Mary's Month (Mes de Maria)

The past few weeks have been especially busy because November 8th to December 8th (the feast of the Immaculate Conception) in Chile is what is known as "Mes de Maria," or Mary's month. In a way, it is similar to the month of May in the U.S., but from what I have seen so far, Chileans take Marian devotion to a whole new level.

Supposedly, the tradition in Chile began in 1854 with Monsignor Joaquin Larrain Gandarillas (Rector of the Santiago Seminary), who, wanting to spread the European tradition of Marian devotion in May, decided to initiate "el Mes de Maria" between Nov. 8 and Dec.8 to prepare for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. He also selected the month of November because, just as with May in the U.S., November in Chile is a springtime month. The flowers and trees are coming into full bloom and farmers are just starting to harvest the first summer crops. Just like the rebirth of nature in spring, the Mes de Maria is a reminder and a tool to renew, strengthen, and deepen our spiritual life--especially in preparation for the birth of Christ at the end of December! The tradition became popular in the Santiago seminary and then later spread to houses and churches around Santiago and the rest of Chile. Later, Monsignor Rodolfo Vergara Antunez (a friend of Monsignor Joaquin) wrote a prayer that begins and ends each Mass during Mary's Month (I am putting the opening and closing prayers and a translation at the end of this blog!).

During Mary's Month, all of the statues of Mary are adorned with flowers and candles, and at school we have been celebrating Mass each morning before classes start. Each day of the week, two classes are especially invited to celebrate the Mass. I have actually been surprised that the church has been filled every day despite the fact that many of the children already have to get up really early in order to travel to get to school on time. All of our fourth and fifth graders who just made their First Communion have been especially excited to get to Mass in the morning :) It has also been nice to see that a lot of parents stay for Mass--definitely the most Mass attendance I have seen so far during my time in Chile.

The Parish honors the tradition of Mes de Maria by praying the Rosary each day before Mass and by participating in a morning Rosary walk on Saturdays called the "Rosario del alba." People from our parish gather together at 7:15 in the morning and, praying the rosary, walk to another parish in our neighborhood, joining about 4 other parishes in the same place to celebrate Mass together. Afterwards, there is a little breakfast so that people from the different parishes can meet.

This past Sunday, for the first Sunday of Advent, there was also a blessing of all pregnant women at the end of Mass. Since I am working with the Holy Cross sisters in their Family Rosary organization, I was able to help distribute pink and blue rosaries to about 30 expecting mothers at Mass in Santiago's central cathedral. Seeing all of the pregnant women gather in front of the altar to receive a blessing from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re was beautiful and moving!

Anyways, that is a little bit of what I have been up to the past few weeks. Please join me in prayer to our Blessed Mother this last week of Mes de Maria!

Here are the opening and closing prayer:

OPENING PRAYER:

Oh, Maria! During this beautiful month dedicated to you, everything resounds with your name and praises you. Your shrine radiates with new light, and our hands raise you up on a throne of grace and love to where you preside over our celebrations and listen to our prayers.

To honor you, we have spread fresh flowers at your feet and adorned your head with garlands and crowns. Even so, oh Mary! you are not satisfied with these tributes. You know that there exist flowers whose freshness never fades and garlands that never wither. These are the gifts that you desire from your children, because the most beautiful adornment a mother can receive is the devotion of her children, and the most beautiful crown that they can lay at her feet is their virtues.

Yes, the flower you ask of us is the innocence of our hearts. Therefore, we promise to work very hard throughout this month dedicated to your glory, oh Holy Virgin! to keep our souls pure and to remove the shadow of evil from our thoughts and desires.

The real rose whose brightness is pleasing to your eyes is charity, love of God and love of our brothers and sisters. And so, we will love each other as children of the same family, with you as our Mother, living together in the sweetness and harmony of brotherly love.

In this blessed month, we will strive to cultivate humility in our hearts—the modest flower that is so dear to you—and with your help, we pray to become pure, humble, giving, patient, and hopeful.

Oh, Mary! We pray that you help these virtues grow in the deepest corners of our hearts; that they may sprout, bloom, and eventually yield the fruits of grace in order to someday be worthy children of the most Holy and best Mother.

CLOSING PRAYER:

Oh, Mary, Mother of Jesus, our Savior and our holy Mother! We have come to offer you, with these gifts that we lay at your feet, our hearts which yearn to please you and receive from your goodness a new zeal for your holy service. Lead us to your Divine Son, who, because of your Divine gifts and at the request of His Divine Mother, will guide our footsteps to the path of virtue. We pray that the light of faith might shine with new splendor over the suffering villages that continue to groan in the darkness of error; that they might return to Christ, and that the many rebellious hearts in our world might be transformed so that your heart and the heart of your Son might rejoice with gladness. We pray that the enemies of His Church are converted and that the burning fire of His love might ignite all corners of the world. And finally, we pray that we might always be filled with joy and hope even amidst the many trials of daily life. Amen

Eating Peanuts with Christ

Today I left my house with the intention of heading into the center of Santiago to look for a new pillow; on the way, I found Christ instead.

In the center of Santiago (as in all cities) there is always lots of movement, people, and noise. As you get closer and closer to the center, everything seems to move more quickly. It is easy to be swept up in the fast movement, the hurried steps, and your individual agenda and to become blind to everything that lives on the margins--to the people who have not been able to keep up, who have been shuffled aside, sometimes forcefully but more often through (the much more painful) gradual neglect and apathy.

As I said in one of my first entries, I try to be intentional about living with a spirit of availability so that God's grace can be freer to work, live, and transform through me. However, even though I try, I often get wrapped-up in the busyness of life and need Christ to call me out of the center whirlwind to truly encounter Him in the margins. Today was one such reminder. As I approached Santiago's central plaza, I saw a man...homeless, curled up, sitting against a street wall. I passed him by. Immediately after, I knew that I had to turn around. Many of you know the story of my encounter with Maria in Peru; this felt very much the same, and thinking of her, made me stop myself. I bought a little bag of peanuts from a stand close by, returned, sat down next to the man, introduced myself, and gave him the bag of peanuts. The first thing he said to me was, "Can I ask you a favor?" I said, yes. He replied, "It's not money." I said, "Ok, what is it?" He responded, "It's time. Can you spend some time with me?" I told him, "I'm right here by your side, and I'm not going anywhere."

Today, I spent an hour sitting on the corner of Catedral and Plaza de Armas talking with Patricio. We talked about writers and poets, about traveling and languages, about a car accident in the north of Chile that left him almost blind, about the "vida complicada" (complicated life) that he experienced living in Brooklyn and Manhattan, about ... "What's the name of that alcohol that they sell in the U.S. again? ...oh yea, whiskey. That's complicated, that is...whiskey," about blues and jazz, and about Christ, the only person who has been able to conquer the sorrow and suffering of the world.

About every 10 minutes, Patricio would ask me again, "Can you do me a really big favor? It's no money," he would say (the last part in English). Each time, I would reply, "Yes, what is it," and he would say again, "Can you spend some time with me?" Often Patricio spoke with tears in his eyes. "Sorry," he would say to me, "it's just that, I'm really lonely. I'm all alone."

Sometimes Patricio would laugh..."You know why I'm laughing? You remind me of my daughter. You know what her name is? Gemita.  Her full name means pretty stone of dawn."

About 5 times Patricio asked me where I was from. I said, the U.S.--Ohio, and he said, "oh yea, I know it. I know it." He told me that he has traveled all over the world..."I know many countries. The only country I don't know is myself." I asked him where he was born; he told me: "I don't know, no one ever told me."

About 10 times, he said to me, "Sorry I'm kind of strange. I'm weird, I know. But I'm just lonely. I sit here calmly, and I don't bother anyone. I don't bother anyone. I'm quiet. I don't ask for money. You know why? Money makes life real complicated."

One time Patricio really started crying. "You know why I'm crying?" he said. "Because I'm still happy deep down, even though life has been really complicated for me. A lot of suffering, you know? But there's joy deep down. There's both--joy and sadness."

Today I ate peanuts with Christ on a street corner next to the great Cathedral in the center of Santiago. When we were done talking, I thanked him for his wisdom, his story, and his time. He thanked me for sitting next to him and for talking to him. He reached out for my hand and held it tight in his for a few minutes as we said goodbye. Then he told me he was off to conquer the world, and we parted ways.

Christ lives on the margins, in the most lonely, in the homeless, in the suffering.  Let's pray for the eyes to see Him there and the strength to reach out and touch His brokenness so that He, in turn, can transform our own hearts.  

Jornadas Pastorales

For a while now, I’ve been meaning to do a more in-depth entry on the jornadas pastorales, or class retreats that I help to plan and lead every Thursday.  They have definitely been one of the most impactful, challenging and fun parts of my work here so far.  At Andacollo (our school), each class goes on a retreat 1 day per school year –all the way from pre-school through High school.  There are 2 classes per grade, so in total, there are 28 jornadas pastorales each year.  The idea is to provide a space for reflection, sharing and growth as a class and community.  In planning each retreat, we talk with the head professor of the course about the particular challenges within the classroom and among the students that year.  We then work to design a retreat that addresses those themes.  This is especially important given the school system here because (at least at our school) the students stay with the exact same students in their class each year.  Even though there are 2 courses per grade (each with about 40-45 students) they don’t mix up the kids except in extreme circumstances or when students leave the school and new ones come in.  Because many of the students are at Andacollo for the majority of their education, the retreats are really significant to help them grow together and address certain problems among the students. 

I’ve helped with about 12 jornadas so far, and it always amazes me how different each one can be depending on the particular group of students—each course definitely has its own character and dynamic, and it’s a challenge for us to try to cater the retreat to work through that dynamic.

                It would be impossible for me to describe all of the memorable moments and things that the students have taught me during the jornadas, but I wanted to jot down some memories in any case.  SO here’s a little thought-collage to hopefully give you a taste of the jornada pastoral experience.

-          My very first week in Chile, I “helped” with one of the high school junior retreats.  First thought—it’s very humbling to be welcomed in to share in an intimate retreat when you are completely new and have no idea what you are doing.  What stands out to me from this retreat is how open the students were with each other.  There hasn’t been a single high school retreat that hasn’t caused the tears to start flowing for both guys and girls.  I guess I was surprised because when I was in high school, I couldn’t imagine any guy from one of my classes breaking down in tears in front of everyone and feeling completely comfortable sharing his feelings. 

-          Dinámicas (dynamics/ice breaker activities).  Chileans LOVE dinámicas.  Meetings always begin with icebreaker activities, and our retreats are no exception :) 

-          Sophomore retreat—somehow I was assigned to a group of all girls when we broke-out into small group discussion.  Each person had to fill-out a sheet choosing one word to describe who they were (personality, attitude, experience, etc.) in each year of their lives, starting in 7^th grade through the present.  They then had to choose one word describing an aspect of who they are that has remained throughout every year.  One girl in my group openly shared how, over the years, her feelings of isolation and other personal struggles eventually led her to seek relief in drugs and to move out of her house.  She remarked that she would describe her personality now as selfish or egotistical.  In the same group, one of my girls talked about the way she changed after 8^th grade because she got pregnant and now has the responsibility of taking care of her one-year-old son.  There are some moments when we are silenced by the experiences of others—their pain, struggles, and brokenness, but often their resilience, courage, and faith as well.   

-          Kindergarten—by far the cutest retreat so far.  The theme was “Jesús nos enseña tener muchos amigos” (Jesus teaches us to have lots of friends).  We had a “Friends Party” where each student was paired up with someone that they usually don’t spend time with, and they had to remain with that person the whole party—dance with them, eat cookies and drink juice together, and answer questions about their new friend when the music stopped in order to win a piece of candy!  Some kids absolutely would not let go of their new friend—precious. 

-          The most challenging moment so far in one of the jornadas—High School senior falling and fracturing his femur during one of the dinamicas.  His leg was literally completely dislocated from the hip—we were lucky the femur didn’t completely break through the skin.  It is in moments of crisis when you especially realize how much we take for granted good infrastructure and health care.  The first 15 minutes after the kid fell were spent arguing about whether he could be moved into a taxi because it would be too expensive to use an ambulance ($100 dollars).  When we finally convinced everyone that the boy absolutely couldn’t be moved without professional help (and he was too tall to fit sideways in a taxi!), we called the ambulance which didn’t arrive for over an hour—none of the clinics close to where our retreat was (in one of the poorer areas of Santiago) had ambulances, and the ambulances from the good clinics had to make their way through all of the traffic and chaos resulting from student protests in the center of town in order to arrive.  And so, all of the students sat by his side in the grass, trying to offer some words of comfort while we waited.

Tomorrow we have our retreat with the pre-schoolers where we will be talking about the Creation story.  All of the little ones are going to dress up like animals!  And somehow, I was selected to be the “Tia” (adult) that also has to dress up—the Chileans here already know me too well J    



4th graders during a jeopardy game I created about violence and bullying (...what can I say, I was trying to make a pretty serious theme somewhat fun!)

With some of the kindergartners during recess