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Missionary Cenacle Family August 2020 Letter

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August 2020

Dear members of the Missionary Cenacle Family,

+Grace and Peace.

Click here to find an invitation to reflect upon the life of an American Congressman who died in July 2020. This reflection is offered as a way of seeing someone in American culture, a lay person, who worked tirelessly for human rights. John Lewis was not a Catholic, but in every sense of the word and deed, his was a life dedicated to the call of the Gospel.

We invite you to look deeply within your own country and cultures and identify those persons who exemplify the call of Fr. Judge: “I wish to be good: I wish to do good: I wish to become a power for good” Perhaps you could write about these persons and share the story with the Missionary Cenacle Family?

We would welcome these reflections as a way of seeing people in the countries where we serve who are living out their Baptismal call.

Please send any reflections or questions to frjudge1933@icloud.com.

Thanks to Pat Regan, MCA, for editing and Angelica Otero, MCA, for translation.

In the Trinity,
Sr. Brenda Hermann MSBT

“Be good, do good, be a power for good”
“Sea bueno, hacer el bien, ser un poder para el bien”

Missionary Cenacle Family International Headquarters
9001 New Hampshire Avenue
Silver Spring MD 20903
frjudge1933@icloud.com.
(C) +1 (240) 463-0222
Sr. Brenda Hermann MSBT Executive Director

News from Mecca, CA

Sunday, June 19th, we offered 3 special events to our parish community.

The first Mass was celebrated outside, starting at 7 AM, following the Health Department’s recommendations, with a maximum of 50 parishioners per Mass.

The Mexican Consulate was present this weekend offering essential services such as passports and interviews to about 103 people. This service helped the migrant community from Mexico save themselves a trip to the Consulate offices in San Bernardino and also time and money.

Finally, another essential service was the food pantry, together with the National Guard, who reported having dispensed 750 food packages to needy families in the region.

The Our Lady of Guadalupe Sanctuary has continued to respond to these basic needs of our community in this critical time with the pandemic.

As member of the Congregation of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, we have been attentive to the spiritual and social needs of the Coachella Valley.

Here are photos of the Mecca community.

June 1, 2020

In the wake of a week of turmoil across the United States, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, which represents the leaders of more than 200 Catholic religious institutes of men across the United States, publicly condemns racism. We condemn brutality that takes away breath and we call for reforms to policies and practices that have oppressed Black Americans. We also pray for an end to the national violence that has been ignited and for a path forward that is based on peace and leads to true change.

*This moment in our nation and in the life of our Church demands more than a statement of anguish. It requires us to commit publicly to change, starting with ourselves. We must begin a collective effort—as religious institutes for men, monasteries, and societies for apostolic life—to work to dismantle the individual and systemic practices that perpetuate racism in the places where we live out our vocations. We must listen. We must mourn. We must repent. We must change.

*A throwaway culture that values property over people and asserts that some lives are worth more than others violates the human dignity upon which our faith and vocations are based. To say that we represent a Gospel of Life means we cannot look the other way or to fail to hear or see people who are suffering.

To authentically pursue change requires reckoning with one’s own past. That includes us.

The historical record of the Catholic Church in the US on racism reflects a lack of prophetic leadership and humanity throughout history, all too often mirroring the accepted morals of the time. While many of our brothers and institutes have been on the front lines of fighting for civil rights, we acknowledge some congregations owned slaves and refused to accept Black men and other men of color for vows and ordination. While we have created ministries, built schools, and founded social justice efforts explicitly to serve communities of color, we have not always practiced true equality, the kind of equality that seeks to understand and strives for mutuality. In our desire to uplift, we have been paternalistic at times and even have perpetuated segregation.

*To be prophetic leaders, we must name past sins, humbly listen to those hurt by racism, and be willing to be uncomfortable with our individual and corporate record of prejudice. We must hear those within our own communities who are marginalized, have been silenced, or remain unseen. We must call ourselves to account.

The Conference of Major Superiors of Men recognizes that this essential work must have tangible outcomes that bear witness to the transformational power of the Holy Spirit working through and in each of us. We will commit to preach, teach, pray, and mobilize in new ways.

We ask that all people of goodwill pray for this effort, that we might live into the question that Servant of God, Sr. Thea Bowman, FSPA, posed to the U.S. Bishops Conference in 1989: “…how can we work together so that all of us have equal access to input – equal access to opportunity – equal access to participation.”

May Sr. Thea’s bold witness serve as our guide for fundamental change in our Church and in all the places where we labor to share the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

News from Coachella, CA

Fr. Frank Gomez sent us photos of volunteers standing outside of Our Lady of Soledad church collecting envelopes and donations every Sunday from 9 till 2 pm. All safety measures were followed.

Fr.Jesus Palomares has been organizing volunteers to make food sales. They made over two thousand tamales. For Mother’s day weekend they made dinner plates. All these efforts help to maintain our new church, our old church property where the offices and classrooms are and our two mission sites. We are so grateful for the generosity and support of our Coachella community.

iTHIRST Update

The iTHIRST Team has begun ‘virtual’ iTHIRST Spiritual Companionship training with 33 participants in the DIocese of Camden, NJ. The training will continue throughout the months of May and June, culminating in early July. Upon completion of this training, participants will receive continuing education credits from Seton Hall University, and will be qualified to provide both spiritual consolation and recovery resource information to those affected by addiction and their families throughout the parishes in the diocese. Participants will also work with their respective pastors to develop recovery ministries that fit the needs of their parishes. The virtual training will allow us to bring our curriculum and training to dioceses and communities anywhere in the world, in an effort to fulfill the mission of empowering the Church to become a resource for those suffering from addictions and their families. The Spanish language version of the curriculum will soon be completed, and a “train the trainer” program is currently in development.