By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Photographer: COURTESY | Archbishop Wenski
Archbishop Thomas Wenski takes part in a "Lectio Divina" study at the Jubilee of Mercy celebration in Bogota. He is acting out the parable of the Good Samaritan along with residents of a center for homeless drug addicts operated by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.
Photographer: COURTESY | Archbishop Wenski
Bringing the Year of Mercy "down to earth," as Archbishop Thomas Wenski put it, participants in the Jubilee of Mercy celebration in Bogota, Colombia, visited places where "concrete works of mercy" were being done in the city. The archbishop's group went to a center for homeless drug addicts operated by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.
Photographer: COURTESY | Archbishop Wenski
A participant holds up a sign during a "Lectio Divina" at a center for homeless drug addicts operated by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. The sign says: "He put him on his own donkey."
Photographer: COURTESY | Archbishop Wenski
Archbishop Thomas Wenski took this photo during the early morning Mass that opened the third day of the Jubilee of Mercy celebration. The presider at the Mass was the president of the Brazilian Episcopal Conference and archbishop of Brasilia, Dom Sergio da Rocha, center.
From Aug. 27-30, Archbishop Thomas Wenski will be among 15 cardinals, 120 bishops and 400 priests, religious and lay people participating in the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy on the American Continent, a conference taking place in Bogota, Colombia. Archbishop Wenski has agreed to share his experience with Catholics in South Florida via this blog.
Monday | The third day of our Jubilee of Mercy celebration began with Mass (7 a.m.!) in Portuguese presided by the president of the Brazilian Episcopal Conference and archbishop of Brasilia, Dom Sergio da Rocha. Brazil has the most number of Catholics in South America and so its bishops are an important constituency of CELAM.
The first two days of our "celebration" engaged us in prayer, reflection and some very articulate presentations on the theme of mercy. From those heights, today's agenda brought us down to earth, as it were. After Mass and breakfast the delegates were directed to one of 19 different vans or buses that took us to visit concrete works of mercy in the City of Bogota.
Bus 6, on which I rode, took us to a work of mercy sponsored by the Daughters of Charity for homeless drug addicts.
St. Vincent de Paul — the Mother Teresa of his time — who also helped found the Daughters of Charity, once said, "Love is infinitively inventive." This inventiveness was well on display at this multifaceted, faith-based center with a multitude of services and programs for people who, because of their addictions, had been living on the streets with no prospects for a future of hope.
The sisters, along with lay volunteers and professional staff, provide those they serve with a life-giving and life-restoring experience centered on the dignity of the human person and the dynamic potential of love to heal past wounds and hurts.
A memorable experience for me and those who accompanied me was a "Lectio divina" on the parable of the Good Samaritan. This "Lectio divina" led by a lay volunteer involved all of us — those of us who were visiting and the residents — in acting out the parable and commenting on how the parable illustrated the works of mercy.
A man who had been out on the streets for many years commented that the Samaritan looked beyond the filthy wounds of the man who had fell among robbers and saw a person. And he said that, before the Sisters found him, people could not look beyond his appearance to see a human being.
In the afternoon, all the groups shared their experiences, thus allowing us to contemplate the various and diverse ways the members of the Church seek to obey the Lord's command: "Be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful."
