Serving with Joy: Reflections from Our Guatemala Mission

“Thank you, thank you, Guatemala. With your faith, with your cordiality, with your streets so beautifully decorated. Thank you because behind every cross there is your heart.” – St. Pope John Paul II at his 2002 visit to Guatemala.

What a gift it is to be on mission, brothers and sisters. The mission of Jesus Christ to save the world through His Church is one of great responsibility and tribulation but, my goodness, it is one of great adventure and joy as well.

I have just returned from my first visit to our sister parish in Guatemala in the village of San Jose del Tesoro (Saint Joseph the Treasure). I was grateful to serve there alongside our first team of six missionaries which included two doctors, a nurse, a pharmacist, and a translator who served faithfully in our medical clinic throughout the week. Please pray for our second team of five missionaries who left for Guatemala on Monday and will return next week.

It was also a great grace to spend time with a beloved sister in Christ and friend to the parish, Sister Joannes Klas (Sister Jo) who returned to the village for the first time in several years. Many of us have heard stories of her impact on the people in the village going all the way back to the 1980s when she lived with the community as refugees in Honduras. It was an entirely more profound experience to witness first-hand the great affection, gratitude, and friendship that the people of San Jose share with their Hermana y Madre (Sister and Mother) Juanita. 

The week, as you may have seen via our parish social media pages, was filled with beautiful opportunities for prayer, service, and community life. There were certainly highs and lows but ultimately we found great hope and consolation in assisting the mission of the three Franciscan sisters who live and serve there.

Personally, the only activity I was told of prior to the trip that I would participate in was visits to the homebound. In our first group meeting, to my delight, I was informed that I would be tasked with much more. In addition to those visits to the homebound, I celebrated and preached two Sunday Masses, I administered the Sacraments to 31 children receiving their First Reconciliation and First Communion on Tuesday, I celebrated and preached at another weekday Mass on Thursday, and I was available for nearly 10 hours of the Sacrament of Reconciliation in Spanish over the course of Wednesday and Thursday. For some context, Catholics in the village currently only have one scheduled Mass per month and only have access to the Sacrament of Reconciliation once or twice per year, at best. 

I am grateful to the members of our Guatemala Committee and all of those who have supported this important mission for decades here at Saint Patrick Parish. Our community has truly helped to accomplish great works there for the building up of God’s kingdom. May God continue to pour out his abundant blessings upon our parish community and our brothers and sisters around the world who we have the privilege to meet in the Eucharist every Sunday.

Gracias a Dios.

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