Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

I recently spent a week at the Texas border.  For two days I worked at the Catholic Charities Respite Center in McAllen. Together with lots of other volunteers, we took care of the needs of 20-50 asylum seekers who had been cleared for travel to reunite families in the U.S.   The really big work was about Matamoros, where over 2000 asylum seekers, mostly families, were living in tents, waiting for court dates in the U.S.  Three times that week a group of us, wearing matching t-shirts, loaded cars and vans with collapsible wagons, sandwiches assembled by McAllen volunteers, milk, diapers, wipes and other supplies.  We drove to Brownsville where we unloaded everything and put the supplies into the wagons, which we then pulled across the international bridge.  We set up tables and distributed everything, including the empty gallon milk jugs. After that we had the opportunity to visit. Most of the people were from Central America and thei...

Gifts have been opened. Songs have been sung.  I’ve eaten too many cookies this week.  So what has Christmas meant to me this year?   I attended all the Posadas in our parish and couldn’t help but think of the people in many parts of the world, including our own border, who, like Joseph and Mary, are asking for posada, a place of welcome, protection, shelter.  They eventually found shelter in a stable.  I have had the privilege of working in El Paso in a hospitality center for asylum seekers, mainly from Central America, and will be going again in February.   I continue to be  impressed by the graciousness of the people of that city in providing shelter, providing posada.   Christmas this year reminds me, too, that Joseph, Mary and Jesus had to seek asylum in Egypt.  They returned to their own country only after the danger was over.  Later in his life, Jesus gives us this c...