Approaching The Table

When I first went to Chile from the United States, one of the first differences I noticed was how Chileans celebrated Mass by approaching the altar to receive communion. I was shocked to see people rushing up in a very un-orderly fashion. I remember thinking to myself, “Are they afraid that it’s going to run out?” Having grown up being told when to approach the altar, I initially found myself feeling as though I were in a stampede.

Over time I got used to the scramble and even enjoyed the freedom of walking up when I was ready and not when I was told. It wasn’t until I returned to the United States that I was reminded of our more reserved approach to receiving the Eucharist. Rather quickly and a bit by force, I acclimated back to our one-row-at-a-time system.

In the five years I’ve been back, I haven’t given this point much thought until recently. Quite abnormally, I went to Mass by myself at my parish, a very multicultural and lively community. A visiting priest described our parish as “an awesome mosaic.” Indeed, it is a blessed community of faithful from all over the world including Africa, Latin America, Asia, and of course Anglo-Americans. The music is rich, and the message is powerful.

Normally, when I go to Mass with my family, we sit in the first row, near the choir, with the hope that my son and daughter will be engaged by what they see and hear. Since I was alone this time, I decide to sit in the back, almost by the door. I saw my community from a whole new angle. I was reminded of the first time I went to Mass in Chile and seeing the mad-dash to the altar.

I began to wonder, do my Latino sisters and brothers miss that freedom to approach the Table when the Spirit moves them? What about my African sisters and brothers? How do they approach the Table in their home countries? If it is anything like their music, I can only imagine they process in a joyful march. I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if we in the United States could learn something from our global neighbors about celebrating the Body and Blood of Christ?

The image stayed with me after mass. I began to wonder about the differences in how we approach the Table. I remembered a sermon given by a Columban priest about celebrating the Eucharist in Peru. He said that quite literally for many in the community where he lived, the bread that the people received at Mass was their only bread for the day. People approached the Table with real hunger. Likewise, the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer took on a whole different and practical dimension. As people prayed, “Give us this day, our daily bread . . .” it was not some theological interpretation, but a prayer for real survival.

In the face of the global food crisis, I am left with two questions: how do I approach the Table; and what can I do to help alleviate the hunger of my sisters and brothers who are faced with not enough to eat? And at the same time, I pray that I may learn to approach the Table with a sense of urgency as do my sisters in brothers in Chile and Peru.

Amy Woolam Echeverria, Missionary Society of St. Columban, JPIC office

A Clear Sign

Having just retired to Ireland after many years overseas, I wondered what good advice I would give to others. Years ago, following a disagreement with another priest, I picked up a book on the visions of Mary to the visionaries in Medjugorje and asked Mary to please give me a message to help me heal the rift with my colleague. I opened the book at random and this was what I read:

The visionaries had been through a lot of suffering on account of the visions, and they didn’t know how to deal with the suffering. So they asked Mary for advice, and here is what she told them. “I want you to accept this suffering with great love, and unite it with the sufferings of Christ and with the members of the mystical body.”

I decided to commit the prayer to memory and went to bed, repeating it over and over in my mind. I had no recollection of falling asleep, but I woke up refreshed the following morning, went down for Mass and had breakfast. Imagine my joy and gladness when the priest with whom I’d had the disagreement came to sit beside me and the whole incident was history.

Although I was set to go on vacation a few short days later, the thought came to me to visit Medjugorje when I returned to Ireland. I put it out of my mind several times and made a firm resolution that I was going home to Ireland, putting my feet up and not travelling further. The thought became more persistent, and finally I said, “Mary, if you want me to go to Medjugorje, you must give me a clear sign. Now if the sign is fuzzy, forget it. It has to be clear, very clear.”

On the first leg of my vacation, I flew to Chicago where I had spent many happy years on vocation work. One night I was invited to offer Mass with good friends, Tom and Peggy. Towards the end of the Mass, I had a custom of inviting people to really listen to the Lord after receiving the Eucharist, and then to tell the others what good advice the Lord had shared with them. Imagine my surprise when Tom said, “I think Fr. Colm should visit Medjugorje when he returns to Ireland.”

I very deftly changed the subject and talked about something far removed that Medjugorje. I patted myself on the back on the way home for being so clever. However, the following day a courier arrived at the house I was staying to give me an envelope. I opened it and out fell a check in the amount of five hundred dollars and a message in large handwriting “We would like you to go to Medjugorie, Tom & Peggy.” I said, “Mary, I asked for a sign, but I didn’t expect one that clear.”

I returned to Ireland and did what they told me. It was one of the best visits of my life and I learned so much from the experience. Since that time I have told the story often and people have asked for a copy of the prayer. I am very sure it has helped many others to deal with the problem of suffering in their lives.

Suffering is a great mystery. Very few people understand the significance and meaning of suffering. Mary told the visionaries when they had suffered terribly and had accepted the suffering with great love, and united it with the sufferings of Christ, and with the members of the Mystical Body, that they had no idea how much good they had done by accepting their crosses in this way. I have used the prayer often since that time and while the pain and sufferings are still difficult to accept, it does help to know that the suffering is not worthless or useless, but really precious in God’s sight.

Columban Fr. Colm Rafferty recently retired to Ireland after many years of mission work and continues to reach out to others via this blog.

Beauty In Suffering by Sr. Anne Carbon

Childhood is a very special time when the whole world is like a playground to be explored freely and with wonderment. My siblings and I had so much fun together that recalling them brings nothing but happiness to my heart and a deep gratitude to God for giving me that special time and space.

When I was a novice, my pastoral ministry took me to places that were labeled poor, depressed and marginalized. The reality that I saw shocked me beyond belief. I saw children malnourished, dirty, eating on top of garbage trucks, working very early in the morning until late at night selling candles, cigarettes or flowers. The children I saw had worn-out faces. As young as they were, they were already the breadwinners of their families. They seemed to have lost that time and space called childhood.

I have been in Peru as a religious missionary Sister for the past seven years. A few years ago, the Columban Sisters opened a mission in Vinchos, a place high in the mountains of Peru where the notorious terrorist group called ‘Sendero Luminoso’ (Shining Path) used to have their headquarters for many years. They are gone now, but they left behind many broken people. Many of those people are depressed, and a good number of them are children.

I was deeply touched by what I saw and started sharing my concerns with some of the men and women in the town. To my surprise, I found out that we had the same concerns. Some of us approached the Director of the only school in the town to help us do something for the children. With his help, we were able to track down around 20 children ranging in age from 7 to 12. They were either passive-aggressive, low in academic output, had difficulty in concentration or drop-outs from school.

Our first activity with the children was a drawing/painting contest. The results showed that they knew how to express themselves and that they knew what was going on around them. What struck me most was that a lot of them expressed the desire to die. A few of them even had details on how to do it! One painted a cemetery and when I asked him why, he said, ‘It is a peaceful place, nobody bothers me there.’ Another drew a coffin and said, ‘I want to die and be with my father.’ His father was killed during the political violence, and he was living with his mother and stepfather who was violent to him and his mother. Another painted a river and put himself floating in it. He said, ‘I want to get drowned and die.’ Although the results were alarming, the good thing was we were guided in our initial approach to reach out to the children.

Not wasting time, I went to Lima to look for a child psychiatrist. Luckily I found one who was willing to make that long journey to the mountains to see the children. Together we drew up a simple program starting with bi-monthly psychological attention given to the children. Sister Mary Nolan and I do the follow-up after the psychiatric evaluation of each one of them. These individual evaluations are kept in a file so that our follow-ups are done accurately. Right now some are receiving pharmacological treatment. There are also activities that facilitate how to express themselves like painting, drawing, working with plastiline, workshops on emotional therapy, social activities that will bring out their abilities, individual sessions with the children and home visitation. We found out that visiting the families is an effective tool as it helps us to get to know more about the family and the real situation they are in.

After a few months following this program, a tremendous change in the children was very noticeable. Thoughts of death and the desire to die have gradually disappeared. They are more relaxed now, and they are able to express their emotions of fear, anxiety and anger. Their grades in school have improved and violence in the family has lessened or has disappeared.
I feel I have created a special bond with these children. I also feel that I have bonded with the many people who are involved in this mental health program. I feel my life is connected to each one of them. Working in the area of mental health has been a very enriching experience for me. It has offered me a wider range of understanding what life is all about.

Earning back what they’ve lostAs I continue participating in the reality of the poor here in Peru, I am able to see beauty beyond their sufferings. I feel that working with the children has enabled me in some little way to let them experience the joys and laughter of that special time and space called childhood.

Currently living and working in Peru, Columban Sister Anne Carbon may be reached at musuq_05@hotmail.com

Peace, Social Justice and Care for Creation

Greetings from the Columban Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Office, the national advocacy office for Columban missionaries in the United States, located in Silver Spring, MD just outside of Washington, D.C. Through advocacy, solidarity, and education, the JPIC Office is dedicated to raising the peace, social justice and care for creation concerns of Columban missioners and those people with whom we live and serve. As people of faith, we are both challenged and called to raise our voices with the voices of the most marginalized in our world.

My name is Amy Woolam Echeverria. Since 2005, I have had the privilege of coordinating the Columban JPIC ministry here in the United States. Before coming to Washington, D.C., I was the Columban JPIC Coordinator in Chile where I had been on mission since 1999, first with Sisters of Holy Child Jesus and then with Columbans.

Other “titles” that describe me are: wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, lay woman, closet writer, and speed-challenged runner. There are probably more titles yet to be discovered, but for the meantime I am content.

I suppose my newest title is “blogger” and one that I am very excited about. Since 2004 the Columban JPIC Office has distributed an e-newsletter which usually included an opening reflection from me on some aspect of social justice (check out archived issues of the Columban JPIC e-newsletter www.columban.org/content/view/69/52). So perhaps I’ve been a closet-blogger all these years and never knew it!

But now the virtual doors have been flung open wide, and I look forward to sharing with you my thoughts, feelings, reflections, and questions about life, mission, and faith.
An important image that Columbans embraced at our 2008 Regional Assembly was that of table-fellowship where we are both hosts and guests and all are equal. Please, let us walk together to the Table.

In peace,
Amy W.E.

The Keys to God's Kingdom

The Keys to God’s Kingdom
A reflection by Fr. Jim O’Brien

As a young boy growing up in Boston, I vividly remember the experience of seeing my first movie. The name of the film was The Keys of the Kingdom, released in 1944 and starring Gregory Peck. It is the story of a young missionary priest, Fr. Chisholm (Gregory Peck) sent to China to establish a Catholic parish among the non-Christian Chinese. Fr. Chisholm struggles in China enduring isolation, disease and poverty. In the end, it was a film produced in Hollywood after all, he does succeed in China using patience and understanding.

However, I was puzzled when I left the theater since I still did not know who had the keys! Was it Fr. Chisholm? Or, did the Chinese people have the keys? Many years later, I read a book by the same title, and I thought I figured out the answer. It was the missionary who had the keys and could open up the gates of God’s kingdom. All would be welcome to enter and become members of God’s family.

In my vocation as a Columban Father, I was sent to Korea as a missionary. After a struggle with the language and the culture, I began to see that I wasn’t the only one with the keys. I came to a new understanding and insight into who had the keys. I began to see that the Korean people had already been blessed by God. It was an eye opener when I realized God had been there before me.

The culture and language of the Korean people spoke of spiritual blessings and the Great Spirit. God had already spoken to the people in a way far different from my previous experience. Realizing that God has been in Korea long before my arrival was a decisive moment in my life as a missionary.

The land, the people and the culture were sacred because God had blessed them in a special way. Acting on this important revelation and listening to their stories, I was able to share my faith experience with them and how I had come to know God.

Many people listened and in time asked for baptism and were received into the Church. Some were polite, heard the message but never joined us. However, we would meet from time to time and remained friends and enjoyed some non-church events together.

These positive experiences moved me to reflect on why I was Korea. If God was already there, why was I? I was there because I was sent to bring the Good News about Jesus and his teachings. My role was to be a witness for the gospel in a land far from home and help the Korean people come to know God in a new way.

The Church in Korea is alive and well. I was just one Columban among many who served in Korea. Along the way I kept seeing how God was present there, and I realized how blessed I have been to be there as well. Like Fr. Chisholm, I saw the Catholic church flourish among the missions. The keys of the kingdom are found among all nations and peoples in their cultures, their languages and their experiences.

Columban Father Jim O’Brien currently resides in Bristol, Rhode Island after many years on mission. For more information about The Keys of the Kingdom, check out http://www.imdb.com/. For more information about the Columban Fathers and their missionary work, go to http://www.columban.org.