April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
VOLUNTEERS
Whitehall welcomes Marian missionaries
• a piece of property, and
• four men who are in formation for a lay religious order that's dedicated to helping the pastor with ministries around the area.
Since October, the Marian Missionaries of Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Mass., have been sending missionaries to Whitehall each week to visit with sick and homebound parishioners and community members and nearby prison inmates.
The four men will also collaborate with parishioners to start a parish soup kitchen and be involved in faith formation and parish renewal. They're committed to a year of service.
The men are staying on the second floor of what the parish has dubbed Marian House; the first floor is set aside for retreats, group gatherings and faith formation meetings when the parish hall is occupied.
"We're getting [into] our groove," said Rev. Rendell Torres, pastor of the Whitehall parish, as well as its mission church in Huletts Landing and St. Ann's parish in Fort Ann. Father Torres has been identifying Our Lady of Hope's needs and laying out priorities for the missionaries' assistance.
"It's sort of like the Blessed Mother and the Holy Spirit working, because I didn't plan this," he remarked.
In fact, the opportunity fell into Father Torres' lap. He said retreats and programs by Rev. Michael Gaitley, MIC, director of a spiritual benefit society associated with the Marian order, renewed enthusiasm at his parishes. Father Torres then contacted Father Gaitley about leading a retreat, and also about becoming an associate member of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception.
At the time, the missionaries who ended up in Whitehall were beginning a "year of mercy" at the end of the summer, spending a few days a week volunteering in Boston and New York. Father Torres put Whitehall on their minds.
Around the same time, Our Lady of Hope received a $50,000 bequest to purchase a two-family home adjacent to the parish, with instructions to use it for missionary outreach, spiritual renewal and faith formation. The parish dubbed the new property "Marian House."
The Marian congregation, with help from Lighthouse Catholic Media, agreed to cover Marian House's utilities in exchange for housing the volunteers there.
Now, Father Torres calls the missionaries "synergistic companions" who will lead by example for parishioners who have committed themselves to performing works of mercy as part of consecrating themselves to Jesus through Mary.
"They're helping to revive the parish [and] be catalysts for works of mercy that the other people can be inspired by," the pastor said of the missionaries. "They're going to become leaven in the parish - and the parish can then help others to rise."
Ruben Mendoza, one of the missionaries, has enjoyed helping in Whitehall, especially ministering to the sick and homebound.
"I love to visit the faithful or the people in the nursing homes or those who are alone," he said. "You learn a lot from [seniors] - a lot of wisdom there. To see them smile is the greatest treasure in my heart."
He's looking forward to doing more work at the maximum-security Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock: "I want to embrace [inmates] as our brothers and let them know they're loved and not forgotten, and try to give them some type of light - because in prison, there's a lot of darkness."
Mr. Mendoza said the missionaries' purpose in Whitehall is "so the people in the town get to love each other in a more intimate way, to make our Lord's mercy known to them.
"I don't know why God sent us there, but I'm trying to figure it out," he continued. "A lot of people in that town work in prisons, and there's a lot of poison" passed onto workers.
The 21-year-old grew up in a gang-ridden part of Las Vegas and "reverted" to Catholicism when he moved to La Crosse, Wis., two years ago; he most recently worked at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe as a receptionist, translator and waiter.
He said God called him to enter the Marian congregation, which has already taught him a lot about his spirituality.
"I've learned how to embrace people more, live in a community, how to just surrender and let it be," Mr. Mendoza said.
He said the volunteers are benefiting from the parish and vice versa.
"They're very generous to us," he said. "You can just feel the welcome and the love the parishioners have for us. They always say they're praying for us," and have donated furniture and household items and invited the men into their homes for meals.
"We can't thank them enough," Mr. Mendoza said, adding that Marian House is more than adequate for the missionaries' needs: "We go wherever is available, but in this situation, we're very spoiled."[[In-content Ad]]
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