Service and Adventures with the Assumption community in Tlilapan, Mexico

Veronika Jaster

Veronika, Jesús Alberto, Francisco, Esmeralda

After her missionary volunteering in the Santiago Apóstol parish of Tlilapan-Veracruz, Veronika Jaster, a young American tells us about her experience serving the Kingdom of God with the Assumptionists and is grateful for this opportunity to serve the youth.

I’d like to sincerely thank the Assumptionist community for the opportunity to serve with the Congregation in Mexico and encounter God’s love during my time there. I spent eighteen days at the Assumptionist parish center in Tlilapan, Veracruz. Throughout the volunteer work and the cultural immersion, it was a joy to serve, learn, and share life with all the people I met.

With the sun inching over the rolling mountains, drawing curtains of warmth in the still-cool air, each day started with morning prayer and Mass in the chapel, followed by a shared breakfast. In the late afternoon, from Mondays to Fridays, I taught English to locals from the youth group in a parish classroom.

We started each lesson with either an informal speaking exercise to warm up, or with a recap of what we had worked on the previous day. With each new topic, we completed exercises and played a speaking game in order to practice the concept in a more engaging way. I appreciate how receptive and eager the students were to participate.

While I wasn’t teaching English, I accompanied some of the priests to their ministries in the area. In the few weeks while I was there, I attended a wedding, two quince años, a baptism, a last rites ceremony, a funeral, as well as a celebration of the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. Through all these sacraments and events, it became clear to me that God is at the center of the familial love that thrives in Mexican culture, whether it’s through joy or sorrow.

I saw His love’s steadfastness in a woman’s unbroken care for her sick husband, heard its guidance in an uncle’s bittersweet speech to his quinzeañera, smelled its heartbreak in the incense that lifted up the prayers for a departed son, tasted its unity in a wedding cake, and felt its triumphant power through the bursts of fireworks.

The gift of new friendships transcended the differences in customs and language, without diminishing the richness of this diversity. It was a joy to find new neighbors to love and with whom to share adventures, from jumping into rivers to climbing mountains, from visiting bustling Orizaba to exploring the small-town culture in Tlilapan, and from learning how to dance cumbia to teaching the Cotton-Eyed Joe.

Many thanks again to the Assumptionist community for this volunteer opportunity and for the cultural immersion. I keep their mission in my prayers and hope that my experience inspires others to discover and share through this program, all for the glory of God. Saludos!

Veronika Jaster

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For more information about the Assumptionist Volunteer Program, please contact tomasz.jaster@assumption.us or call (617) 783-0400.

Service and Adventures with the Assumption community in Tlilapan, Mexico

Veronika Jaster

After her missionary volunteering in the Santiago Apóstol parish of Tlilapan-Veracruz, Veronika Jaster, a young American tells us about her experience serving the Kingdom of God with the Assumptionists and is grateful for this opportunity to serve the youth.

I’d like to sincerely thank the Assumptionist community for the opportunity to serve with the Congregation in Mexico and encounter God’s love during my time there. I spent eighteen days at the Assumptionist parish center in Tlilapan, Veracruz. Throughout the volunteer work and the cultural immersion, it was a joy to serve, learn, and share life with all the people I met.

With the sun inching over the rolling mountains, drawing curtains of warmth in the still-cool air, each day started with morning prayer and Mass in the chapel, followed by a shared breakfast. In the late afternoon, from Mondays to Fridays, I taught English to locals from the youth group in a parish classroom.

We started each lesson with either an informal speaking exercise to warm up, or with a recap of what we had worked on the previous day. With each new topic, we completed exercises and played a speaking game in order to practice the concept in a more engaging way. I appreciate how receptive and eager the students were to participate.

While I wasn’t teaching English, I accompanied some of the priests to their ministries in the area. In the few weeks while I was there, I attended a wedding, two quince años, a baptism, a last rites ceremony, a funeral, as well as a celebration of the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. Through all these sacraments and events, it became clear to me that God is at the center of the familial love that thrives in Mexican culture, whether it’s through joy or sorrow.

I saw His love’s steadfastness in a woman’s unbroken care for her sick husband, heard its guidance in an uncle’s bittersweet speech to his quinzeañera, smelled its heartbreak in the incense that lifted up the prayers for a departed son, tasted its unity in a wedding cake, and felt its triumphant power through the bursts of fireworks.

The gift of new friendships transcended the differences in customs and language, without diminishing the richness of this diversity. It was a joy to find new neighbors to love and with whom to share adventures, from jumping into rivers to climbing mountains, from visiting bustling Orizaba to exploring the small-town culture in Tlilapan, and from learning how to dance cumbia to teaching the Cotton-Eyed Joe.

Many thanks again to the Assumptionist community for this volunteer opportunity and for the cultural immersion. I keep their mission in my prayers and hope that my experience inspires others to discover and share through this program, all for the glory of God. Saludos!

Veronika Jaster

For more information about the Assumptionist Volunteer Program, please contact tomasz.jaster@assumption.us or call (617) 783-0400.

At Pentecost, the Spirit led us to the green light!

The Assumptionist parish of Santiago Apóstol Tlilapan, Veracruz is in code green, for having radically reduced COVID-19 infections. This allowed us to return to the parish of Father Oswaldo García Sánchez last Saturday, May 22, to offer a retreat on the theme of the Holy Spirit to the members of the pastoral ministry of the parish.

A year before the pandemic, Maricarmen Martínez Álvarez, Aurora (Bollo) Maltos and I started a training process for the catechists of the Vicariate where the parish belong. It seemed boring to us without those activities. PENTECOST was the new start for us in this pastoral work. With the consent of Fr. Oswaldo we have agreed with the schedule and the topic taken from The KERYGMA of the Charismatic Renewal.

We left Mexico City on Friday at 4pm, but along the way there was an accident between two trailer trucks and a car before the tunnels, which lost a lot of our time. We arrived in the parish almost 11 in the evening. But the pleasure of coming back to Tlilapan did not allow us to feel bad about it.

A total of 22 participants was a good number to begin the activity. It was a great moment to see familiar faces again, and how pleasing to meet new ones in the midst of this pandemic time. And it was so overwhelming to have an increase in male participants.

During the retreat, we make sure to have safety and health measures, thus, restricted us from our usual greetings of hug and embrace among old and new friends. The group was very diverse, with people who have a lot of experience and preparation, and some who have just joined the group. Yet, everybody was very active and participative in sharing their own personal reflections and experiences which was so enriching and was helpful to the whole retreat.

The participants expressed their difficulties on the pandemic especially during quarantine period were a lot was infected and some deaths in the area caused by Covid-19.

They were very emotional in their prayer and in sharing their experiences, thus, grateful because they really felt the presence of the Holy Spirit throughout the process. Through their testimonies we have acknowledged their deep faith, and empathized with their pain.

We thank Father Oswaldo for trusting us and for inviting us to work with him in the Prophetic Ministry of the area since he was appointed by the bishop to spearhead this ministry of the diocese.

We expect to work with the catechists of the vicariate before the year ends, we are only waiting for the confirmation of the theme we need to deal with depending on the current needs of the group and with the agreement from the parish priests. This excites us to know the agenda so we can create and prepare the most appropriate content, dynamics and elements of the project.

In addition, we were amazed to see the new facilities of the parish. A new function hall for big gatherings that was constructed on the second floor. It was impressively made that is very conducive for retreats. A well-lighted dormitories were also built over the community and dining room, 3 comfort rooms that we used during the retreat respecting proper health restrictions. Good job to the community and its parish priest, the facilities are very useful for their pastoral works.

Lastly, we thank the Holy Spirit, the Advocate of the retreat and of our lives, who has shown such great mercy towards us, and at the same time that our pastoral ministry has resumed. We pray that we will recover so soon in our health and economic activities and any necessary means for our country. Greetinsee you soon!

Rafael Martinez Guizar, lay Assumptionist