A Summer Call, Part Two

Last month (July 21 Post), I wrote about women religious from all over the country responding to the call to help out with the recent humanitarian crisis occurring at our border with Mexico.  I was privileged to have been able to go and spend ten days in El Paso, Texas, welcoming families from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico, as they arrived in this country.  The welcome offered by myself and other women religious was nothing more than a listening ear, a clean pair of clothes, a hot meal, and a safe place to sleep.

Good Dominicans ask questions!  During these ten days of accompaniment, I had so many questions.  Why do we have borders?  What can the U.S. do about the reasons children and families are fleeing their countries?  Why won’t my country be more welcoming or inviting?  How can someone else travel with only a mochila or backpack full of everything they own and I have so much?  

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to witness the faith, resilience, courage, humor, risk-taking, and goodness of so many.  We are indeed brothers and sisters in this one world. 

Peggy Ryan, OP

Recently back in Whitefish Bay, WI