Where am I? Why am I here? Where are WE going?

Have you ever been lost while driving? I have, and usually my first reaction is a mixture of anxiety and frustration. However, recently my response to being lost is more one of surprise because I had started out knowing where I was going, and then at a specific moment during the journey, I found myself asking; “Where am I? Why am I here?” Rose, Carmen, and I have had some good belly laughs because those particular questions are usually reserved for more serious situations and milestones in our life.

Our OSP IHM Collaborative Border Ministry has been in existence for more than three years! Many mornings when I wake up, I ask myself: “How did I get here? How is it that I am living and serving side by side with my IHM sisters from Monroe and Immaculata?” And every evening before going to bed, I thank God for the blessing it is to be here together, and I imagine the smile on Theresa Maxis’ face.

While I know that being at the border is a call that I felt deeply for a long time, I am mystified by why I felt drawn to respond to that call with other religious, specifically IHMs from Monroe and Immaculata and our Oblate Sisters of Providence. I believe it was God who put that desire in my heart and opened the way forward for our OSP-IHM collaborative ministry at the border.

When I reflect on the year 2021, it is “silly” to think that I was the only one in the four congregations thinking about ministering to migrants at the border. In fact, Rose recently told me that another sister and she had approached their Leadership Team and had been given permission to go to the border for a few weeks during Summer 2021. That was already in place before the LCWR asked religious to help at the US-Mexico border and before the three IHM congregations responded to that call together.

So, what has that taught me? It confirmed that I need to be aware of how God is speaking to me personally and also aware of how God is working through others. I need to remember that God’s invitation is more collective than personal, that when the desires of our hearts resonate with one another, the possibilities for community and ministry are deeper and more expansive than we might imagine. I believe in the element of surprise and in the adventure of not always knowing where I am or where I am going.

I have been asked by some sisters whether the initiative to serve at the border came from the grassroots or from leadership, that is, the OSP-IHM Board. My response to that question is that the call came from God who nudged the hearts of individual sisters and also leaders. I believe that God prepares hearts and that the people, whether members or leaders, in tune with their own deep desires and the world’s needs seize the opportunity to respond to the call.

Thirty-one IHM sisters and associates responded to LCWR’s call to minister at the border in the Spring and Summer of 2021. During those months that we were together in El Centro and San Diego, California, we often gathered to pray and share a meal. I remember one night in particular watching Donna Korba (Scranton IHM) and Mary Katherine Hamilton (Monroe IHM) cooking hot dogs on the grill outside. Even though the temperature that evening was about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, both were smiling and chatting as they worked side by side. And at that moment, I felt a longing for our shared community and ministry to continue. That same evening as we ate and prayed, I heard others voice the same desire that I had.

I am still amazed at how quickly in the months after returning from the border our dream took shape. Our congregational leaders were receptive and encouraged us to investigate where we might serve along the border. Funds from SOAR! (Support Our Aging Religious) appeared miraculously from a donor, a man in his 90’s, who wanted to support the ministry of aging religious. His desire was the spark that set the Volunteer Program in motion. Welcoming sisters and associates who want to serve short-term, usually for two weeks, has become an important and treasured part of our ministry in McAllen, Texas.

Our ministry at the border has evolved during these past three years. What has remained constant is the desire to “join with” others in accompanying our migrant brothers and sisters. Specifically, this has meant not opening new ministry sites but rather collaborating with organizations that were already established in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and Reynosa, Mexico. Those with whom we collaborate are happy to benefit from the talents and gifts that our sisters bring to their ministry, and we OSP and IHM sisters are mutually enriched culturally, socially and spiritually. From the beginning, our intention was to collaborate not only with sisters from our four congregations but also with women and men religious and lay persons who are committed “to foster[ing] the human aspirations of the people … specifically the preservation, deepening, and spreading of the community of faith in Jesus Christ” (IHM Constitutions, #5). 

With the closing of the border and the elimination of any legal way for migrants to enter the US, many sisters have begun to ask us about the future of our ministry in McAllen, Texas, and Reynosa, Mexico. We live in the moment and go where the migrants and their needs continue to call for our response. We continue to discern together with others also involved in migrant ministry. So, my response to the question “Where are we going?” is I am not sure. But I do believe that wherever God is leading us, we are going together.