The Sunday before last, I had the opportunity to speak after the Sunday Mass in Spanish at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Milford, Mass. The parochial vicar there, Fr Dario Acevedo, is a friend from my seminary days who invited me to come and share about the mission in Ecuador because there is an Ecuadorian community there. Fr Dario is from Colombia, and he and I spent a lot of time in the seminary helping each other with language - he even had the idea of translating the book I wrote into Spanish, though that never got too far! But, to be able to speak to the people pretty fluently in Spanish was a sort of a full-circle coming of events when I remember our meetings together practicing pronunciation and whatnot. It was really a gift for me to share some of what I am doing in Ecuador with the community there. Ecuadorians have a variety of cultures, and the locals there at St Mary's would have some differences with the people who I've lived with. They are from the Sierra region in the south, where I've been mostly in the Costa region in the north. But they are still bonded obviously - Fr Dario took up a collection and the people gave over $250 to be used for the mission. For people who are struggling to fit in in Milford, it was very generous. I'm very grateful.
