"Holy Chaos"

Congratulations to Sister Norma Pimentel, a member of the Missionaries of Jesus and Executive Director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, who received the 2019 Outstanding Leadership Award from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) on August 16.  (You will recall from this and other posts on this blog that several SCCs ministered with Sister Norma in June.)

This Global Sisters Report story by Soli Salgado and Dan Stockman provides some background on Sister Norma and coverage of the presentation of the reward at the LCWR annual Assembly last week.  In her speech and in a subsequent interview, Sister Norma described her ministry as "holy chaos," noting that when she started doing this ministry years ago, serving 200 people in a day would have been considered a busy day.  Now, the ministry serves over 700 migrants each day.  Describing the urgent need, Sister Norma said, "There are times we must decide who we are, what we stand for.  We must ask ourselves, dear Sisters, 'What else must I do in the world today?' If it is not now, then when?  If it is not you, then who?  For it is in times of extreme pain and suffering that extreme measures of love are needed. . . . As consecrated people dedicated to our ministries, we must never lose sight of why we are doing this. I can be comfortable with chaos, and sometimes the Humanitarian Respite Center can be chaotic [in] how it looks, but there's a sense of order within that chaos, and that's why I call it 'holy chaos.' "

Sister Norma addresses the LCWR Assembly. (Photo from Global Sisters Report)