Maryknoll stories from around the world

A few years back, St. Mary’s Parish in Tomahawk, Wis., passed a resolution to adopt a sister parish.  I contacted Father Leo Shea of Maryknoll and we were assigned a parish in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.  A year later, our pastor and I visited that city, where Maryknoll Father David La Buda hosted us around many of the barrios.  What a revelation! Of the many experiences, one stands out the most.

A 15-year-old girl lay on a worn mattress on a dirt floor with one leg swollen three times the size of the other.  The following day in the rain we placed her on a flat board in the uncovered back of a pickup truck to take her to the hospital 13 miles away. I held an umbrella over her head as we made the journey with her father.  She was diagnosed with cancer and our parish paid for an amputation.

Months later the girl died, but she had remarked that the months after the amputation had given her great relief from pain.  I’ll never forget that journey in the rain in the back of the open truck with the open umbrella over our heads.
--Deacon Darrell Smerz

During our women’s health courses on the outskirts of São Paulo, Brazil, we dedicate one class to habits for a healthy pregnancy.  At a recent gathering, some of the women were surprised to learn the importance of folic acid, especially before conception and in the first trimester, in the prevention of brain and spinal birth defects.  Even though the government mandates white flour and assorted crackers to be enriched with folic acid, I always explain to the women that it is much better to get all vitamins naturally from food.  By chance on that day, we were also planning our year-end celebration and organizing who was to bring what dish to share.  After some women opted for the traditional white rice, fried meat pastries, spaghetti and cheese ball dishes, I was delighted when Lucimar said she was going to bring a "folic acid salad."  Her neighbor Amelia quickly asked, "What's that?" Without skipping a beat, Lucimar said a spinach, kale and egg salad.
--Kathleen Bond, MKLM

In the 1970s one of my fellow Maryknoll priests introduced us to the new idea of solar cells.  They were about one inch by three inches in size. On the high Andean plateau in Peru, where I worked, the sun’s rays at 12,500 feet are very powerful.  Two of these cells would capture enough energy to light a six-volt lightbulb.  This provided light equal to a candle.  There was no electricity in the whole area.

I put a sample of the solar cells on display in my house and a local university student came to see it.  After my explanation, he commented, “The sun’s rays captured in the cell will not reach the plants and the earth normally.  Will this cause an imbalance in nature?” The cells were so small I could not understand his comment.

With our worldwide ecology crisis today, we have learned much more about how our actions affect Mother Nature and our need to respect her. I now understand his comment.
--James Madden, M.M.

One inter-atoll journey in Jaluit, part of the Marshall Islands, helped me experience a sacred moment with God when our small boat piloted by two Marshallese men suddenly lost one of its engines.  With the sun about to set, we still had a long way to go to our destination.  The boatmen had to contend against the threat of darkness and the sharp coral reef as they tried to steer the boat safely in the correct direction.

As we three Maryknoll Sisters started to pray for safe deliverance, the sun began to set in the horizon.  The afterglow was so exquisite and amazing to behold that I could not help but feel the seemingly tangible presence of God enveloping us with love and tender affection.  We made it safely to shore and I never cease to thank and praise God for that graced moment in my life in the Marshall Islands.
--Aurora de la Cruz, M.M.