Winter 2006, Volume 49, Number 4

Go Out! For need calls loudly in the winding lanes...

Recently, Nano Nagle’s lantern shone brightly over southern Bolivia. In the small, remote village of Mokomokal, a Guaraní community gathered to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Sister Maura McCarthy.

Sister Maura had been invited to the village to attend a celebration of the Word. Alejandra Ibañez, her husband, Iberth and family wanted to thank God for Alejandra’s restored health after a second bout with the fatal disease of trikina. The celebration was full of song and joyful remembering of God’s healing grace in our lives. We were all reminded that healing happens in community and that God is “El Camino” or “The Way.”

After the prayer service, Hermana Maura was invited to come to the front of the palm-roofed meeting hall, which also serves as the preschool and general storage place. She was gifted with a “mandu” or the traditional, native dress of the Guaraní woman. All waited while Sister Maura went off with the wife of the village chief to put on this beautiful garb. Upon her return, the whole community broke into applause. Sister responded by expressing, in Guaraní, the honor and privilege she felt to have been given such a gift. Community members took turns giving thanks for Maura’s presence among them. They spoke of her accompaniment with the people as their sister. They recalled how Sister Maura had walked long distances with them, suffering in their hunger and exhaustion. They thanked her for coming to live among them in their poverty and misery. They remembered how Sister Maura also faced, along with them, the criticism and judgment of the large land owners, under whose employment the Guaraní lived a slave-like existence.

Local leaders spoke of her hard work and dedication in their long journey of freeing themselves from the bondage. One community member remarked that over the years Sister Maura has offered her life as a light. It was said that she has given them compassion, respect, love and joy.

Sister was presented with other gifts and then a wonderful “olla común” or literally, common pot, was shared by all. Families in the community contributed to a delicious lunch of goat, rice, potatoes and vegetables.

The presence of Christ, el encuentro de Cristo, has surely been found in the life of Sister Maura McCarthy as she strives to follow the charism of Nano Nagle among the Guaraní in Southern Bolivia.