May 15, 2015: Today's Catholic * Year of Consecrated Life * Praying for vocations in Del Rio with traveling crucifix, pilgrim image
Submitted by Marian Casillas, Ed.D. and Eva Nieto
SACRED HEART
The Pray for Vocations (Traveling Crucifix) Program at
Sacred Heart Church in Del Rio, Texas began in the summer of 2013.
It was started by parishioners Jim and Wanda Thornton
while working with the parish’s ACTS community.
Jim stated that he had witnessed a similar version
being done at a parish in Grapevine, Texas about 10-15 years ago and he thought
it was really a neat idea and brought it up to Father Jim Fischler, the
previous pastor at Sacred Heart Church, but Father Fischler left for
Castroville before the program could get started.
Jim mentioned that the idea came back to his mind
following Archbishop Garcia-Siller’s issuance of his Pastoral Vision, and the
current pastor Father Pius Ezeigbo was very supportive when they approached
him.
The Pray for Vocations Program is on a monthly
rotation at the different weekend Mass times.
There is a sign-up sheet located
at the entrance of the Church where parish families or parishioners can sign up
for The Pray for Vocations Program and volunteer to commit to setting aside a
brief time period each day to pray for vocations for one full week.
The family or parishioner comes up to the front of the
church and receives a send off blessing with the traveling crucifix that they
take home as a symbol and reminder of their commitment to pray each day for
vocations.
Volunteers are encouraged to make the traveling
crucifix the centerpiece of their prayer time for the week by placing it on the
dinner or breakfast table, in the family room, or place in the home where the
family gathers.
There is a Pray for Vocations instruction sheet along
with several suggested prayers from the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops for the volunteers to take home.
Jim and Wanda Thornton have been active members of the
parish and in the Sacred Heart ACTS community.
They have enjoyed being a part of this ministry but in
April they moved to Lago Vista, Texas located in the Diocese of Austin.
Presently
parishioner Vicente Cantu is coordinating this ministry.
PHOTO at Sacred Heart Church
From left to right: Jim Thornton, Father Pius Ezeigbo and Wanda Thornton
ST. JOSEPH
The Vocation Cross Ministry at St. Joseph
Church in Del Rio, Texas began in April 2014.
It was started by parishioners Barbara and
Pedro Bernal who continue to coordinate this ministry.
Barbara recalls that for a couple of years
she and her husband Pedro had been visiting the churches where their grown
children were attending Mass: Sacred Heart Church in Abilene, Texas and Saint
Benedict Church in San Benito, Texas.
She would see students at Mass who were in
the Confirmation class would exchange a crucifix to take home and pray for
vocations with their family, neighbors and friends.
Barbara thought that families praying for
vocations was such a wonderful idea and began to question, “Why can’t we have
that at our parish?”
She discussed this project with Father
Henry Clay Hunt, III, Pastor of St. Joseph Church and he gave permission for
the Vocation Cross Ministry to be established.
Along with the Vocation Cross the families
are given a prayer booklet with English and Spanish prayers along with
suggestions that the Vocation Cross be placed in a centralized location in the
house, and to especially invite children to experience prayers in the home and
possibly plant the seed of a religious vocation.
Families interested in having the Vocation
Cross for one week in their home can register in the Parish Office.
Presently each month the Vocation Cross is
exchanged during one of the Sunday Masses. One month it is exchanged at the 7:30
a.m. Mass, the next month at the 9:30 a.m. Mass, the following month at the 11:30
a.m. Mass and following this way for the 1:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Masses.
Barbara is involved in other ministries at
St. Joseph Parish and she states that, “It makes me feel like I’m serving Him”
and she also mentioned that, “The Vocation Cross motivates people to pray not
only for vocations but for personal petitions because praying as a family
strengthens the faith in both adults and children.”
PHOTO at St. Joseph Church
Left to right: Barbara Bernal, Father Henry Clay Hunt,
III, Pedro Bernal
OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE
Father Joaquin J. Rojas, Former Pastor
at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, he is currently at St. Gabriel Church in San
Antonio, stated that in March 2013 when he was first came to the Archdiocese of
San Antonio, one of the recommendations that Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller
gave him was to promote devotion to “MarÃa Niña” since the priests assigned to
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church are from the order of the Missionaries of the
Nativity of Mary originating in Mexico.
This religious order was founded with
the principal objective to spread devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the
title of her Divine Infancy.
Father Mauricio Gomez Sosa, Vicar at Our
Lady of Guadalupe and Father Rojas immediately started working on this project.
The first task is that they both set out
to place the image of “MarÃa Niña” in a prominent location in the church and
then they organized the novena to “MarÃa Niña”.
Later, at a meeting of the deanery,
Father Henry Clay Hunt,III, Head of the Uvalde Deanery, asked all the priests,
on the recommendation of the Archbishop, to pray for priestly vocations.
Father Hunt mentioned that at St. Joseph
Church, where he is the pastor that they were going to take a vocational cross on
pilgrimage to the various homes in the parish.
Father Rojas and Father Sosa began to
discuss how Our Lady of Guadalupe Church would participate in implementing the
Archbishop’s request and agreed that they could take the image of “MarÃa Niña” on pilgrimage with a dual
purpose: to pray for vocations and promote their order’s devotion.
And that is how “MarÃa Niña Peregina”,
the Pilgrim Image of the Infant Mary began.
The pilgrim image of “MarÃa Niña” has
been going into the homes in the parish and it seems that is already bearing
fruit.
The people responsible for organizing
the visits to the parishioner’s homes are Norma Castillo and Armandina Castillo
and the current Pastor at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church is Father Martin Alonso
Bustos Fernández, MNM.
PHOTO at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church
Left to right: Armandina Castillo, Father Joaquin J.
Rojas, MNM, Norma Castillo
