September 2004 | Vol 40 No 9 | Index
 

From the Director…
 

Dear Mission Friends,

Greetings from Mexicali!  This is a cooler summer than usual with the temperature hovering around 116 degrees.  My memories of previous summers in Mexicali are of the summer temperatures being in the 120’s.  I am driving the little green pick-up that Fr. Thomas Kraft always used and everywhere I go the pick-up reminds people of the absence of “Padre Tomas” and I am greeted with sadness.  He is a hard act to follow.

Since I am here on a limited basis between preaching mission appeals, Fr. David Bello, the pastor, is carrying on the ministry as the only full-time priest caring for the needs of the parish church and the three chapels, any one of which could be a complete parish in the U.S.

Around 150 years ago a French Dominican friar, Fr. Henri Dominic Lacordaire, wrote a meditation on the role of the priest.  To me, these words can be applied to Fr. Tom and Fr. David:

“To live in the midst of the world without wishing its pleasures; to be a member of each family, yet belonging to none; to share all sufferings; to penetrate all secrets; to heal all wounds; to go from men to God and offer Him their prayers; to return from God to men to bring pardon and hope; to have a heart of fire for charity and a heart of bronze for chastity; to teach and to pardon, console and bless always.  My God, what a life!  And it is yours, O Priest of Jesus Christ!” 

-- Lacordaire

Please pray for Fr. Tomas Kraft as he begins his new ministry in Seattle and Fr. David Bello as he continues his heroic work in our Mexicali mission.  May the Lord bless all of you for your generous support of our Dominican missionaries. 

In Christ’s Peace,
Fr Martin de Porres Walsh OP

Serving Christ in the Poor

By Fr. Tomas Kraft, O.P.
Mexicali, Mexico

nce again, I am on my yearly retreat at Santa Rita Abbey in Sonoita, Arizona.  The Cistercian Sisters of strict observance, or the Trappistines as they are commonly known, are holy and talented women who invite all who want to encounter God through silence to their retreat center.  I am deeply immersed in silence.

y retreat this year is very different because I have just finished saying adios to my beloved faithful at Santa Maria de Guadalupe, the Dominican mission parish in Mexicali, Baja California.  Soon I will begin a new assignment as temporary director of the Newman Center at the University of Washington.

The outpouring of love that I received in Mexicali, especially in the last month before my departure, was incredible.  My heart is overflowing with emotion.  I truly love “my people” in Mexicali, and they told me in many words and actions that they love and appreciate me too.

Yet all my love and service to them during these last eight and a half years was a gift from  God.   I   am  a  “weak” priest but in the Lord Jesus, I am strong.  I love the quote from St. Paul to the Galatians: “I live, no longer I, but Christ who lives in me.” (2:20).  Christ is my life; our Lord Jesus lives in me and certainly served the people of Mexicali through me.  Many people thanked me for all that I taught them about God and Our Savior Jesus.  They appreciated my reflections on Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mary Our Mother.  They were grateful for the many Masses, homilies, sacraments, and talks that I offered.  I was pleased that God used me time and time again to communicate His love, compassion, and mercy.

homas Merton, the famous monk of the Trappist Monastery of Gethsemani, once wrote: “There is no wilderness so terrible, so  beautiful, so arid and as fruitful as the wilderness of compassion.  It is the only desert that shall truly flourish like the lily” (Sign of Jonas, P. 323).

I tried to be an instrument of God’s love and compassion and through His grace it flourished.  As St. Paul said: I can do all things in Christ who works in me.

y heart was breaking as I left Mexicali.  The faces of many wonderful, poor, and humble people appear in my heart like the brightness of the desert sun.  Happy, joyful, faithful, humble people … my family!  What a beautiful family that I have in Christ.  Yet I left Mexicali with a heart satisfied that the people will continue to fight the good fight, and run the good race to Jesus, Our God on high.  They are committed to living the faith and evangelizing.  With the power of the Holy Spirit, they will do it.  I am proud of my family.

You, my benefactors and friends, are such an important part of my family too.  I am proud of you!  I thank you once again for all of your prayers and monetary support during these past years.   I know  many  of   you   and   I appreciate your friendship and love of our mission.  I have always prayed in thanksgiving for you and your sacrifices that you make to the mission.  Without your support, Fr. David and I could not have accomplished all that we did.

In March of 1996, we founded a new parish on the very poor eastern side of Mexicali.  Shortly before the Dominicans arrived, the people had begun to expand the small church.  When we arrived, we inspired the people to continue with their efforts.  With your help we finished the roof, floor, and the walls.  During the course of these past years, we built the office, bathrooms and sacristy.  Someday soon, we hope to build a catechetical center (presently, the children receive religious education outside,  sitting   on   benches beneath trees).  Also, with your help, we hope to build a residence for the Dominican community close to the parish (presently, we are renting a little house on the other side of the parish.)

ncluded in the parish are three chapels.  Upon arriving, we celebrated the Mass at these chapels underneath tarps in the torturing summer heat and in the unforgiving winter cold.  Thanks to you, we have built two chapels: Our Lady of the Incarnation and Sts. Martin de Porres & Juan Macias.  These two chapels are “cool” places to worship since we installed air conditioning.  We are working on the third chapel, San Juan Diego, where we have a permanent roof under which we offer the Eucharist.  Also, we hope for the day when we will have catechetical    centers   at   the three chapels too.  Beyond that, there is the constant cost of maintaining and improving the parish and the chapels.

he parish and chapels are important places of spiritual and moral development.  Thanks to your generosity, we have developed faith communities.  Children, youth, young adults, married couples, and older adults have found hope and comfort in the faith community in the midst of their poverty.  They have found love and peace in Jesus in the Eucharist in the midst of street violence.  They have found the love and acceptance of community in the midst of family division and dysfunction.  They have found Christian morals and direction in the midst of relative ethics. 

The parish church and chapels are truly beautiful when they are full of believers.   Your   support   of the Dominican friars is essential in continuing the faith and moral development of our parish.

Because you have been so generous in providing for my material needs, I could share the faith and attend to the spiritual and material needs of the parish.  I thank you for your love throughout these years, and I ask you to continue to support the mission.  I served the poor with my heart all my years in Mexicali.   Any success that I had was from God.  This is my joy and life: serving Christ Jesus in the poor.  As blessed Mother Teresa said to her Sisters:

“Christ, who being rich became poor and emptied Himself to work out our redemption, calls us: to share in His poverty so that we might become rich through His poverty; to bear witness to the true face of Jesus: poor, humble and friend of sinners, the weak and the despised – and to the Church of the poor whose mission is to preach the Gospel to the poor.”

You shared my commitment and joy in serving the poor as you consistently prayed for me and gave to my efforts.  Please continue to support our mission.  In providing for the   mission  you   serve   the poor too, as you give them an opportunity to develop their faith in Christ, which gives eternal meaning to their lives.  “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” says the Lord  (Jn. 14:6).

May God continue to bless you and your families.  May the Lord protect and guide you on your way to life and may the Holy Spirit give you strength to live the word of God and fulfill His will.