Sister Phyllis Tierney Joins Volunteer Efforts on the Border

Sister Phyllis Tierney is spending time assisting asylum seekers on the border in El Paso, Texas through the end of January.  Sister Phyllis is volunteering through the AnnunciationHouse program.  

Here are some reflections from her days assisting at the Mesa Inn Shelter 

Day 2

This is my second day. I arrived yesterday afternoon with two women from Rhode Island. They are assigned to a different site so we may not see each other again. 

 Mesa Inn is one of the sites where Annunciation House rents rooms for refugees.  The shelter has been averaging 50 plus people per day.

Anne Meyer-Wilbur is here (SSJ Associate) and is working at Mesa Inn so we are together. She is amazing and keeps going! Last night I helped in the clothing room

Anne's handiwork...i help with the sorting!

Today I was supposed to start at 2 pm but a large group arrived at noon time unexpectedly so we have been working all day. We’ve had difficulty because it takes time to wait until rooms are clean. One family moved 3 times because the shower was broken and there was a flood later. The cold water has been off in the building that I am in and maintenance has been working at it all day.
Volunteers bring in meals. Tonight it was a family that cooks and brings dinner to the shelters on a regular basis. There were about 70 people tonight with guests and volunteers.

Sister Phyllis Tierney and Father Peter discussing room reservations

Volunteers helping to sort and organize food donations

Day 3

We had another group of 40 people today but we were called ahead of time so we could prepare. They came from Guatemala and Honduras and had been in detention for several days prior to arriving. We hear that in some places people have been given little to eat. At supper we sat with a woman and her daughter from Guatemala. Her husband is in Florida. He had paid a coyote to bring her.

Day 4 and 5

Yesterday Anne and I went out for breakfast because we weren’t on until later in the day. We came back to the hotel and Anne went to the laundromat. I was looking for a free hour in my room but I told another volunteer to call if our expected group arrived before lunch. Ten minutes later a group of 60 plus arrived!  Last night we were told that 100 would arrive today. We received 50 but waited most of the afternoon for them to arrive. The day was sunny and the children played outside. We had sidewalk chalk so we had some fun with the kids! Tonight a dad and his small daughter were going to North Carolina. He had spent his time weaving a bracelet out of yarn. He gave it to me before he left. It is the small and unexpected gestures that mean so much!

Some guests wash out their clothes because there are no facilities and dry them on the bushes and by the pool!

Week 2

For several days we have had an average of fifty people a day and our schedules have been pretty similar to the first week.

I took my day off on Thursday and had the opportunity to visit the University of Texas Campus at El Paso. The architecture of all the buildings is Bhutanese and the buildings are very graceful. The campus grounds are lovely with contemplative spaces. Sara, another volunteer and I visited the Centennial Museum on the campus.in the afternoon Sister Isobel, a Daughter of Charity, took Marjorie (another volunteer) and me to Juarez so we could see the city and visit one of the families she helps. 

On  Friday, we had 70 people so we kept hopping!

The Immigrants' Creed

(This creed professes the Christian faith through the experience of an immigrant.)

I believe in Almighty God,
who guided the people in exile and in exodus,
the God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon,
the God of foreigners and immigrants.

I believe in Jesus Christ,
a displaced Galilean, who was born away from his people and his home,
who fled his country with his parents when his life was in danger,
and returning to his own country suffered the oppression
of the tyrant Pontius Pilate, the servant of a foreign power,
who then was persecuted, beaten, and finally tortured,
accused and condemned to death unjustly.
But on the third day, this scorned Jesus rose from the dead,
not as a foreigner but to offer us citizenship in heaven.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the eternal immigrant from God’s kingdom among us,
who speaks all languages, lives in all countries,
and reunites all races.

I believe that the church is the secure home
for the foreigner and for all believers who constitute it,
who speak the same language and have the same purpose.

I believe that the communion of the saints begins
when we accept the diversity of the saints.

I believe in the forgiveness of sin, which makes us all equal,
and in reconciliation, which identifies us more
than does race, language, or nationality.

I believe that in the resurrection
God will unite us as one people
in which all are distinct
and all are alike at the same time.

Beyond this world, I believe in life eternal
in which no one will be an immigrant
and all will be citizens of God’s kingdom,
which will never end. Amen.

"The Immigrants’ Creed" is excerpted from The Book of Common Worship: 2018 Edition.
 

Now that I am home, the very word home seems almost strange to say and then to add the word "my" seems even stranger. My home, my community, my room, even my bed is so ordinary and yet such a gift. Then I must go on to ask… Why can I say “my” where millions around our globe can only dream of such things?

The refugees at our southern border in El Paso taught me over and over to say, “Gracias a Dios! Thanks be to God!” This is a phrase that was a part of every conversation, no matter how difficult their experience, Gracias a Dios!

As a first world U.S. citizen this is a phrase I generally would hear by those who live on the borders of our society, whether it be an inmate at Monroe County jail, or a homeless woman at Bethany House, “Thanks be to God!”

As a Catholic Sister I have much to learn from my sisters and brothers on the borders of life who place themselves in the very center of the heart of God, so freely, so naturally and so often. 

Gracias a Dios, for my congregation, the Sisters of St. Joseph, who sent me to El Paso with their love and support.

Gracias a Dios, for the community of Sisters of Charity who so warmly welcomed me into their home . 

Gracias a Dios, for Annunciation House and the countless folks who are so generously giving to our refugee sisters and brothers to offer them a warm welcome and support for the next step on their journey.

Gracias a Dios, for all the refugees who welcomed me into their lives.

Gracias a Dios, for Phyllis Tierney SSJ of Rochester, who left for El Paso today.

Gracias a Dios, for all the love and support God gives every moment of every day!

Christmas Is Waiting to be Born by Howard Thurman

Where refugees seek deliverance that never comes
And the heart consumes itself as if it would live,
Where children age before their time
And life wears down the edges of the mind,
Where the old man sits with mind grown cold,
While bones and sinew, blood and cell, go slowly down to death,
Where fear companions each day’s life,
And Perfect Love seems long delayed.
CHRISTMAS IS WAITING TO BE BORN:
In you, in me, in all humankind.

Despite all the darkness in our world, the light of God’s presence is made known and Christmas is being born and coming to life in very real and significant ways.

Today is the Feast of the Holy Family. In today’s second reading from the 1stletter of John we hear: Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. And so we are.

And so we are…It seems at every corner, God’s light shines forth in the form of an angel. A few days ago I had to get a father and his young daughter who are from Guatemala to the airport early; their family in Massachusetts had bought them a plane ticket. Because I had to get back to take other people to the bus station I wasn't able to take them through to their gate. So God sent a beautiful man whose name was Arturo.He was accompanying another refugee family and he offered to take my family through to their gate.

Each family comes with such anticipation and fear so having someone there to help accompany them on their first flight or to the bus station gives a sense of peace which is often not available to them.  When I transport someone I give them one of our SSJ prayer Cards and tell them, “I will be praying for you for a safe trip with a warm welcome to you new home and may God bless you every day.”

Earlier this week I took a family to the Greyhound station. There I encountered Mike & Hector who had set a up a stand t o give migrants warm tamales, bottled water, granola bars, fruit and a blanket for their travels. Mike runs the nearby Rock Café & Gallery; another angel responding to the refugees needs.

Mike & Hector at the Greyhound Station

On Friday we only had cold 2 day old pizza and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches to serve the refugees for lunch. When I had gotten home I told about this experience to the Sisters of Charity I am staying with. In a heart beat they went to work to make homemade beans in 4 crock pots and a large pot of rice; they even went out to buy freshly made tortillas. They wanted us to be able to offer the refugees a warm, and familiar meal. Everyone was so happy and ate as if it was their first meal in heaven!

Beans & rice ready to go...

Yesterday a young mom and her family arrived just before noon with food to serve about 150 people. We had already received food for lunch so I was going to direct her to another shelter site. Then suddenly I looked up from talking with her and realized that about 60 refugees had silently entered the hotel. The usual time of refugees coming was usually around 4pm but with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was coming to see the detention centers and it was suspected that I.C.E. was trying to empty them before her arrival, hence he early arrival. I immediately told the Mom, Erin and husband Dan, “God sent you right now to feed all these people because we would not had food enough for them and the refugees we already had.” 

Erin, Ray, Catherine & Dan

I welcomed them, told them to sit down and that they would be receiving a wonderful meal, at which they began to clap! I found out that they were each given a cold burrito twice a day and that they had not eaten anything yet that day. Many of the refugees gave me their I.C.E. issued blankets which looks like aluminum foil, only it doesn’t tear, and they would cover themselves, including the children, while sleeping on the floors of the detention center which are very cold.

Yesterday one of the families had to be taken to the airport at night for an early morning flight. Due to some ticketing issues they weren’t able to board and ended up spending the night and morning in the airport. We received word of their plight and went to pick them up at the airport to bring them back to the hotel The Mom decided to stay at the airport for another night because luckily they were able to get a new ticket for an early flight tomorrow. Meanwhile… a passenger had noticed their situation and had brought them breakfast and another passenger later in the day saw them and bought them lunch and then went on to remove her coat, gloves and socks to give to the mother! What angels!

One last story of God’s angels bringing Christmas to birth… Today’s lunch of Popeye’s chicken, rice & beans came to us compliments of the wives of the Stanford football coaches who will be playing in the Sun Bowl here in El Paso on New Year’s day. The coaches were at practice but the wives and children came with the food and rolled up sleeves to serve our guests. Before leaving some of the women what else we might need… “underwear, socks, hate & gloves”, I said. Within an hour they were back with bags of these items.

Wives of the Stanford coaches with Srs. Cecelia & Andrea

Christmas was born in so many little mangers these last days dispelling the gloom and darkness that can so overwhelm us. We must keep our eyes and hearts open to see these little births and to meet the angels God is sending us everyday, even in the families of the  Stanford coaching staff. Go Cardinals!

A Latin American Christmas Creed 

I believe in Jesus Christ and in the power of the gospel,

begun in Bethlehem.
I believe in the one whose spirit glorified a small village,
of whose coming shepherds saw the sign,
and for whom there was no room at the inn.

I believe in the one whose life changed the course of history,
over whom the rulers of the earth had no power,
and who was not understood by the proud.

I believe in the one to whom the oppressed, the discouraged,

the afflicted, the sick, the blind, the injured gave welcome,

and accept as Lord and Savior.

I believe in the one who ... with love ... changed the heart

of the proud and with his life

showed that it is better to serve than to be served,
and that the greatest joy is giving your life for others.

I believe in peace, which is not the absence of war,
but justice among all people and nations and love among all.

I believe in reconciliation, forgiveness,
and the transforming power of the gospel.

I believe that Christmas is strength and power,
and that this world can change if with humility

and faith we kneel before the manger.

I believe that I must be the first one to do so.

 (Taken from Alternative for Simple Living's Whose Birthday Is It Anyway?)

I believe in Jesus Christ and in the power of the gospel, begun in Bethlehem and continued throughout the globe, including here in El Paso!

Yesterday folks brought wrapped Christmas gifts so parents could give each of their children a gift. I had heard all about the excitement especially from the children when I arrived this morning.

There were no refugees released last night or today by I.C.E. because of Christmas. So, we only had 27 refugees at the Hotel Soluna which made for a quieter day. We had a peaceful joy throughout the day with a sense of community. A group of folks brought lunch: ham and cheese sandwiches, macaroni salad and fruit salad.

A few soccer balls came with the gifts last night so some kids spent time playing soccer in the parking lot. Sr. Cecelia Hudec SC from Vancouver BC, my work partner, and I had bought coloring books, crayons, checkers, bubbles, puzzles and a U.S. map . So other kids played with these items or stared at the map trying to understand where they were and where they were going.

Cecelia making peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for folks travelling on the bus.

I am an amateur "barber" so I brought my hair cutting gear. When I asked who wanted a haircut, one of the guys came forward to say he was a barber and that he would be happy to cut hair. Go for it! I said. What delight I experienced watching him offer his gift to the community; plus he probably did a better job than I would. 

All in all it was a beautiful Christmas day. I came home to my

Charity Sisters and a delicious ham dinner with all the fixins! All I can do is live with a full and grateful heart. Gracias a Dios!

Sisters of Charity community

I believe in the one who ... with love ... changed the heart

of the proud and with his life showed that it is better to serve than
to be served...

CNN-Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers dropped off more than 200 undocumented immigrants outside a Greyhound bus terminal in El Paso, Texas, on Sunday night without an apparent plan for housing them. The waiting area at the bus terminal is small, Police Sgt. Gomez said, and many people were left standing outside in the cold. He said the group of 211 undocumented immigrants included some families and small children.

Four buses later arrived for people to board and stay warm, he said. "We weren't going to put 200 people on the streets of El Paso on a cold night. We wouldn't do that," Gomez said.

Authorities found housing for the migrants, including at a hotel and a nearby Catholic school, Gomez said.

This is the news I woke up to this morning after 400 refugees were already housed yesterday through a number of local shelters, including Annunciation House, and all are maxed out for the number of beds they have available. The situation here on the border is at a Crisis State. I am constantly left with the question of why?! Why am I safe, why do I have a choice for a life and why am I free to go where I wish without any boundaries??

I was reading this reflection from Pope Francis when he came to the U.S., he reflected on the Holy Family’s arrival in Bethlehem, where they discovered there was no shelter for them. It caused me to to be grateful that Emmanuel is among us, even in the midst of such darkness and for the invitation “to love, to be compassionate, and to live in service of another.”

Pope Francis said, “We can imagine what Joseph must have been thinking… How is it that the Son of God has no home? Why are we homeless, why don’t we have housing?” Saint Joseph’s simple questions echo in the minds of those who serve the poor even today.

“Like Saint Joseph, you may ask: Why do these, our brothers and sisters, have no place to live? Why are these brothers and sisters of ours homeless? These are questions which all of us might well ask,” the Pope said.

Saint Joseph never hesitated to ask questions in the face in injustice and suffering, the Pope said. But what set Saint Joseph apart was his faith in God, which gave him “the power to find light just at the moment when everything seemed dark.”

“Faith sustained him amid the troubles of life,” Francis reflected. “Thanks to faith, Joseph was able to press forward when everything seemed to be holding him back.” In the same way, faith can sustain the poor and give meaning to suffering, the Pope said.

“In the face of unjust and painful situations, faith brings us the light which scatters the darkness. As it did for Joseph, faith makes us open to the quiet presence of God at every moment of our lives, in every person and in every situation. God is present in every one of you, in each one of us.”

“Faith makes us know that God is at our side, that God is in our midst and his presence spurs us to charity. Charity is born of the call of a God who continues to knock on our door, the door of all people, to invite us to love, to compassion, to service of one another.”

On this Christmas eve let us celebrate, “ for today a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

Wishing you Christmas peace & hope,

Donna 

The Visitation by Brother Mickey McGrath

Today's gospel is Mary's visit to Elizabeth. I have witnessed similar deep care and knowing of the holy one within, by the people we meet here at the shelter. How they greet each other and care for each other and each other's children on this journey. Often they come from different countries and may not all speak the same language. 

Today there were so many Mayans from Guatemala and I realized I was listening to an ancient language I had never heard before; some barely speak Spanish.

The common language shared is love of family and a deep love of God and a deep faith in God's providential love. I am so moved by all the refugees in their recognition of how all is gift and of God. 

I took one Guatamalan woman and her family to the bus station today. When I tried explaining the process of changing buses she looked at me with confusion and admitted she didn't understand Spanish well. What she did know well was that she was never alone and that God was with her all along the way in this journey.

Her profession of faith was very moving. She made me wonder about the depth of my faith. What I realize is that I'm where I belong right now and that I have much to learn from all I have been blessed to encounter.

I will be off tomorrow to celebrate Christmas Eve with the community I'm living with. There will be a Mass and a meal and an opportunity to transition from Advent to Christmas. I will spend Christmas with the refugees. At least there is room for them here.

I wish you a Blessed Christmas  and may it be filled with joy and peace,
Donna

Wilderness God: whose Son was a displaced person in Bethlehem, a refugee in Egypt, and had nowhere to lay his head in Galilee. 

Bless all who have nowhere to lay their head today, who find themselves strangers on earth, pilgrims to they know not where, facing rejection, closed doors, suspicion and fear.

Give them companions in their distress, hope in their wandering, and safe lodging at their journey’s end. And make us a people of grace, wisdom and hospitality, who know that our true identity is to be lost, until we find our eternal home in you. Through Christ, our rejected yet risen Lord. Amen.
            (From St Martin in the Fields, London)

My ride in to El Paso is about 30 minutes. I go in silence to ready my heart to be available to greet the folks  with love and compassion.

Today is much like the previous days, arriving by 7am, making sure all have breakfast through the hotel. Seeing who needs to go to the bus station or airport and making a plan with the other two volunteers of who will take who and when. I also get to offer some medical support since it seems everyone has a cold or stomach ache, and who wouldn't. How do these sojourners even hold their heads up, given all they've been through? 

Once to the bus station or airport trying to explain next steps with the hope there will be a kind person along the way to guide them. Everything is strange for them, I suppose I am strange too with my limited Spanish and smile. Yet, I hope my heart is with their heart and my desire is with their desire for life. I hope their hope and I dream their dream and I pray, oh I pray, that it will all be okay and they can begin a new. 

Goo be with each traveller, and with all the innocent children.