¡Gracias a Dios tenemos donde venir a orar!

Thank God we have a place to come and pray! A very common phrase I hear all the time while visiting some of the many Spanish speaking communities of our Diocese. When I was asked to come to Immaculata, I was told that there were some Hispanic people in the area with whom I could work. The reality is that there are very many Spanish speaking people of many different countries and cultures who live in Willimantic and surrounding towns.

I have made my way visiting many of the parishes that have Spanish Mass and programs. There are some good-hearted priests in the Diocese who speak Spanish but I am the only priest who is Hispanic himself and, therefore, the response of the people has been great. I have been able to have day-long retreats in many parishes, days of reflection and days of ministerial training in Spanish at multiple parishes.

Working with the Hispanic Apostolate Office, we already have on our calendar for next year six one-day programs in Spanish here at Immaculata. My hope is to be able to find ways to help support and finance a full weekend retreat in Spanish and maybe a Confirmation retreat in Spanish. In November, we inaugurated our monthly Spanish Healing Mass at Immaculata and even though it snowed in the morning and the weather was bad, we had 48 people present for that first Mass. We are only at the beginning and there is still a lot of work to do. As yet, we don’t own a set of Spanish liturgical books or songbooks for our use here at Immaculata - if you would like to assist our mission and us in this regard, we would be most grateful for any help.

Que Dios los bendiga. God bless you.