“This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
...Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed…”  Is 58:6-8
 
In a surprising way, Lent and Advent have melded into one season for me this year. And the scriptures have been brought into clear focus by two places I love very much – our own St. Laurence parish and the Working Boys Center in Quito, Ecuador. The latter is a Jesuit-founded center that has provided a safe haven, education, health care and nourishment – both physical and spiritual – for the poorest of the poor in Quito for 50 years. Their motto is “A Family of Families”. I was familiar with the Centro Muchacho Trabajador (CMT) from my college days. My daughter and I volunteered there twice and I was able to return again in December with my brother and his wife for the Center’s anniversary celebration.  

 
With no other responsibilities there than to pray and serve the poor, I felt I was on a retreat.  Each morning I would look out onto the mountains surrounding the city and watch them emerge as the clouds lifted and the sunlight reached the hillsides and the barrios.
 
“On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will provide for all people a feast… This is the Lord for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!” Is 25: 6,9
 
“On that day, the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of the gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blend shall see. The lowly will ever find joy in the Lord and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.” Is 29:18-19
 
These words came to life as I listened to stories about adults being taught to read, the tears in their eyes as they first wrote their name, and the husband whose very first letter was written to his wife.  The Word became real as I visited families in their homes and helped serve meals at the Center. Over 2000 people are received at CMT with dignity, and given an opportunity to grow in faith, to save for a home and to help each other build a better future.

 
From my journal: Thank you Lord for the open hearts and the sharing, for the warm welcome and hope and faith that surrounds us here. I trust that the seeds planted this week will take root and grow in us. Thank you for the CMT and the beautiful example that it is to us of family and Church and your body. Help us to believe fervently that as your body we can heal deafness, blindness and infirmity and can be a cause for joy and hope in the least of our brothers and sisters.
 
Is 40:3 “Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
 
From my journal: This is what this place does. It makes a path for families to believe in you, to allow you to work through us and them, to a better life, a holy life. Our respective parts of the wasteland may appear different but it’s actually all part of the same one – where you are not seen or felt, where Love is not put first in our lives... Often the way to you is still full of twists and turns that don’t make sense to our human minds… We know and ask forgiveness for our wanderings off the path. But there is grace as long as we seek to walk in your way - as we know it at the time- or in coming back to your side from a detour.


 
On this trip I also heard the Lord speak to my heart that all the good we want to do for this family of families will come to naught if we don’t love and forgive within our own family.
 
I returned home to Sugar Land and to St. Laurence with an immense sense of gratitude, of mission and of home. Our parish theme this year – In You All Find Their Home – is in essence the same as that of CMT. We all find our home in the Lord and are therefore a family. We reach out to help people in need here in much the same way – in teaching, healing, lending a hand. In both places – Sugar Land and Quito – there is much to do. But as Pope Francis says, our parishes and communities are called to be “islands of mercy in the midst of a sea of indifference.” It is blessedly hard to be indifferent when we invite, or accept the invitation, to be family with others.


 
I wish my St. Laurence family a blessed Lent!
 
Until next time,
Lynn
 
Lynn Wells is a St. Laurence parishioner and spiritual director.