The Holy Cross Mission Center is pleased to share written reflections from the Holy Cross participants in the 2024 Ganguly Exchange, an eight-week international ministry opportunity available to the U.S. Province’s men in formation. Their stories from Bangladesh, Kenya, Mexico, and Peru offer a window into the Congregation’s missionary charism.

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“Homes and Borders, Old and New”

By Timothy Wymore, C.S.C. (pictured left)

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I’d like to introduce you to a girl named Briana.  

Imagine that you are in Casanicolás, a migrant shelter near Monterrey, México. You are new to the country, and have only just arrived at this oasis for men, women, and children seeking a better life.  And amid the various uncertainties and differences that you are facing, even in this place of refuge, you make an eight-year-old friend.

Or rather, she makes a friend of you. Briana was the one who walked up to us with a smile and immediately struck up a conversation with a King’s College student and me. She asked where we were from, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that we were from the United States – and that some people from the United States speak Spanish! She told us she was from Venezuela. Like millions of refugees before her over the last ten years, she has left her homeland seeking a better life: God-willing, in the United States.  

In the back of my mind I wondered how she had made a long and likely very difficult journey to get this far, now only a few hours’ drive from the frontera (border) with the United States. I kept wondering where her parents were. And in the days and weeks and months since I met her in the heat of a late May day, I have often wondered whether she made it to a new home. Has she been able to sustain such a trusting and joyful spirit, wherever she is now?

During my time this past summer at our Holy Cross parish in Guadalupe, I caught something of the hope that Briana possessed. I had come to be present to the people of the parish, to teach a little English, and to take Spanish classes for the sake of future ministry opportunities. Initially I felt very much like a foreigner, despite the wonderful hospitality of our hosts and parishioners. But this steadily gave way to a sense of assurance, that I could and would grow to fully appreciate the vitality of Mexican culture and Catholicism, especially amid the Congregation of Holy Cross. Here I could share the hopes of the people beside me in the pews, or next to me at a birthday party. Here I could be home away from home. 

Shortly after meeting Briana I realized that, at the time, we were both newcomers to that shelter and that city. But she was able to cut through the differences of geography, nationality, age, and language. At the same time, neither of us were going to remain in Monterrey very long. We share our gifts, but not so that we become complacent with what we share and what we have received.  Rather we receive what we need so that we can continue moving toward whatever God has in mind for each of us. Perhaps I am now better equipped to serve Spanish-speaking immigrants in South Bend. Having been strengthened with the hope of the living God through so many people in México, I can now minister with more confidence and hope amid our more obscure fronteras closer to home.

Learn more about Holy Cross in Mexico

Published: September 17, 2024