LENT IN THE MOUNTAINS: SILENCE AND SIMPLICITY

The cross in Acatepec, a traditional symbol for Lent

Here in the mountains of Mexico, Lent has begun. A unique custom here is that two or three or four parishes celebrate each of the six Fridays of Lent: First Friday, Second Friday, etc., right up to the Sixth Friday, the Friday before Good Friday. Each celebration involves music, dancing, sporting events, fireworks, processions, etc. It’s just a little different from the Lent that I experienced growing up in Canada.

Can there be a better photo to symbolize simplicity?

I like the simplicity of this time of year. I spend a lot of time driving on the isolated dirt roads of the mountains, and I try to spend more time in silence and prayer. It is the middle of the dry season, so I don’t have to worry so much about mud or landslides. I always hope that this time will help me to be a more compassionate and loving person, and I am always aware that my being here, doing what I am doing, is due to the compassionate and loving persons in the Diocese of Calgary who support Mission Mexico.

First Friday with friends in Cuixinipa

Since one of Mission Mexico’s focus areas is education, I spend a lot of time trying to help young people find places to continue their educational journey. Sometimes things work out; sometimes they don’t. But even the effort seems to nourish hope, and hope, I am convinced, is one of the most life-giving gifts that one can share here.

Friends in Barrio Nuevo

Just last week I attended a ceremony where Icodia, a young woman from Cerro de la Garza, one of the highest and coldest and poorest areas of the mountains, received her accounting degree. This is a first for someone from her family and from her village. She expressed her gratitude to Mission Mexico for helping her achieve her dream; Mission Mexico gave her a monthly bursary for several years of her university career.

Icodia with her family on her special day

And Edgar, a young man who is in a wheelchair for life after a nasty fall in the mountains three years ago, is registering to study psychology at university in the fall. As I write these lines today, Edgar is coming out of anesthesia in a hospital in Mexico City; he was operated on this morning, and the doctors told his mother that the operation went well.

Edgar (in blue), with Lindsey and Gerardo

The young lady in the photo above graduated as a physiotherapist, thanks in part to a bursary from Mission Mexico, and she and two of her friends recently opened a clinic here in one of the larger (and poorer) neighborhoods of Tlapa. Most of their work involves home visits to people who are bedridden.

Lindsey and her fellow physiotherapists in front of their small clinic

Elizabeth, a young woman who fractured her spinal cord ten months ago, continues to try to walk. I was saddened when her father told me the other day that he was going to leave his family for a few months and go to work in the neighboring state of Michoacan. There he can earn 200 pesos a day picking tomatoes. Seven days work will earn him 1,400 pesos a week: almost exactly one hundred Canadian dollars. That’s about double what he can earn here in the mountains in a week. So even though he doesn’t want to leave his wife and daughter and son, he feels he has no choice.

Elizabeth can stand, and one leg is stronger than the other and allows her to move

And this past week I went to the Champagnat High School of the Mountain, in Potoichan, to celebrate the birthday of Brother Salvador, better known as Cepillo. This wonderful Marist brother has been with the school since its beginning in 2004, and Mission Mexico has been a proud partner with him in offering education to more than 200 students a year.

Brother Cepi, or Cepillo... his real name is Salvador

One of the indigenous students, Gabriela, read to Cepillo a speech that she had prepared. I will end this note with a part of her speech. I think it reflects not only on Cepillo, but on Gabriela and on all the people here in the mountains who are partners with Mission Mexico in the struggle for life with dignity, justice, and love.

Gabriela reading her speech to Cepillonish)

Gabriela stated:  Good afternoon, Cepi. More than anything, I want to congratulate you on this special day when we are gathered to celebrate another year of your life. I want you to know that you are a very special person, much beloved and a real fighter. There is so much to be grateful to you for; please forgive us for all of our actions that make you feel bad. We give you infinite thanks for always being there for us as a father and a friend. We thank God for placing you in our path to be a light, a guide who always speaks to us truthfully so that we can be better persons tomorrow. We thank you for your advice, your affection, your attention in any circumstance that befalls us. Thank you for being a unique person who always wants the best for us. Thank you for your laughter, for your joy, for your upbeat ways, and for you being a part of our lives.

This is Gabriela's full speech (in Spanish)

You could have easily decided to stay in your own house and form your own family and have many comforts and lived with your loved ones. Nevertheless, you gave up all of that; you opted to form a family that God wanted, like the family formed by Saint Marcelino to help the needy….

More than seeing you as a great Marist educator, I, in your face and in your being, encounter the reflection of my parents and grandparents. I see those grey hairs that make my imagination soar to dream of being like you someday and to share experiences with those who surround me. I see that smile that always encourages me, even when I don’t see a way out; your words always give me hope; you are like the password for a doorway when I feel lost. Your positive attitude always helps me to keep dreaming and struggling to fly higher. Even your way of walking gives me security, teaching me to not weaken on the journey and to keep my eyes centered on my goals…

Please pray for my friend Juve, who has cancer and is very weak; on Saturday I will
drive him to his home village of Alpoyeca; he wants to visit his elderly parents there