Cheerful, even in the Rubble
When the earth shook in Peru on August 15th, Isabel Gameros first gathered together the 11 members of her family. Then she went to help her neighbors. That evening she decided to say the rosary in the middle of the rubble, “Because God knows what is best”.
I’m fine. Not a single brick fell on my head, because my house was made of adobe,” was the innocent comment of seven-year-old Rodrigo, one of Isabel’s 13 children. Her husband passed away six months before the earthquake, and she has been supporting her family with strength and courage. Isabel is also one of the rural development workers trained by the Condoray Center for the Professional Formation of Women.
“Thanks to God and to St. Josemaría we are alive and were able to get out of our house in time. We asked for help with great faith, and my daughter Diana, who was in the most dangerous area, managed to escape. Little by little the eleven children who live with me came out safe and unharmed. Little Benjamin was playing with his friend Nachito and came running to my side,” she added.
The Condoray Center is presently caring for 890 families who have suffered great losses from the earthquake.Those who want to help this crusade of solidarity can obtain information on Condoray's website (below).The force of the earthquake caused a large part of their house to collapse and the rest was so damaged that it had to be leveled. Today, in what had been the front of the house, a large piece of blue plastic protects the property. “We have only a little space, but we have our lives and none of my children was hurt. We have a lot of reasons to thank God.”
“That night,” Isabel recalls, “we stayed in the street with our neighbors saying the Rosary to our Lady of Fair Love, who is the Patroness of Cañete. We were very much united and convinced of her maternal affection. It is one of the great gifts that St. Josemaría gave us, and we are sure that she protected this blessed valley. For a number of days strong tremors followed one after another. The city was filled with dirt, houses had to be demolished, and many people were left without a home. It was a moment to give consolation, hope, and a little joy to the others.”
Isabel’s “army” was unmistakable: a cheerful group, with protective masks, shovels and wheelbarrows, from sunrise to sunset clearing the piles of rubble from their destroyed house. “People ask us, ‘What are you going to do? Why are you so calm?’ We answer that God knows best and he will not abandon us,” says Odalis, one of Isabel’s older daughters.
Hopes and Dreams
Odalis owns a small cart and she earns her living selling sandwiches and drinks to the truckers who pass by on the nearby Southern Panamerican Highway. She had been dreaming of selling fruit juice in her own home to help her family, but for now that project will have to wait.
Working together, Isabel’s family are carrying out the household tasks and each has a job in accordance with his or her age. They get together in the evenings and tell about the little happenings at school or among their playmates.
Isabel continues: “My family is simple. We have very little money, but we are very united, today more than ever. I have older children who are now working and contributing to the education of the younger ones. My husband José was a bricklayer and died last February. That left a very big emptiness in our home.”
In the Hands of God
“St. Josemaría taught me to be always cheerful, to find God in all circumstances, offering him not only the good things but also those things that can suddenly be a problem for me. Today, in these difficult moments, we love his holy will and put ourselves into his hands.”
“To live for others is what Christian solidarity demands of us. No one can be dispensed from this duty, not even the poorest. We should share the little that we have with others. I know of the case of a young woman from Mala, the daughter of very poor peasants, who sent a couple of pounds of potatoes for those who had lost everything, even though she herself needed that food. I have also been moved by the gestures of so many people who have come to the door with a bag of groceries us even though they hardly know us. Even a truck that was going by stopped to give us some blankets. Since we are a big family with a lot of children. . . .”
Serving the Villages as a Rural Development Worker
In addition to caring for her large family, Isabel is a rural development worker for Condoray, a corporate work of Opus Dei whose principal mission is the human, social, and spiritual development of the village women in the Valley of Cañete.
“At Condoray I discovered that I could help other women to improve, and at the age of 19 I became one of the rural development workers. What I learn, I transmit to the villages: I speak to each woman and teach them to love work, to be generous, cheerful, to overcome difficulties. In life there are many difficult circumstances and we can’t let ourselves be crushed by them.
A rural development worker is a person who seeks to help other women develop, trying to help them advance, acquire better habits, more education. “We help the people to solve their problems and take a step forward.” After the earthquake she went to visit families and keep them company, to help them organize themselves, and she helped as Condoray aided almost 800 people who suffered losses from the earthquake.
As the mother of a Christian family and a rural development worker, Isabel sums up her perspective on life: “During all of these years the example of St. Josemaría has been the guide for my home and my work. I have learned that one can sanctify everyday things and that with our ordinary life we should write a beautiful story of love for God.
Condoray Center for the Professional Formation of Women
The Condoray Center for the Professional Formation of Women is helping 890 families which have suffered from the earthquake. Anyone who wishes to help in this crusade of solidarity can obtain information at www.condoray.edu.pe/ayuda/ini.htm.
Source: Opus Dei
Click here to return to homepage
I’m fine. Not a single brick fell on my head, because my house was made of adobe,” was the innocent comment of seven-year-old Rodrigo, one of Isabel’s 13 children. Her husband passed away six months before the earthquake, and she has been supporting her family with strength and courage. Isabel is also one of the rural development workers trained by the Condoray Center for the Professional Formation of Women.
“Thanks to God and to St. Josemaría we are alive and were able to get out of our house in time. We asked for help with great faith, and my daughter Diana, who was in the most dangerous area, managed to escape. Little by little the eleven children who live with me came out safe and unharmed. Little Benjamin was playing with his friend Nachito and came running to my side,” she added.
The Condoray Center is presently caring for 890 families who have suffered great losses from the earthquake.Those who want to help this crusade of solidarity can obtain information on Condoray's website (below).The force of the earthquake caused a large part of their house to collapse and the rest was so damaged that it had to be leveled. Today, in what had been the front of the house, a large piece of blue plastic protects the property. “We have only a little space, but we have our lives and none of my children was hurt. We have a lot of reasons to thank God.”
“That night,” Isabel recalls, “we stayed in the street with our neighbors saying the Rosary to our Lady of Fair Love, who is the Patroness of Cañete. We were very much united and convinced of her maternal affection. It is one of the great gifts that St. Josemaría gave us, and we are sure that she protected this blessed valley. For a number of days strong tremors followed one after another. The city was filled with dirt, houses had to be demolished, and many people were left without a home. It was a moment to give consolation, hope, and a little joy to the others.”
Isabel’s “army” was unmistakable: a cheerful group, with protective masks, shovels and wheelbarrows, from sunrise to sunset clearing the piles of rubble from their destroyed house. “People ask us, ‘What are you going to do? Why are you so calm?’ We answer that God knows best and he will not abandon us,” says Odalis, one of Isabel’s older daughters.
Hopes and Dreams
Odalis owns a small cart and she earns her living selling sandwiches and drinks to the truckers who pass by on the nearby Southern Panamerican Highway. She had been dreaming of selling fruit juice in her own home to help her family, but for now that project will have to wait.
Working together, Isabel’s family are carrying out the household tasks and each has a job in accordance with his or her age. They get together in the evenings and tell about the little happenings at school or among their playmates.
Isabel continues: “My family is simple. We have very little money, but we are very united, today more than ever. I have older children who are now working and contributing to the education of the younger ones. My husband José was a bricklayer and died last February. That left a very big emptiness in our home.”
In the Hands of God
“St. Josemaría taught me to be always cheerful, to find God in all circumstances, offering him not only the good things but also those things that can suddenly be a problem for me. Today, in these difficult moments, we love his holy will and put ourselves into his hands.”
“To live for others is what Christian solidarity demands of us. No one can be dispensed from this duty, not even the poorest. We should share the little that we have with others. I know of the case of a young woman from Mala, the daughter of very poor peasants, who sent a couple of pounds of potatoes for those who had lost everything, even though she herself needed that food. I have also been moved by the gestures of so many people who have come to the door with a bag of groceries us even though they hardly know us. Even a truck that was going by stopped to give us some blankets. Since we are a big family with a lot of children. . . .”
Serving the Villages as a Rural Development Worker
In addition to caring for her large family, Isabel is a rural development worker for Condoray, a corporate work of Opus Dei whose principal mission is the human, social, and spiritual development of the village women in the Valley of Cañete.
“At Condoray I discovered that I could help other women to improve, and at the age of 19 I became one of the rural development workers. What I learn, I transmit to the villages: I speak to each woman and teach them to love work, to be generous, cheerful, to overcome difficulties. In life there are many difficult circumstances and we can’t let ourselves be crushed by them.
A rural development worker is a person who seeks to help other women develop, trying to help them advance, acquire better habits, more education. “We help the people to solve their problems and take a step forward.” After the earthquake she went to visit families and keep them company, to help them organize themselves, and she helped as Condoray aided almost 800 people who suffered losses from the earthquake.
As the mother of a Christian family and a rural development worker, Isabel sums up her perspective on life: “During all of these years the example of St. Josemaría has been the guide for my home and my work. I have learned that one can sanctify everyday things and that with our ordinary life we should write a beautiful story of love for God.
Condoray Center for the Professional Formation of Women
The Condoray Center for the Professional Formation of Women is helping 890 families which have suffered from the earthquake. Anyone who wishes to help in this crusade of solidarity can obtain information at www.condoray.edu.pe/ayuda/ini.htm.
Source: Opus Dei
Click here to return to homepage
20,000 Peruvian Women Trained For Jobs At Condoray
For over 40 years Condoray has been providing job training for women who have no resources of their own. An interview with the program's assistant director.
By Zenit (May 11, 2007)
More than 20,000 women have passed through the training programs of Condoray, a Peruvian institution that advances women -- many of them indigenous -- and gives them a greater sense of their own self-worth. For Condoray's assistant director, Ana Lucía Aguayo de Rosell, women play a fundamental role in transmitting the faith in Latin America. "You could say that in our continent the preservation of the faith depends on their piety, their personal holiness, the example they give within their families, and their dedication to the Christian education of their children."
Ms. Aguayo speaks about the work Condoray carries out in the region of Cañete.
Training 20,000 women is easy enough to say. But how have you done it?
--Ana Lucía Aguayo: Yes, it's easy to say, but it's very different actually to achieve it. Condoray was started in 1963 with the mission of providing an integral education for the women of Cañete and, through them, to contribute to the socio-economic development of the region and of the families living here.
Throughout the 44 years of its operation, Condoray has employed a model of development which revolves around women, who are also its goal. We are not simply an intermediary that tries to achieve projects of development more efficiently. Our mission is to form persons who assimilate a certain way of working along with certain human and Christian values, and then exercise a positive influence on their own families and on the entire province of Cañete.
We want the women to grow in their sense of self-worth, to learn to recognize their talents -- and their defects -- and to be able to set their own goals and work to achieve them. In this way they can become the agents of their own development.
An important factor for the success of this model is what we call Rural Promoters. These are women from the farm communities of Cañete who come to Condoray and receive the formation we offer, and then return to their communities to give that same training to the women there. Their goal is to have the whole community participate in projects that improve their education, their families and in general the level of their society. In this way we are able to carry out stable, lasting programs of development. The Rural Promoters have a multiplying effect on the work we do at Condoray by bringing it to numerous women throughout the whole area.
What do you most value about the indigenous women?
--Ana Lucía Aguayo: Let me say, first of all, that Condoray does not work only with indigenous women. Because of its location in the central coast of Peru, the students of Condoray represent a rich diversity of races which includes the indigenous, blacks, mestizos, etc.
Our experience has led us to value many traits in these women: their capacity for leadership, their tenacity, their strength and drive to achieve what they set out to do. But we should especially point out their generosity and their spirit of solidarity. When someone suffers an illness, or has financial problems, it is very normal for the neighboring women to come together immediately and organize activities (usually selling food) to get the money and the help that person needs. Or, if the mother needs to work or has to be away, they take care of the children.
We also admire their ability to undertake projects and be undaunted by difficulties once they know what they want. Another trait is their abnegation and their dedication to their families. The need to provide their daily food has, in a way, contributed to their organizing themselves very well so that they don't neglect their family obligations but rather harmonize them with the productive activities which help support their households financially.
What is the role of women in the re-evangelization of Latin America?
--Ana Lucía Aguayo: It's impossible to measure their contribution, because the future of humanity is written in the family. In the family the woman is the principal transmitter of human and Christian values. It is the woman who inculcates the faith and instills Christian virtues in her children. It is she who unites the members of the family, and this unity is a great good for the Church and society. Moreover, the family is the community that passes on a society's spiritual and cultural inheritance. It ensures that persons are strengthened in their convictions and it teaches social responsibility and solidarity.
Women, by their innate qualities, know how to accept each individual and enter into their inner world. With their femininity they bring to the Church modes of living reciprocity with others, of accepting those who are different, of undertaking projects for those who are most in need. By their moral strength and innate tenderness and by this facility for being concerned about each person, women can care for the "Domestic Church" which is the family but also the whole Church.
You could say, then, that in our continent the preservation of the faith depends on their piety, their personal holiness, the way they form families, the example they give within their families, and their dedication to the Christian education of their children. It is from authentic Christian families that there will come the virtuous, integral citizens who give light and breath to society.
Source: Opus Dei
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So Here Is How Opus Dei "Works": Being A Friend
Years ago whenever I heard mention of Opus Dei, it was often in terms of how it's this massive undergound cult that is set on getting new members. Those of you who have read John Allen's book on Opus Dei, and in particular the section that deals with this myth, know the plain numbers don't back up the claim. In fact, with just around 85,000 members OD seems to be growing kind of slowly.
So does that mean Opus Dei is a failure?
The truth is, those sort of questions don't really take into account the full scope of Opus Dei, which is a realization that we are all called to live holy lives in the midst of living our ordinary lives. When you put it on those terms, then it's hard to measure success in terms of membership.
I'll give one example. But first just let me mention I don't write the following for any personal glory -- since I am a flawed sinner, nor for anybody to think I'm trying to garner spiritual brownie points. Since John Allen outed me, and people know that I write this blog, I am just writing this account so people can perhaps better understand Opus Dei.
This past Christmas we spent the holidays in Peru with our family. While we were there the family contacted a taxi driver to be my "bodyguard" and drive me around all the time. Besides doing some typical site-seeing trips, and going to mass, this also included almost every day (it seemed) going to some different restaurant to eat ceviche and down a few dark beers (Peruvian dark beer by the way is excellent).
As can be imagined in the almost three weeks that we were running around, the taxi driver and myself struck up quite the friendship, and we were able to discuss his future plans, his family and common friends that we have. At no time did I have to beat him over the head that I was a Christian, nor that I was Catholic. It was obvious from my normal behaviour - going to mass, or a baptism. With time, he asked me a few questions regarding the differences between Catholics and Evangelicals, and we discussed that...and then let the subject drop when it seemed natural to do.
At another time, he told me that he considered himself Catholic and he went to mass, but that he had never been baptized, nor had first communion - and that he wondered what that meant if he should die. Again, my responses to him were fairly light, but still direct: I told him what the church said -- and which he already knew.
One day he drove me to the St Maria de Nazaret parish which is run by some Opus Dei Spanish priests that I knew. We visited for quite some time and my new friend walked around, but for the most part kept to himself. Another time he volunteered to drive the whole family to Sunday mass.
One day he asked a bit more about being baptized, and I told him that while any Christian could baptize him, if he were serious then he should talk to a priest about it. I also mentioned that at the St Maria de Nazaret parish the priests there had helped one of my god-daughters to have her first communion and confirmation all at once - after taking a couple-long week courses.
Again there was no pressure, and this was just natural talk among friends who also enjoyed having a pint together or walking through Inca ruins.
As our holidays ended, my new friend not only took us to the airport, but walked inside with all the rest of the family and joined in the hugs, kisses and tears as we said our goodbyes and headed back to Spain. We exchanged telephone numbers.
Jump forward now to yesterday, when I got a telephone call from Peru, and it was my taxi-cab friend, telling me that he had made an important decision last month (January) and that he had gone to talk to a priests, and that he'd signed up for a crash RCIA course and that at the end of February he is being baptized, and will have his first communion and confirmation.
He was calling to say thank you for being a friend.
So does that mean Opus Dei is a failure?
The truth is, those sort of questions don't really take into account the full scope of Opus Dei, which is a realization that we are all called to live holy lives in the midst of living our ordinary lives. When you put it on those terms, then it's hard to measure success in terms of membership.
I'll give one example. But first just let me mention I don't write the following for any personal glory -- since I am a flawed sinner, nor for anybody to think I'm trying to garner spiritual brownie points. Since John Allen outed me, and people know that I write this blog, I am just writing this account so people can perhaps better understand Opus Dei.
This past Christmas we spent the holidays in Peru with our family. While we were there the family contacted a taxi driver to be my "bodyguard" and drive me around all the time. Besides doing some typical site-seeing trips, and going to mass, this also included almost every day (it seemed) going to some different restaurant to eat ceviche and down a few dark beers (Peruvian dark beer by the way is excellent).
As can be imagined in the almost three weeks that we were running around, the taxi driver and myself struck up quite the friendship, and we were able to discuss his future plans, his family and common friends that we have. At no time did I have to beat him over the head that I was a Christian, nor that I was Catholic. It was obvious from my normal behaviour - going to mass, or a baptism. With time, he asked me a few questions regarding the differences between Catholics and Evangelicals, and we discussed that...and then let the subject drop when it seemed natural to do.
At another time, he told me that he considered himself Catholic and he went to mass, but that he had never been baptized, nor had first communion - and that he wondered what that meant if he should die. Again, my responses to him were fairly light, but still direct: I told him what the church said -- and which he already knew.
One day he drove me to the St Maria de Nazaret parish which is run by some Opus Dei Spanish priests that I knew. We visited for quite some time and my new friend walked around, but for the most part kept to himself. Another time he volunteered to drive the whole family to Sunday mass.
One day he asked a bit more about being baptized, and I told him that while any Christian could baptize him, if he were serious then he should talk to a priest about it. I also mentioned that at the St Maria de Nazaret parish the priests there had helped one of my god-daughters to have her first communion and confirmation all at once - after taking a couple-long week courses.
Again there was no pressure, and this was just natural talk among friends who also enjoyed having a pint together or walking through Inca ruins.
As our holidays ended, my new friend not only took us to the airport, but walked inside with all the rest of the family and joined in the hugs, kisses and tears as we said our goodbyes and headed back to Spain. We exchanged telephone numbers.
Jump forward now to yesterday, when I got a telephone call from Peru, and it was my taxi-cab friend, telling me that he had made an important decision last month (January) and that he had gone to talk to a priests, and that he'd signed up for a crash RCIA course and that at the end of February he is being baptized, and will have his first communion and confirmation.
He was calling to say thank you for being a friend.