Page 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

The Dream of San José Dixiñado

Early every Sunday morning one of the Basilian Fathers from Santa Marìa de La Asunción parish in Caltepec leaves with two sisters from the Community of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. They drive for about an hour to the house of Don Martín Garcìa where they leave their car, because the road ahead is impassible. Then they set out on foot for an hour’s walk.

They finally arrive at the community of San José Dixiñado, one of a number of communities served by the Basilian Fathers from the parish in Caltepec.

San José Dixiñado is a typical poor rural Mexican village. Because of malnutrition, lack of hygiene, adequate health services, and clean water, the community experiences a lot of sickness and death. The people are subsistence farmers who supplement their meager income by working in whatever capacity they can find in other larger, outlying communities. This is why it is so important to reach them spiritually on weekends when some, at least, return to their homes.

The humble chapel of San José is no more than a hut with dirt floor and a corrugated tin roof. When the pastoral team arrives, the priest prepares to celebrate the Eucharist, hears confessions, and gives instructions for marriage and baptism while the sisters prepare the catechism teachers, who in turn will instruct the children.

What makes San José Dixiñado stand out is that the people have a dream. One day, they hope to have a real chapel to celebrate Mass and the sacraments. What makes San José Dixiñado special to the Basilian Fathers is that, ahead of all their other needs, they have placed first the need for God’s house in their community.

The people have begun purchasing the bricks for the chapel, at a great sacrifice, for about eight cents apiece. Hopefully, some of the friends of the Basilian Fathers Missions may want to help the people of San Jose make their dream of a real chapel come true. Even the smallest contributions will help. The missionaries ask that you remember the people of San José Dixiñado in your prayers, as well as all the Basilian missionaries.

Light up your Easter with the
Stations of Light

Celebrate the Easter season this year with the Stations of Light. This new devotion is composed of fourteen meditations on Christ’s Pasch, from His Resurrection to Pentecost. They may be prayed by a group in a similar manner to the Stations of the Cross, or as a personal devotion.

One of the goals of Jubilee 2000 was a better appreciation of traditional Catholic devotions and the development of new expressions of our popular faith. The Via Lucis (Latin for Way of Light) was introduced in 1994 by a group who saw the stations as a way to remind the faithful to live the Easter spirituality. A set of these stations has been erected in the catacomb of St. Calixtus in Rome, and the stations were celebrated there during the Roman World Youth Day.

Light up your Easter this year by thinking about and meditating on these stations:

1. Jesus rises from the dead.

2. The disciples find the empty tomb.

3. Jesus appears to Mary Magdalen.

4. Jesus walks with the disciples to Emmaus.

5. Jesus reveals himself in the breaking of bread.

6. Jesus appears to the disciples.

7. Jesus confers on his disciples the power to forgive sins.

8. Jesus confirms Thomas in faith.

9. Jesus appears to his disciples on the shore of Lake Galilee.

10. Jesus confers primacy on Peter.

11. Jesus entrusts his disciples with a universal mission.

12. Jesus ascends into heaven.

13. Mary and the disciples await the Holy Spirit.

14. Jesus sends the Spirit promised by the Father to his disciples.