Retreat

Archbishop Tito celebrates Mass at Hospicio Santa Vera Cruz.
Members of the Missionary Sisters of Calcutta attended
including Mother Superior Jocele (2nd from left) and
Mother General Mary Prema (left).

Sharing the peace of Christ with a handshake

This past Friday the 13th Lynn and I attended a Mass and festival at the Hospicio in Santa Vera Cruz. The Mass convened in the chapel within the Hospicio. Archbishop of Cochabamba Tito Solari celebrated.  Numerous groups attended: patients who live at the hospice, members of the surrounding community of Santa Vera Cruz (including children preparing for first communion), Franciscan (including Michael Reddel) and Maryknoll lay missioners who volunteer and/or live nearby, and active and retired members of several Catholic religious orders. These events were also attended by Sister Mary Prema Pierick, M.C. (on the left in the first photo). Sister Mary is the current (2012) Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity of Calcutta, India, the religious institute founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

The Mass and celebration demonstrated the need for and appreciation of the Hospice in the area.  Many Bolivian families continue the tradition of caring for their own sick and dying. However, the cost of doing so makes this difficult for some families and impossible for others.  As it has in so many categories here in Bolivia, the Church and other volunteer organizations have filled the gap for the much needed social safety net.  Some terminally ill patients cannot pay for end of life care, and others may face abandonment by their families because of the social stigma of having contracted SIDA.

Celebrating community with a dance and song following Mass.

The Calcutta Sisters also provide catechesis training for children and adolescents of the community who wish to become members of the Church. As first communion approaches, teachers from the Archbishop's office in Cochabamba (including Lynn, who worked with the catechesis teachers in Barrio Don Bosco) visit the various communities to share information about the life of Jesus, the beliefs of the Church, and ritual and faith within the Catholic community in Latin America.

The celebration was entirely positive. However, to me it was sad to see the Hospice patients in the midst of all the color and activity. Obviously, when the celebration ended they would still be as they were, struggling with their infirmities and contemplating death. It was good that the celebration probably helped them transcend for a time--one perspective--but better that they could see, hear, and feel the support of those who accepted them and who believed in forgiveness and eternal life.

Mother General gives blessed medals to two local break dancers
who earlier demonstrated spinning in rhythm boca abajo.

A day later Lynn and I began a three-day retreat at Convento Tarata, about an hour away from Cochabamba.  It was our way of celebrating our wedding anniversary.  We talked and talked and thought about many things past, present, and in the future.  We walked in the gardens, sat on the home-made chairs, strolled the broad silent halls of the cloister, gazed down at the beautiful central courtyard. Our conversation may have seemed rambling--family, friends, work, Bolivia, United States, faith, community, direction and lack of it, prayer, continuing and starting over and wondering. One thing is certain, we do not feel that we are living in a perfect world, but we are very grateful that we still have our time together.