As you read this, a group of St. X parishioners will be in the “Land of Enchantment”, New Mexico, on an eight day mission trip to the Navajo reservation. Specifically, we will be at St. Mary’s Mission, Tohatchi, NM where I lived for five and a half years after retirement from St. Elizabeth Health Care.

     I found the New Mexico state slogan “Land of Enchantment” to be truly an accurate designation. The Navajo live on the largest Native American reservation, about the size of West Virginia and it covers territory in both Arizona and New Mexico. I found the Navajo to be a welcoming, spiritual people with troubling human challenges, some inflicted on them and some self-generated – much like human experience everywhere – but in a rugged and beautiful land.

     Our St X Change Our Heart small faith community began meeting in Lent, 2015. We have been meeting regularly ever since. A few months ago Janet Ziegler suggested a mission trip for the group and I said I know a mission! Now she and I along with Sue Meyer, Chris Hirsch, Jonathon Weber, Karen Ziegler, Katie Stephan and Mary Sue Schwab, who used to be Mission Manager when I was there and was willing to join and assist us, will be experiencing the Navajo hospitality and learning about the Navajo people September 9-17 while also providing some manual labor in support of the mission compound.

     St. Mary’s is a Franciscan mission, staffed by Oldenburg, IN Franciscan sisters and Franciscan priests. On Saturday, we will also be serving a meal and sharing a liturgy with Mother Teresa’s sisters who run a homeless shelter and kitchen in Gallup, NM just a week after Mother Teresa’s canonization. So we will experience various charisms from Navajo, religious, and laity living and working together for a deeper appreciation of the importance of going out and experiencing God’s creation and God’s people.

 − Rev. Bob Ross, SJ, Assisting Priest