Our Lady of the Grocery Store

A few weeks ago, I threw my back out. Unfortunately, this is something I seem to do once every five years or so, while carrying out such innocuous tasks as opening a box or, in this case, literally…stretching. I do not excel at flexibility. I’m totally fine now: thanks be to God for muscle relaxants. But that’s not the point of this story.

The point is that as I was making my way through the grocery store to the pharmacy to pick up my medication, I passed the floral department and was stunned to see…Our Lady of Guadalupe balloons. Bright yellow. On plastic sticks with a rainbow of curled ribbons dangling down, nestled in amongst evergreens and poinsettias.

I stopped and took a photo. And I thought about how desperately we need Our Lady of Guadalupe during this time of ICE raids and hateful, xenophobic rhetoric and policy, this time when cruel and barbed terror reigns among communities of immigrants and refugees, this time when the president refers to an entire community of people as “garbage.”

Kyrie eleison.

I let my longing percolate in my mind and heart until it took the form of a prayer, a desperate plea for her intercession and protection, that I wrote for the Jesuits. Here it is.

As our communities endure the crisis of ICE raids, the Advent offerings of Catholic Women Preach, featuring Latina women addressing immigration, have been a balm. The brilliant Nichole Flores preaches for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and I love her answer to where she is today: everywhere.

I hope that we can answer the call to follow in the footsteps of Our Lady and be present where our neighbors are suffering: everywhere. I hope that as we journey through Advent, we can recognize what seems to scream from the nativity scene: that this is the story of a vulnerable family, a family seeking shelter and refuge, a family fleeing the threat of certain violence. I hope that we can connect the dots between their story and the one we find ourselves in—that we can recognize their holy call for help in the voice of our every targeted neighbor. And I hope that we can respond with our whole hearts, our whole lives.

A Few Hopeful Things:

-Many are the stories of people of all faiths accompanying people to immigration court and doing their best to protect them, but I was especially moved by this story from my hometown, featuring a beloved priest and the bishop who confirmed me. Carry on, every one of you beautiful people who are making what Pope Francis called “a church of accompaniment” a living and breathing thing.

-I know that so many of you are involved in local efforts to support families who are suffering (thank you!), but if you are looking for another tangible way to help, my friend, the beautiful-hearted Laura Fanucci, is collecting funds via her Venmo (@lkfanucci) that will be transferred to families affected by deportation and ICE raids in Minnesota. They need to stay anonymous for their safety, but you can rest assured that Laura will get this money where it is needed.

-Finally, it’s been a joy to journey with you through the Pax Christi Advent devotional! And it was a special treat to get to talk about all things Advent (lighting matches, digging around in Scripture, all the good stuff!) with my friends Sister Colleen Gibson and Sister Erin McDonald on the Beyond the Habit podcast.

Committed to answering the call with you,
Cameron