I first noticed that supply truck in 2003 or 2004 whereas educating on the College of Houston. I used to be driving down Kirby Road once I stopped at a railroad crossing so a practice may cross. Whereas ready in my automobile, I noticed the picture of Our Woman of Guadalupe rising out of the site visitors forward of me. I used to be startled and immediately thought that I had been privileged to see an apparition of Mary, who has appeared every so often in locations like Fatima, Lourdes, and the little Irish village of Knock.
Staring intently, I spotted that the picture of La Virgen Morena had been painted on the rolling metal door on the again of the truck. After the practice handed by, I caught up with the mysterious automobile. I appeared over and noticed two peculiar males sitting within the truck cab. I spied nothing that may clarify why the Virgin of Guadalupe was painted on the truck’s cargo door.
I couldn’t get this seemingly trivial incident out of my thoughts, and I discussed it to John Burke, a Catholic buddy of mine. John stated the truck belonged to Casa Juan Diego, the Catholic Employee homeless shelter and meals pantry simply off Kirby Road in West Houston.
I had a horrible job on the College of Houston then and appeared for tactics to flee from vicious campus politics. I volunteered to assist haul meals from the Houston Meals Pantry to Casa Maria, Casa Juan Diego’s meals distribution web site situated in one of many barrios of southwest Houston. Each Thursday morning, I joined a gaggle of volunteers who traveled in Casa Juan Diego’s meals supply truck to assist load and unload 4 tons of donated meals to Casa Maria. Sometimes we’d cease at a Mexican meals wholesaler, selecting up a number of hundred kilos of rice and pinto beans.
This volunteer work was a blessing to me. I used to be doing one thing helpful for at the very least a number of hours each week. Because of my imaginative and prescient of Our Woman of Guadalupe on Kirby Road, I used to be launched to the Catholic Employee motion and the writings of its founder, Dorothy Day. I additionally realized concerning the seven corporal works of mercy, which type the mission assertion of the Catholic Employee motion.
Maybe most significantly, I got here to know Mark and Louise Zwick, who based Casa Juan Diego and devoted their lives to helping the poor, significantly the undocumented Latin American immigrants who reside inside the sheltering folds of a welcoming and beneficiant metropolitan Houston. Sometime, Dorothy Day might be canonized by the Catholic Church, and I consider Mark and Louise might be canonized as properly.
Within the meantime, the Catholic Staff of Houston have changed the stolen cargo field. Quickly, they are going to paint a brand new picture of Our Woman of Guadalupe on the rolling backdoor of Casa Juan Diego’s venerable meals supply truck, thereby invoking the safety of the Little Brown Virgin, the Patroness of the Americas.
Pay attention and perceive, my littlest son, let nothing frighten and afflict you or bother your coronary heart … Am I not right here, I, who am your mom? Are you not below my shadow?
