Digo Si a la Vida con Gozo: Claiming my Vincentian Heart

IT ALL STARTED WITH GRAPES…

Little did my parents know what they were doing when they chose not to feed me grapes as a child. Now mind you, I was not too thrilled when we didn’t buy grapes. I quite enjoyed whenever I was at a friend’s house and they had grapes to eat. Not having grapes at home was one of my first introductions to a simple way of living solidarity. My parents had joined Cesar Chavez by responding to the simple plea: “Help the farm workers, don’t buy grapes.” As a 5-year-old I had no idea what a boycott was, or the importance of farm workers’ rights. I had never heard, the word “solidarity,” let alone known what it means. I must admit that even now, 30 years later, I’m not sure I fully grasp yet the meaning of solidaridad — a term overused in social justice circles. My journey to understanding many different ways to live solidarity is far from over. One thing is for sure:

I know that it is something that I yearn for from mis entranas — that place deep within our guts and hearts.

Growing up, my parents planted seeds of social justice. Missionaries around our dinner table, examples of radical hospitality, and encouragement that “to whom much is given much is expected.” This sprung from a deep faith in the gospel message that expands the conventional understandings of family to include all as members of God’s family. I was taught from a young age to live my faith Karl Barth style with the Bible in one hand newspaper in the other. They joke that one must watch how you raise your children because otherwise they might start wanting to go places like El Salvador, which indeed I did my junior year of college.

LEARNING LA REALIDAD FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE POOR

I decided I was tired of hearing everyone else’s stories about the gritty reality of our world…I wanted to be fully immersed with all of my senses. In El Salvador, my education wasn’t just at the UCA; rather my classroom was in a little pueblito in the mountains — La Javia. I didn’t go to fix anything or anyone in this community.

I went to listen exquisitely to another way of living, to accompany, to allow my heart to be broken.

One guide in La Javia was Hermana Cristina — Hija de Caridad — Daughter of Charity. There is no other word to describe Cristina than ZEAL incarnate. At this point I didn’t know anything about St. Vincent de Paul or St. Louise de Marillac. But Cristina taught me how to serve with a Vincentian heart. She taught me about working with, not for people, about listening to the needs in the community before taking action, about the small things of serving — attending to the physical AND spiritual needs, empowering women in the community, about enjoying life!

This was my first real taste of living the Vincentian Charism. The poor were no longer a problem to be solved. They are my friends. Mis hermanos y hermanas. My companions on this journey.

One afternoon while bumping along in the back of a pick up truck with my 8-year-old friend Yasmin I had another experience of grapes. As we were bumping along, the wind blowing through our hair making our eyes water, one of the girls gave Jasmin a grape. It was a big, round, purple grape that was sweating in the heat. Jasmin received it and then started playing with it with her dirty grimy fingers. I wanted to tell her to just eat the darn thing! As I watched her intently poke the grape I wondered what she was doing. After a few moments, however, she stared up at me with her big dark eyes with long eyelashes and placed into my hand half of the grape. She had perfectly divided the grape in half to share with me.Who thinks to share one lonely grape? As I ate half the grape I savored the lesson of radical sharing that Yasmin taught me. She was my greatest teacher.

Here began my commitment to allow the voices of the poor to lead and guide my next steps.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BORDER

After college, I was called to Leon, Guanajuato Mexico where I accompanied women and girls for two years with the Good Shepherd Volunteers. I went to listen to la realidad from the other side of the border. Here I was taught what it means to be a woman, wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend, co-madre in our world today by Guille, Mari, Vero, Juanita, Candi, Teresita, Blanca, Liz, Ana, Angeles, Geogina, Gema — women who inspired. I stood witness to their lives (very often at their kitchen tables!), their joys, hardships, birthing pains, grief, struggle, and dance. Our hearts are forever bound together through our stories.

During the two years I was stretched to new limits and had to learn to be creative within much disillusionment. I learned, just as Vincent de Paul did with Madame de Gondi and Louise de Marillac, that it is quite often women who cry out ‘enough is enough’, basta ya! Together with their creativity they find other solutions to their realities.

CONNECTING THE VINCENTIAN DOTS

Five years later, I was invited to go back to El Salvador to translate for a group of DePaul University students on an immersion. Our hosts were las Hijas de Caridad…the Daughters of Charity. Here I began tracing my Vincentian lineage and realized that my on the ground training had been with a Daughter of Charity…the living legacy of St. Louise de Marillac. I realized the connection between all I had learned about accompanying those most in need and the Vincentian family.

As I learned more about our Vincentian story and the charism of our founders I realized that more than 350 years after their mission it is still alive and that I was invited to live it! All this time I had a heart ready to serve, a heart on the side of those most in need. All those years I was mysteriously incorporated into the heart of the Vincentian family. I was home!

“WE FORM EACH OTHER”

I now have the privilege to be a part of the formation of students at DePaul University as they awaken to la realidad in our world and to their call within. Just as Cristina walked with me, I now accompany students as they discover how they belong to our Vincentian family. I was formed by a once in a lifetime Vincentian in Action team — Fr. Memo Campuzano, Siobhan O’Donoghue, Karl Nass, Ruben Alvarez — who taught me the Vincentian ways of awareness, dialogue, and solidarity through their daily example.

I WAS SHAPED AND MOLDED BY OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS — OUR CO-EDUCATORS — IN EL SALVADOR, COLOMBIA, TUBA CITY, CRANKS CREEK, NEW YORK, BLADENSBURG, INDIANAPOLIS, MOBILE, AND SO MANY OTHER PLACES OF HOSPITALITY.

I continue to be humbled and awe-inspired by countless students taking the risk to come alive, to listen to the dignity in every human story.

Over a decade ago when asked what my life’s vocation was my response was:Digo si a la Vida con gozo — I say yes to Life with joy.

Vincent and Louise trusted in Divine Providence to lead them to the next step in their life. Their journeys took many twists and turns along the way.

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE

The images below were taking while participating in the Vincentian Heritage Tour in France in 2012. One is from a parish in the village of Châtillon, where Vincent served as pastor for only a year. I specifically lit a candle and offered prayers for our Vincentian family. It was here where the vision of small groups of people gathering together to go and serve those in the community was birthed. It was a simple idea. Little did Vincent imagine the revolution that this experiment in organizing good will would lead to!

As I was sitting praying with the light of this candle, one of my companions on the Vincentian Heritage Tour came to me, gently put her hand on my shoulder, and whispered,

“Something started here…and we will continue it!”

Vincent says that “Together we will build a humane world…”

When thinking about what it means to be Vincentian today we know it’s about humanizing the world and engaging in systemic change.

Bridge building is a way to do both. Let’s get to work together to build this world we know is possible!