Tucked behind a concrete wall on the outskirts of Mexico City is the North American Conference Novitiate in Tlalpizahuac, Mexico. With over 20 acres of property filled with greenery and wide-open spaces, it’s the perfect space for us novices from around the North American Conference to delve deeper into discernment, while immersing ourselves in Spanish and the local culture. This July brought five new novices: Cody Hill and me for the Denver Province, Dang Nguyen and Son Lai for the Baltimore Province, and Efraín Bergsaí for the Province of Mexico. Fr. Javier Morán Marín, Fr. Matt Allman and Br. Tito López Cartagena make up the professed team accompanying the novices.
Our novitiate year kicked off with the first professions of Kiet Tran and Dilan Calimayor. The Tlalpizahuac community rallied together to prepare for Dilan’s profession, from rounding up three of the novitiate-raised sheep to be served in the festive meal, to cleaning the chapel. The night before Dilan’s profession, the Novitiate community joined Dilan’s family for a night of laughter and song as many attempted karaoke and enjoyed a meal together.
With a packed chapel – overflowing into the parking lot – Fr. Jerome Chavarria, Coordinator of the North American Conference, Redemptorists confreres, and our local Tlalpizahuac family joined us to celebrate Dilan’s profession. Provincial Superior Joaquín Frausto Nájera of Mexico presided at the Mass and received Dilan’s first vows. Afterwards, a fiesta with Dilan’s family ensued. It was another evening of dancing, singing, and eating. The six-hour-long party was a new experience for many of us! The following week, Kiet professed his first vows to much fanfare in Houston, surrounded by his confreres of the Extra-Patriam Vice Province. Fr. Chuong Cao, vocations director, and Fr. Rémi Hébert, theology formator in San Antonio, attended the festivities for Kiet. “It was a pleasure to attend Kiet’s profession of vows,” Fr. Rémi said. “Especially being able to witness first-hand his joy, his enthusiasm, and how seriously he takes his vows.” Adam Tran-Chung, who also attended, said “Kiet’s profession was a great opportunity for me to connect with other Redemptorists as well as students in formation from other Units. It was a very festive and joyous occasion that emphasized the Vietnamese culture from the Mass itself to the reception afterwards.”
Fr. Jerome led us on our opening eight-day retreat, beginning with a visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe to ask for her intercession for the new novitiate year. In the conferences, we explored St. Alphonsus, his prayer, the importance of a close relationship with God, the current state of the Conference and the Congregation, Mary, and much more. He used a variety of texts found throughout Redemptorist history from the 1996 Commemorative Edition of the Liguorian to documents from the 26th General Chapter to paint the complex tapestry that is our Congregation.
In July, we joined the Missionaries of Perpetual Help as they celebrated the election of a new Provincial Government for Mexico, along with the birthday of their General Superior, Sr. Melissa Garza, M.P.S., our former catechism director in the Bronx. Our community learned more about the history of Mexico and its people by visiting the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City and the ancient city of Teotihuacán in central Mexico with Br. Jeffrey Rolle. Every Sunday, we celebrate a Mass with the local community where we get plenty of time to practice our Spanish – even joining them in their celebrations like choir anniversaries. We also join a neighboring parish on Sunday evenings for Mass and Friday evenings for a rosary.
We recently welcomed two lambs on our property, adding to our 14-strong flock. They’ve been a welcome sight, running through the tall grass and becoming more confident with approaching us and eating from our hands. While they may be cute, Cody, Son, and I are in the process of building a fence to take back property from the sheep so we can turn it into a landscaped garden. Son and I also started a smaller garden – already fenced in to keep out sheep – filled with radishes, spinach, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, papaya, cucumber, and more.
We’re constantly finding new trees and plants on the property during our morning walks and we’re hard at work practicing our frontenis and volleyball skills to stay active. To be fair however, chasing the sheep around the property is a workout already.
Mexico is a completely new experience for Cody and me. “Learning to be foreigners in a different country is quite the shock when we’ve lived in our home country all our lives,” Cody said. Yet despite the language struggles and trying to mesh with our Tlalpizahuac community, “the openness and hospitality we have experienced has made this a great start to the year,” Cody said. Fr. Matt has been a great help in understanding the cultural differences, and most importantly, serving as a translator until our Spanish improves.
While we may be in a new community, our impact is not unseen, evident from the smell of cinnamon and bread wafting out of the kitchen to fresh bananas, avocados, and guavas (harvested from our plentiful trees) placed on the dining table. The kitchen is once again becoming a community gathering space, and I hope we’re using it to share the best parts of ourselves to help strengthen our bonds. I can’t wait to see how our community is going to transform – the fruits and pastries are just to help grease those gears.
Life here isn’t as intense as it was in the Bronx, but our environment is quite close. There aren’t any people screaming or constant crime alerts, but the car horns and other sounds from the busy road still make their way through the house. Yet, it’s a great place to take a year to revel in the serenity that somehow finds its way through our Novitiate. It’s an environment that forces our perspectives to shift, invites us to turn inward and not worry about when the next assignment is due or how we’re going to sleep when Tacos El Torito blares music through our windows. There’s truly a peace here, where we’ll be able to discern God’s call, and learn the richness of our incredible Congregation. ¡Nos vemos!
Andrew Tran-Chung
(Source: denverlink 08.30.24)
