Extension magazine - Fall 2023

38
IGNITE
Feature Story
Extension | Fall 2023 39
leader in my parish,” she said. The
coursework equipped her with
skills to connect youth to their
faith back at her home parish,
Cristo Rey Church in Beaumont.
Following her course in theology,
Rodríguez attended a
hands-on immersion experience
that Catholic Extension organized,
which opened her eyes to life as
a religious sister for the first time.
She went to the Diocese of Kalamazoo,
Michigan, and witnessed the
work of missionary sisters serving
migrant farmworkers and their
families through Catholic Extension’s
U.S.-Latin American Sisters
Exchange Program. Rodríguez
was immediately impressed by
the way the sisters interacted with
the families. They laughed, danced
and sang songs. They labored in
the fields alongside the workers.
Sister María Eugenia Gómez
of the Missionary Servants of the
Divine Spirit is one of the sisters
that Rodríguez met.
“What intrigued me the most
was that she was a charismatic
nun,” Rodríguez said. “I was kind
of thrown aback. Initially there
was no intention of me looking
into the congregation.”
The Missionary Servants of
the Divine Spirit was founded in
Colombia but now serves in nine
Poor faith communities
Catholic Extension’s support for
need your help.
ongoing ministries in this Native
American parish represents a
true blessing for a community in a
desperately poor area.
Donate today.
Scan code or
text “Extension”
to 50155 to make
a gift
catholicextension.org/give
Cindy Rodríguez sings
with the children of
migrant farmworkers as
part of the Encuentro
y Misión program
immersion experience.
countries—including the United
States. The congregation’s charism
is to serve the poor who live on the
margins, using joy as its primary
tool to bring people closer to the
Church.
That summer, Rodríguez could
feel the joy that Sister María Eugenia
brought to the workers as they
picked blueberries and other seasonal
crops. Rodríguez saw how
the sisters lovingly interacted with
the children of the farmworkers
living in rustic camps by offering
outdoor games, arts and crafts, and
catechesis. The sisters’ methods of
evangelization intrigued her.
“It wasn’t only preaching to
[the families] and telling them the
story. It was them living the story,”
she said.
Rodríguez headed back home
to Texas with her horizons broadened
and her heart full. She spoke
with Sister María Eugenia roughly
every month while completing
her final year at Lamar University,
still discerning her future. She had
planned on pursuing a master’s
degree after graduation. Something
didn’t feel right though. She
couldn’t see herself living a regular
life and career anymore.
Taking the leap into religious life
That summer after graduation,
Sister María Eugenia invited
Rodríguez to experience life at
the motherhouse near the city of
La Ceja in northwest Colombia.
Meeting the sisters and community
helped Rodríguez in her discernment,
but she still went back
home undecided. After reflecting
on the relationships in her life
and the eye-opening experience
through Catholic Extension’s program,
she moved to Colombia and
entered the Missionary Servants of
the Divine Spirit as a postulant.
“It was just like a leap of faith,”
she said. “It has all been a plan of
God.”
She is learning from the other
Sister María Eugenia
Gómez, MSDE, harvests
crops alongside migrant
farmworkers as part
of her ministry in the
Diocese of Kalamazoo,
Michigan.
postulants in the motherhouse
who all come from different walks
of life and countries, including
Ecuador and Chile.
“Apart from growing spiritually,
it’s also another country. So, it’s
trying to learn the culture, trying
to live among people who don’t
know the same customs as I do,”
she said.
The young postulants grow in
faith, complete chores and play
sports together.
Rodríguez knows that discernment
is a long road. “My goal is to
continue this process of interior
healing and spiritual liberation and
to grow in relationship with the
Lord, as one would grow in relationship
with a friend,” she said.
Reflecting on Catholic
Extension’s program that changed
the course of her life, Rodríguez
said, “Sometimes we don’t know
that we need something until
we’re actually receiving the
medicine for it.”