousin we’d seen her. I hope that was a God-moment for her, one of those times when God whispers, “don’t worry! I’m here!”
In that moment I also thought of how Capo is viewed in the Mexican community, the respect and trust that is so different from the way the government views him. Things like integrity and character don’t get measured by the presence or absence of a passport. In the same way, the young man in our community who will have his day in immigration court at the end of the month has sterling qualities that won’t show up, there. The government looks at him and sees his immigration status. I look at him and see a young man carrying the responsibilities of someone much older, working so hard, not even out of his teens.
In the Gospel this week, Jesus breaks the rules of his time and place and reaches out to touch a leper. The encounter changes both of them. The person with leprosy gets healed, and starts telling people about it. Things change for Jesus, too, because since he touched a leper he’s ritually unclean. Now he’s hanging out with the people on the fringes. Personally, I like hanging out with the people on the fringes. Things look different from here.
So we went to court, and it all happened as we were told to expect. Capo was given a date to return, in April 2013. We were the last called, and so watched person after person go before the judge. He seemed reasonably kind. I heard him speak sympathetically to several people. On the other hand, a number of people were chided for showing up in court without their Notice to Appear in hand. Capo had his because I’d thought there was a chance it would be necessary. But how were they supposed to know that? The system is so appallingly unfair to people on the outside of it.
Last night I was visiting as I do every week, to have some Religious Ed time with the youngest member of our community. We noticed lights outside, whirling around. There were two police cars over at the next-door-neighbor’s house, police officers walking around a truck with flashlights. Looking out the window, I noticed the cat was trying to get in, and went to open the door for her. “No, Pastora!” shouted several voices. Good grief, pastor! Don’t open the door when the police are outside! Two realities, two world-views: that on the inside like most of us reading this have, and that of people locked out of the system. Jesus reached across that divide for healing and life, and got changed. Let’s us do the same.
Love and light to all
Chava
PS Ash Wednesday Mass with distribution of ashes, Wednesday February 22, 4:30 pm in the St Joe’s dining room. Come celebrate the start of Lent with us!
PPS Breakfast after Mass will resume when Linda comes back from Ireland in a few weeks.
Come visit us, any Sunday!
___________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality
402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Friends,
“The Only Solution is Love.” That’s the slogan on one of my favorite Catholic Worker t-shirts and I absolutely believe it to be true. How are we going to heal the world unless we just love each other? Forgive, leap over our differences, find the person on the other side… and take the adventure that you find there. Quit hanging on to what we’ve got and give our open hands to God. Let God lead.
This week, God’s been leading me into court rooms. A new experience for the guys, and for me. On Friday when Capo and I walked into the waiting room outside of the immigration court in Buffalo, we encountered a roomful of anxious-looking people, all waiting for a hearing, as we were. We stood by the door, waiting for what seemed an awfully long time. Finally the door opened and a group of people came out. Among them was a young woman who looked at Capo with recognition and apparent relief. She was the cousin of someone in our community, and I had been trying unsuccessfully to find her in the system. Now we could tell her cousin we’d seen her. I hope that was a God-moment for her, one of those times when God whispers, “don’t worry! I’m here!”
In that moment I also thought of how Capo is viewed in the Mexican community, the respect and trust that is so different from the way the government views him. Things like integrity and character don’t get measured by the presence or absence of a passport. In the same way, the young man in our community who will have his day in immigration court at the end of the month has sterling qualities that won’t show up, there. The government looks at him and sees his immigration status. I look at him and see a young man carrying the responsibilities of someone much older, working so hard, not even out of his teens.
In the Gospel this week, Jesus breaks the rules of his time and place and reaches out to touch a leper. The encounter changes both of them. The person with leprosy gets healed, and starts telling people about it. Things change for Jesus, too, because since he touched a leper he’s ritually unclean. Now he’s hanging out with the people on the fringes. Personally, I like hanging out with the people on the fringes. Things look different from here.
So we went to court, and it all happened as we were told to expect. Capo was given a date to return, in April 2013. We were the last called, and so watched person after person go before the judge. He seemed reasonably kind. I heard him speak sympathetically to several people. On the other hand, a number of people were chided for showing up in court without their Notice to Appear in hand. Capo had his because I’d thought there was a chance it would be necessary. But how were they supposed to know that? The system is so appallingly unfair to people on the outside of it.
Last night I was visiting as I do every week, to have some Religious Ed time with the youngest member of our community. We noticed lights outside, whirling around. There were two police cars over at the next-door-neighbor’s house, police officers walking around a truck with flashlights. Looking out the window, I noticed the cat was trying to get in, and went to open the door for her. “No, Pastora!” shouted several voices. Good grief, pastor! Don’t open the door when the police are outside! Two realities, two world-views: that on the inside like most of us reading this have, and that of people locked out of the system. Jesus reached across that divide for healing and life, and got changed. Let’s us do the same.
Love and light to all
Chava
PS Ash Wednesday Mass with distribution of ashes, Wednesday February 22, 4:30 pm in the St Joe’s dining room. Come celebrate the start of Lent with us!
PPS Breakfast after Mass will resume when Linda comes back from Ireland in a few weeks.
Come visit us, any Sunday!
___________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality
402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, February 5, 2012
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Friends,
Each time we meet for church, we also meet for fellowship. Since the earliest days at St Romero’s we have shared breakfast after Mass on Sundays. Sometimes it was a pretty fancy breakfast, with eggs and sausage and fruit, and other times just toast and coffee. At Iglesia de San Romero, we always sat and shared cookies together after Mass (remember the story of the time a raccoon ran off with three dozen cookies?) and talked together. Now on Thursday nights, when I go out to have religious ed with the youngest member of our community, I always bring some cookies or something to share. Sometimes we eat together (last week it was tamales!) and sometimes it’s just the cookies, but I do think that sitting and eating and talking is an important part of community life, just as it’s an important part of family life.
Sometimes we learn things. For example, I never knew that tortillas are used to eat lots of things, not just as a wrap for burritos or tacos. Last week I made my own tortillas for the first time. Our young friend was very surprised to learn it was the first time I had made tortillas. "How do people eat eggs at your house?" he asked. "What do they use, a fork?!"
I love that the learning and growing goes both ways. And on Sunday mornings, I love sitting around the tables, just chatting. It is life-giving for the community and for all of us, I believe.
So, it is with sadness that I tell you that we’ve decided not to serve breakfast on Sundays for a while. We’re getting into a situation lately where people are arriving part way through Mass, apparently expecting breakfast, and we are not in a position to feed them. There is a free meal at St Joe’s later in the day, and the house opens at 1:30 for hospitality. Knowing that makes it more comfortable to say, "Sorry, not now." But I am sad to leave off our lovely habit of fellowship, for a while. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring it back in a few weeks.
We extend our deepest sympathy to the family of Sue McVey, and to all who grieve for her. Sue and her husband, George, have been part of the extended community at St Joe’s since the late 1980’s, and losing her is like losing a part of our family. She served on the supervisory committee when I did my field ed at St Joe’s in 2006. What a blessing it has been, to know her. St Joe’s will be closed this Thursday so that the community can attend her funeral, at 10:30 at Spiritus Christi.
We’d also like to ask your prayers this week for our Capo, who goes to immigration court on Friday. We know he is as much in God’s hands as he has ever been, and all is well.
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
________________________________________________
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,
Each time we meet for church, we also meet for fellowship. Since the earliest days at St Romero’s we have shared breakfast after Mass on Sundays. Sometimes it was a pretty fancy breakfast, with eggs and sausage and fruit, and other times just toast and coffee. At Iglesia de San Romero, we always sat and shared cookies together after Mass (remember the story of the time a raccoon ran off with three dozen cookies?) and talked together. Now on Thursday nights, when I go out to have religious ed with the youngest member of our community, I always bring some cookies or something to share. Sometimes we eat together (last week it was tamales!) and sometimes it’s just the cookies, but I do think that sitting and eating and talking is an important part of community life, just as it’s an important part of family life.
Sometimes we learn things. For example, I never knew that tortillas are used to eat lots of things, not just as a wrap for burritos or tacos. Last week I made my own tortillas for the first time. Our young friend was very surprised to learn it was the first time I had made tortillas. "How do people eat eggs at your house?" he asked. "What do they use, a fork?!"
I love that the learning and growing goes both ways. And on Sunday mornings, I love sitting around the tables, just chatting. It is life-giving for the community and for all of us, I believe.
So, it is with sadness that I tell you that we’ve decided not to serve breakfast on Sundays for a while. We’re getting into a situation lately where people are arriving part way through Mass, apparently expecting breakfast, and we are not in a position to feed them. There is a free meal at St Joe’s later in the day, and the house opens at 1:30 for hospitality. Knowing that makes it more comfortable to say, "Sorry, not now." But I am sad to leave off our lovely habit of fellowship, for a while. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring it back in a few weeks.
We extend our deepest sympathy to the family of Sue McVey, and to all who grieve for her. Sue and her husband, George, have been part of the extended community at St Joe’s since the late 1980’s, and losing her is like losing a part of our family. She served on the supervisory committee when I did my field ed at St Joe’s in 2006. What a blessing it has been, to know her. St Joe’s will be closed this Thursday so that the community can attend her funeral, at 10:30 at Spiritus Christi.
We’d also like to ask your prayers this week for our Capo, who goes to immigration court on Friday. We know he is as much in God’s hands as he has ever been, and all is well.
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
________________________________________________
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
Monday, January 30, 2012
Bulletin for Sunday, January 29, 2012
4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Friends,
We made a good decision, canceling Mass for one weekend. When people work
six days a week, sometimes you just have to change your schedule.
So this past Sunday we scrubbed and scrubbed, walls and window frames and
doors and the ceiling of our friends’ little casita. We rested and had
pizza, and then we painted. We discussed whether the ceiling required two
coats of paint (two hands of paint, in Spanish. Dos manos). And finally we looked around us with satisfaction. “No es perfecto, pero es mejor,” we said. It’s not perfect, but it’s better. White walls, white ceiling, gray furnace box. It does look better.
And all morning long as we scrubbed, and I periodically changed the water in each person’s bucket, asking each time, “Quieras agua con sopa, o agua pura?” nobody, NOBODY told me that I was asking if they wanted soup in the water, not soap!
As we worked, the man we call Capo sang softly to himself. “Alleluia, alleluia...”
And I think it was holy work.
What does it say to your soul if each morning you wake up to squalor? What does that tell you about who you are, what you deserve? And what if you are working long hours, six days a week, standing up all day, and that’s still all you get? I think it’s a little hard to believe that you’re “walking around shining like the sun,” as Thomas Merton said we all are.
I remember seventeen years ago when I was working as a lab technician and trying to buy the house I live in, now. I offered what I could, and got turned down twice. Around the same time, I learned that my co-worker, a post-doc, was earning almost exactly twice what I was. It felt like a message from the world at large: that’s all you’re worth. I remember the socked-in-the-gut feeling: I work so hard, and I can’t even buy a modest city house? My experience was just a tiny taste of what our friends live with, year after year. (and how wonderful it felt, when at last my offer was accepted, and I became a home-owner).
So this cleaning and painting is about a lot of things. It’s about health and dignity and self-worth. It’s about respect, and hope. Doing it together, we begin to see what’s possible. Look, oh look, what love can do. Love and elbow grease.
Thank you to everyone who helped, especially Caroline Kristofferson who gave her Sunday to this work. Thanks to Kevin Slough who donated paint, and Jane Bleeg who gave some rugs, and everyone who sent money. You have made a difference in one tiny corner of the world. Capo said, “How can we pay you back?” Oh, that’s simple, dear friends. Just know in your bones that you are shining like the sun.
Love and light to all,
Chava
PS In the course of moving furniture to the middle of the room, a bookshelf got broken. They were using it for a home altar as well as storage of school supplies. It was about three feet high, a three-shelf unit. If anyone has a bookshelf to donate, please let me know!
_____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
A 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,
We made a good decision, canceling Mass for one weekend. When people work
six days a week, sometimes you just have to change your schedule.
So this past Sunday we scrubbed and scrubbed, walls and window frames and
doors and the ceiling of our friends’ little casita. We rested and had
pizza, and then we painted. We discussed whether the ceiling required two
coats of paint (two hands of paint, in Spanish. Dos manos). And finally we looked around us with satisfaction. “No es perfecto, pero es mejor,” we said. It’s not perfect, but it’s better. White walls, white ceiling, gray furnace box. It does look better.
And all morning long as we scrubbed, and I periodically changed the water in each person’s bucket, asking each time, “Quieras agua con sopa, o agua pura?” nobody, NOBODY told me that I was asking if they wanted soup in the water, not soap!
As we worked, the man we call Capo sang softly to himself. “Alleluia, alleluia...”
And I think it was holy work.
What does it say to your soul if each morning you wake up to squalor? What does that tell you about who you are, what you deserve? And what if you are working long hours, six days a week, standing up all day, and that’s still all you get? I think it’s a little hard to believe that you’re “walking around shining like the sun,” as Thomas Merton said we all are.
I remember seventeen years ago when I was working as a lab technician and trying to buy the house I live in, now. I offered what I could, and got turned down twice. Around the same time, I learned that my co-worker, a post-doc, was earning almost exactly twice what I was. It felt like a message from the world at large: that’s all you’re worth. I remember the socked-in-the-gut feeling: I work so hard, and I can’t even buy a modest city house? My experience was just a tiny taste of what our friends live with, year after year. (and how wonderful it felt, when at last my offer was accepted, and I became a home-owner).
So this cleaning and painting is about a lot of things. It’s about health and dignity and self-worth. It’s about respect, and hope. Doing it together, we begin to see what’s possible. Look, oh look, what love can do. Love and elbow grease.
Thank you to everyone who helped, especially Caroline Kristofferson who gave her Sunday to this work. Thanks to Kevin Slough who donated paint, and Jane Bleeg who gave some rugs, and everyone who sent money. You have made a difference in one tiny corner of the world. Capo said, “How can we pay you back?” Oh, that’s simple, dear friends. Just know in your bones that you are shining like the sun.
Love and light to all,
Chava
PS In the course of moving furniture to the middle of the room, a bookshelf got broken. They were using it for a home altar as well as storage of school supplies. It was about three feet high, a three-shelf unit. If anyone has a bookshelf to donate, please let me know!
_____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
A 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
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