To Honor All Who Wander

Lord, teach us to reach across all borders, 
Fabricated or natural,
To join with all our brothers and sisters, 
To unify, and not separate,
To honor all who wander, 
Seeking hope, seeking opportunity,
    Seeking you 
As assuredly we seek you.  
 -from To Reach Across Borders, Catholic Relief Services

Receiving the Lumen Ecclesaie award from the Dominican Ecclesial Institute this past Sunday was a great honor and a humbling experience. A big bonus from the recognition was the gift of a cross made by immigrant artists Wenceslao Hernández Hernández and José Luis Cabrera Sotero. This was a great collaborative effort. Cabrera is an accomplished cross painter, and Hernández created the image of immigrants walking across the desert.

Each of the 28 people honored at the awards ceremony received a cross created by immigrants through the Kino Border Initiative, a bi-national Catholic organization based in Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, that works with migration. The KBI was inaugurated in January of 2009 by six organizations from the United States and Mexico: The California Province of the Society of Jesus, Jesuit Refugee Service/USA, the Missionary Sisters of the Eucharist, the Mexican Province of the Society of Jesus, the Diocese of Tucson and the Archdiocese of Hermosillo. Support the Kino Border Initiative.