Hispanic Ministry Weekend: Un Fin de Semana en Fotos – A weekend in pictures

This past weekend, the seniors took another trip, this time to Our Lady of the Americas Parish in Des Moines, Iowa to experience a taste of Hispanic immersion, ministry, and some comida muy buena (very good food).  Our Lady of the Americas is a community of predominantly Spanish speakers where Padre Enrique Garcia, a chaplain and Spanish teacher at Conception, travels about two weekends a month to say Mass and serve the people of God.  The seniors had the opportunity to join him, and as I did with our Senior Pilgrimage last semester, rather than tell just tell you about it, I want to show you.

We arrived in Des Moines on Friday night, where we joined the parish for a bilingual Stations of the Cross service followed by a hearty dinner.  From there, the seniors split up into groups and stayed with different Hispanic families who generously opened their homes to us for the weekend.  It was a very neat experience to be among the faithful for the weekend and hear the stories of people who came from very different backgrounds than most of us.

However, the real action began on Saturday morning when we led a retreat for the youth of the parish ranging from ages 7 to 14.  Oklahoma City senior Tomas Sandoval led us in songs and gave a talk on confession to begin the day.

Afterwards, we had a little bit of free time before lunch, so we headed outside to play a little soccer and other different games.  In the middle of all of this, freezing rain started falling, but that didn’t stop the game from going on!

Lunch followed free time, and after that, Green Bay man Jon Hynek II talked to the kids about the Eucharist.  Finally, we closed with a few more songs and sent the kids home.  It’s safe to say we were exhausted, but our day wasn’t over yet!  We had a brief hour break where some of us fell asleep (see senior Brother Damian below), and others went outside to check out the now heavily falling snow.

To conclude the day, we went to Mass at the parish at 4:00 in English and at 6:30 in Spanish.  Padre Enrique celebrated the Spanish Mass with the help of senior servers Ty Taylor and Phillip Novotny.

On Sunday morning, Father Pat York and Father Samuel Russell, OSB, joined the group for a bilingual Mass and breakfast hosted by the Caballeros de Colón, or Knights of Columbus, of Our Lady of the Americas.

Finally, we went to one more Spanish Mass with Padre Enrique and greeted the people of the Parish afterwards before closing the weekend in fitting fashion, with lunch at a nearby Taco Truck.

Overall, Hispanic weekend proved to be a great experience that provided lots of learning opportunities for us seniors.  We are very grateful to the people of Our Lady of the Americas Parish for an incredible weekend that we will take with us as we go on to serve the Church in various ways after graduation.  ¡Gracias a Dios para este fin de semana!