I am a refugee

54 years ago today, my parents, brother and I left the turmoil and persecution of my native Cuba – and entered the United States as refugees through Miami.

I was 17 months old.

Like the refugee families I met in Jordan and that I wrote about here – and like the Holy Family’s escape to Egypt with baby Jesus -- my family left Cuba with only the clothes we were wearing.

My parents left behind all material possessions, everything familiar and known, to seek a place where we could practice our faith in freedom, a new home where we could live without fear.

Would I have the courage and trust in God’s Providence to do what my parents did?

Our family was sponsored and taken care of by a Catholic parish in Dallas. But after a few months living in Texas, we eventually moved to Puerto Rico to join the rest of our extended family who had resettled there.

It blows my mind to ponder how many people helped us at every step of the way, how many generous hands and hearts were willing to reach out and love us. And how different my life would be if even one of these moments had been different.

On this National MigrationWeek, please join me in praying for the millions of refugees currently living in limbo – hoping and praying for someone to reach out and open a door for them.

Open my heart, Lord, 

show me how I can reach out to my brothers and sisters in need.

Year of Faith: faith celebrated

Our Lady of Lourdes grotto, University of Notre Dame

Although I hesitate to use the word organize, this past week I sorted through and cleared the cobwebs off my desk, which has not see much actual work for many weeks now. 

The few work projects that I’ve managed to complete, however, have been different and quite interesting.

I wrote the August column in the current issue of St.Anthony Messenger, for example, part of their special monthly feature for this Year of Faith.

In this world of 140 characters, the challenge as a writer was to say something personal and meaningful—in no more than 400 words! Our assignment called for each writer to take on a theme inspired by the Holy Father’s letter Porta Fidei, “Doors of Faith.”

My particular topic from the document is this: how the celebration of faith fuels our faith. The idea is inspired by a passage found in paragraph 9 of Porta Fidei that states:  

“To rediscover the content of the faith that is professed, celebrated, lived and prayed,[15]and to reflect on the act of faith, is a task that every believer must make his own, especially in the course of this Year.” 

Here’s the complete paragraph: 

“We want this Year to arouse in every believer the aspiration to profess the faith in fullness and with renewed conviction, with confidence and hope. It will also be a good opportunity to intensify the celebration of the faith in the liturgy, especially in the Eucharist, which is “the summit towards which the activity of the Church is directed; ... and also the source from which all its power flows.”[14] At the same time, we make it our prayer that believers’ witness of life may grow in credibility. To rediscover the content of the faith that is professed, celebrated, lived and prayed,[15]and to reflect on the act of faith, is a task that every believer must make his own, especially in the course of this Year.”

And here’s the short reflection that I wrote, titled “Faith Celebrated”:

As a young Cuban refugee growing up in the neighboring island of Puerto Rico, I was keenly aware of all that made me different. In spite of speaking the same language, my schoolmates teased me for my differences in speech. Like refugee families from other cultures, ours was a multi-generational home shared with three grandparents. Our family spent a considerable amount of our time and energy taking classes and attending events meant to remind us of our native culture, lest we ever forget what made us Cuban—and why we were refugees.   

 It was an unsettling time for all the adults in my life. This meant that I attended five different grade schools and lived in five different homes—one not corresponding with the other.  

 I was a perceptive child, more aware than most of the inner struggles of those suffering around me. In a very real way, I felt my parents’ anguish over the family and friends left in Cuba. I ingested my grandmother’s nighttime tears and loneliness. I experienced my grandparents’ uprootedness and displacement.  

 In the midst of all this inner suffering and external displacement—and perhaps directly because of it—my sense of place, belonging, and peace became deeply rooted in the Catholic Church.  

 Unlike most people’s experience, however, this sense of being claimed and chosen was not attached to one parish—but in a very real way, to the Church universal. Walking into a church. Celebrating the liturgy in unison. Receiving the Eucharist with mis hermanos, my brothers and sisters in the faith. This was, and is, home to me. 

 Paraphrasing Pope Benedict XVI’s declaration, I want this Year of Faith to arouse the desire to profess the faith in fullness and with renewed conviction, with confidence and hope.
  

In truth, there’s no substitute for the basics. Honest, daily prayer. Reclaiming the graces of the Sacraments. Approaching faith and tradition with a willing heart. Reclaiming the liturgy, and especially the Eucharist, as our home—the source from which “all its power flows.” 

 Only if we put the events of our lives—past, present, future—in contact with the Word of God and the Sacraments will those events become signs of God’s presence in and for our lives. 

 Only if we recommit to daily private and public prayer can we “rediscover the content of the faith that is professed, celebrated, lived and prayed.” 

Do we dare live our lives with such certainty?

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Be sure to check out the printed August issue of St. AnthonyMessenger Magazine, where this reflection was first published [www.StAnthonyMessenger.org].

Advent Ponderings, Week 2: Incarnation

“One central aspect of the kingdom is that everyone is invited without exception... the ritual of welcome enables [the immigrants] to enter an alternative world, a world where they experience acceptance in place of discrimination. The team welcomes these immigrants because they believe that in welcoming them they welcome Christ... [putting] into practice the words of Jesus as expressed in Matthew, ‘I was hungry and you gave me food... thirsty and you gave me something to drink...a stranger and you welcomed me’ (Matthew 25:35). In clapping upon their arrival, lavishly celebrating their presence, and making them feel at home, these strangers are treated as treasured friends and bearers of divine life. This... communicates to these immigrants one of the most fundamental dimensions of the Gospel: God’s universal welcome to all, especially to the marginalized, rejected, and poor of society.”

--description of the Encuentro Misionero retreat in 

”Border of Death, Valley of Life: An Immigrant Journey of Heart and Spirit”

Daniel G. Groody, C.S.C. (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002).

Suggested prayer: Create in me an open heart, O Lord, and be born in me! Grant me the grace to recognize your presence in every one I meet, in every breath I take. O Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me, that I may faithfully sing with you, “My soul proclaims your greatness, O Lord, for you have done great things for me. Holy is your name!” 

Suggested action: Honor and celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe by learning about the Church’s “welcoming” tradition of hospitality to migrants and refugees.

• Read the U.S. Bishops Pastoral Statement, “Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity” 
• Check out these quotes from Church teachings on the rights of migrants and refugees