Friends,
A delightful bit of news, tonight: the guys at Iglesia de San Romero don’t have to work on Thanksgiving, after all, so we will have Mass at their house at 2 in the afternoon on Thanksgiving Day. You are welcome to join us! – leaving the parking lot at St Joe’s at 1:15 pm.
Another good bit of news, and such a relief, is that those who have left the area for the winter have arrived at their destination safely. We’ve had some joyful phone conversations, with me occasionally saying “Lo siento! Entiendo solo un poco!” (I’m sorry! I’m only understanding a little!) and them talking away, anyway, and somehow the messages get conveyed, with a lot of laughter. The messages being, we’re here safe, I’m glad you’re safe, God is good, we’re working already, give everybody hugs from me. And a whole lot more that I hope some day to be able to understand!
We still don’t know what’s happening this winter, besides the bi-weekly drives to Buffalo. This Sunday, though, we will try a bi-lingual Sunday Mass. If you have been thinking about coming some Sunday, or come now and then – oh, please do join us this week. I would love to have a warm community to welcome them to St Romero’s.
This past week when we drove to Buffalo there was a lot of cloud cover and my gps wouldn’t work, and we got lost. Driving around and around and finally asking for directions, I told them how it’s a joke in my family that I always get lost. “Soy la reina de perdida,” I told them. “I’m the queen of lost.”
I think it’s good to be able to admit when you’re lost. How are you going to find your way without admitting that you’re lost, and asking for help? So right now, I feel like the queen of lost here at St Romero’s. The way forward is not clear. We’re in a muddle. I’m telling you this to ask for your prayers, that we will find a way that is life-giving and manageable. It was pretty simple in the summer, when we could celebrate Mass in the driveway if there wasn’t room in the house.
But in the midst of the muddle, there is joy, and hope, and community. Pretty lovely, really!
Two things to tell you. If you’d like to do something for St Romero’s this Christmas season, we have a wish list on Amazon.com under St Romero’s Church. Mostly it’s materials for teaching English as a Second Language. There are other needs that are less wrap-able. How about having the guys over for supper and a bit of community time, giving them a chance to work on their English – or making a supper to share at my house or somewhere else. Or driving – or teaching – or making cookies. Those are all things for on into the winter, once we get the logistics figured out. (once we get out of our muddle!)
And finally, I had a call this week from someone from WXXI am1370 who wanted to interview me about all that’s happened at Iglesia de San Romero this fall. It will be part of the local news on Morning Edition this coming Monday, November 28, airing every half-hour from 5 am to 9:30 am.
Blessed Thanksgiving! I am grateful for you! Thanks for reading this and for caring, thanks for your prayers and your words of support.
And thanks be to God for this lovely little flower, blooming in the desert.
Blessings and love to all,
Chava
I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year,
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown."
And he replied, "Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.”
- Minnie Haskins
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