On Sunday, we had most of the day to ourselves. Thanks to Sister Denise, we got to see the Paterson Museum which was an awesome experience for me and would be for anyone who is fascinated by history. Paterson, New Jersey was one of the first planned industrial cities in America. The city was founded by Alexander Hamilton. The Paterson Museum includes some of the first Colt Revolvers, the world’s first motorized submarine, air-craft engines from Wright Aero Corps Paterson, and silk looms that made Paterson the largest silk manufacturing city in the world.

At the museum, we ran into Mohammad who is an artist and works at the museum. He recognized Sister Denise immediately and greeted her with a huge smile and a warm welcome. The Salesian Sisters were called to Paterson in 1908 and have been here ever since. You can that the community really loves the Salesians as they are greeted with smiles everywhere we go. The Salesians are part of the community here and as evidenced by the way they are greeted and loved by everyone, they have really shown the love of Christ in the work they do here.  

Mohammad gave us a brief history of the museum and explained to us some of the new exhibits they were bringing in and exhibits that were on their way out. One such exhibit was from their Jewish Heritage/ History Exhibit. He was explaining that the exhibit had officially ended, but the family that had donated the artifacts to museum had allowed the museum to keep them a little longer than they had originally planned. Mohammad then went on to explain how the kind the family was and his relationship has developed with them even though they are Jewish and his name is Mohammad. He told us that as an expression of his friendship towards the family that he constructed a Menorah for the family out wire. He was beaming at the opportunity to share the friendship between himself and the Jewish family. This again, was another experience of Christ’s love that we experience with our relationships as we accompany each other on our life journey.

After the museum visit, we had the rest of the afternoon off. As usual for me, when I get some time to myself I like to spend it running or moving around outdoors. Today, Gloria decided that she wanted to join me outside in the cold instead of spending the few hours up in her room. Knowing that she was most likely not  planning  to join me in running round and round and up and down the hills that the Mary Help of Christians Academy is located on, I was afraid that she would get bored and cold. However, she surprised me. She started out walking around the loop that I was taking for my run. I typically run about an 8 minute mile pace, so I figured I’d run for 40 minutes and round that off to 5 miles.

Gloria must have gotten bored with walking around my loop, that went around the front parking lot, along the soccer field, up, behind and around the school building and back down to the parking lot,  because about 20 minutes into my run she stopped. She had found a small ball and began kicking it around the small soccer field in front of the school. Being a bit overly obsessive about my running, I had already decided that I was running for at least 40 minutes and would shoot for 50. Once I was reaching the 39 minute mark, I noticed Gloria sitting on the grass with the ball at her feet. I reached the 40 minute mark and trotted over to her. She got up and I guess asked if I wanted to kick the ball around, because she kicked the ball over to me.

I have never played soccer/ futbol in my life and was a little worried that I would totally make a fool of myself if I accepted her invitation to play by kicking the ball back… I kicked the ball back to her and she passed it back to me. We ended up passing the ball and forth, laughing at each other’s clumsiness (more like laughing at my clumsiness) for a good 15 minutes. Even though I speak practically no Spanish and Gloria speaks no English, we had a terrific time with each other taking a break from being cooped up in conference rooms.

Once we both grew tired of running around after a little green ball, we agreed to cool down by walking around the school and convent grounds. We hiked all the way up to the top of the hill, where there is a cemetery and spotted a total of six deer. Watching the deer we stood quietly, wondering when they would run away… The beauty and language of nature is universal.

On the way down the hill from the cemetery, there is a playground. Gloria pointed to the swings and smiled. I smiled back and nodded my head yes. I am so happy that she took the initiative, once again, asking if I wanted to accompany her on the swing set. I had been eyeing the playground since the day I arrived in New Jersey. We swung on the swings pointing to the skyline of the city that could be seen in the distance and we attempted to communicate using random vocabulary we shared.

This afternoon was special, I found the spirit of St John Bosco and St. Mary Marzarello’s in my afternoon accompanied by Gloria. We were there together, just being present and offering each other much needed release and escape from our long days spent in conferences and information sessions. Now reflecting back on my day… I realize that the experience that Gloria and I shared being together is what life is all about. We need to be present with each other and accompany each other on our life journeys, because it is through each other that we encounter Christ. Christ is always with us. We should always be walking with Him as we are walking towards Him.

I know that I am here in Paterson to participate at the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women and to help find ways to advance the status of rural women throughout the world, but when I decided to join VIDES, I knew that my main mission, my life mission, is to find Christ’s love through accompanying and loving others. What I am doing at the UN and the ways that I am trying to help IIMA/ Salesian Sisters in their international development and mission work is definitely important, but it wouldn’t be important at all if I did not live out the values that the Salesians teach every day: truth of self, freedom to love, accompaniment through reason, religion and loving kindness) with everyone that I meet. I think that this experience is helping me find how to live those values consistently throughout all levels of my life.