In Huanusco, Zacatecas—Monday of Holy Week

I left Irapuato after breakfast on Monday of Holy Week. My bus left at 9:55 a.m. The bus offered a snack of pop and crackers and two movies: Alice in Wonderland and Emilia Earhart—both in Spanish. The bus arrived in Aguascalientes at 1:00 p.m. Father Jesus Resendez was there to pick me up a little after one. He was so kind. He put my two suitcases in his car and off we went to drive around town looking for a candle shop. He needed to buy his Paschal Candle. He also bought 500 small Paschal candles to sell to the people. The parishes do not offer palms on Palm Sunday nor small candles for Easter Vigil. People buy their own. Since these towns are so out of the way the priests bring the sellers or supplies the wares to his parishioners right at the church.
Father also took me out to lunch. He wanted a fancy place but I was too tired to keep walking in the heat of the day so we stopped at a semi-fancy restaurant and ate enchiladas. We also stopped at a juice factory and bought some fruit juice…like 350 pesos worth of juice and red wine. He also filled his car with gas…another 380 pesos. I helped him pay for both. It was kind of him to pick me up.
When we arrived at St. Francis Parish we asked some children if they knew where the priest was and they went and got Father Jesus Guerrero. He was wearing a big, white cowboy hat. Funny! He told us that I would be staying with “the teacher”. Everyone knows who the teacher is in town. Her name is Esther but I doubt the people know her name. She is “la maestra”.
Her home is nice –two bedrooms, a bath, a tiny kitchen—camp style; rustic and rusty, too—both the stove and fridge are 50’s style. She has an office, a living/dining room and a huge patio and a huge car port…big enough for a dance hall. She teaches students in a public high school: history, social ethics and morality. She invites her former students to help her present students to learn dances for different school functions. Some students also come to her for help with legal cases. She helps a lot of people, including me!
In this parish of St. Francis of Assisi lives the priest, his blood sister who is very elderly and frail, his secretary who is about 45 or so and Father—who looks about 70 but is probably a bit younger—in a very small house behind the parish church. But I went to see his newly renovated parish house right beside the church. That place will have about 5 bedrooms and patio and all the other rooms. It will be nice.
Father wants me to catechize the lectors, Eucharistic Ministers, parents; young people…in other words, start evangelizing everyone. He said that at first he would ask people to come to the church for catechism but few came. Now, he goes to the ranches and spends all his time on the road. Now the ranchers walk to their temple at the ranch. Each ranch has a tiny chapel with the Blessed Sacrament so that when Father visits he has a place to offer Mass. The catechists assigned to those temples are very possessive and proud of their positions, too. They are totally committed to their call. Rightly so!
For my Easter “meal” I had left over scrambled eggs from two mornings ago and I added some beans and made myself a burrito. I am all by myself. The teacher left for Puerto Vallarta and I can’t even make the TV work. I am missing “home” – wherever home is!
I must get some information from my saved documents to catechize the lectors and Eucharistic ministers.