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CUBA-HOMES Aug-19-2008 (750 words) With photo posted Aug. 14. xxxi
Cubans offer homes as prayer houses to nurture faith, service
By Ellie Hidalgo
Catholic News Service
PEDRO BETANCOURT, Cuba (CNS) -- As a summer afternoon rainstorm brewed, nearly two dozen Cubans gathered on a friend's covered porch to celebrate Mass.
Wooden chairs were lined up, row by row, to accommodate neighbors. A visiting priest turned a small table into an altar. Another man strummed the opening song on his guitar while a couple of horses rested on the nearby grass, languishing in the muggy heat.
Liturgies at home have become a phenomenon in Cuba as the church slowly rebuilds communities of faith. They are a way of bringing Jesus into the barrio instead of expecting that people make their way to a church they might not have attended in decades -- or ever.
These missionary houses of prayer are known as "casas de mision," and Santa Catalina Parish in Pedro Betancourt has about 15 satellite mission homes and a chapel.
Isabel Maria Marishal, 65, offers her home as a mission house in this particular neighborhood. Transportation is difficult in the island country, and bus service is hard to come by in the farmlands. Marishal, who has heart problems and diabetes, stopped going to Mass for a time; the chapel about a mile away was too far for her to walk. So she welcomed the opportunity to gather neighbors in her home for liturgy.
"God helps me," she said. "I pray a lot to God."
Her husband is often working and her two children are grown and no longer live with them.
"I feel alone. But I'm not alone," she added. "I'm with God."
Marishal said she learned the faith from her family as a young girl. It's a faith she's held onto even after Fidel Castro's revolutionary government came to power in 1959 and Castro declared himself a Marxist-Leninist in 1961. Cuba was officially atheist until 1992, when that word was struck from the Cuban Constitution.
Missionary homes began appearing in the 1990s as tensions started easing between the government and the Catholic Church. "Casas de mision" continued flourishing after Pope John Paul II made a historic visit to the island in 1998.
Jesuit Father Robert Alonzo, pastor of Santa Catalina Parish, makes his way up the hill to Marishal's home on a compact motorcycle.
During the homily one Saturday afternoon, Father Alonzo talked about Jesus' cup of suffering, which the priest said was widely misunderstood by the apostles as they bickered among themselves for power.
"This is what is distinctive about being a Christian --- service," said the silver-haired priest as a few raindrops began to fall. "You all know that there are many ways to serve. Even giving an aspirin to a neighbor who comes by with a headache. That's a service. Allowing someone to take a 'guayaba' fruit from my tree so they can make a little juice drink. That's serving. All that I do to serve my brothers and sisters, to alleviate their situation, that is service.
"We are going to ask God in our Eucharist today to help us to serve -- that we live with an attitude of service," added Father Alonzo.
Victor Sanchez and Vivian Sosa have been answering the call to service and Christian love since the 1970s. They met as catechists during a retreat, married and have three children. They participated in the earliest mission homes and offered their own home when few people openly practiced their faith.
The two are committed to working as volunteer youth ministers in the community because "of our love for children," said Sanchez. They said they are trying to nurture the faith of the next generation.
"It's nothing more than the Holy Spirit pushing and inspiring me," said Sanchez. "I got to know youth from catechesis and I haven't stopped since." Sanchez recently gathered the youths for a craft project to make rosaries using brightly colored beads and materials brought by U.S. visitors.
He also plays the guitar and leads the choir, bringing messages of hope and faith through music.
"People have many preoccupations," including illnesses and concerns about employment, he said.
"We volunteer because of God's love," said Sosa, whose own mother has been very ill.
Evangelization is done best through actions and good works more than words, Sanchez said. One member of the local faith community has been visiting the elderly and another, a nurse, tends to the sick.
"We have to do God's will," said Sanchez, putting his hand on his heart.
END
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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