Eucharistic Missionaries of St. Dominic

 As we celebrate, honor and pray for our new holy pontiff, Pope Leo XIV ­­– who has cool Louisiana familial connections and who is calling all if us to be a missionaries in our own states of life, I can't help but recall some Eucharistic missionary experiences I've had in the past.

One summer, when I was a Freshman in college at Loyola, Dominican and Xavier, I had the opportunity to do volunteer work with some nuns in New Orleans – they were known as the Eucharistic Missionaries of St. Dominic who had their mother house on Aline Street off of Magazine (now Laurel Senior Living). 
 
I got to know Sister Fara Impastato OP, who was my teacher in “Religions of the World” that semester and was very inspired by her teaching and example.
 
One of the books we read in Spring class was Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton. It was so neat to learn from Sister Fara about the monks and the cloistered life that they lived that I decided to take a bus trip to Conyers Georgia, where they had a community, during Easter week. What a blessing it was to be with the members of that community during that solemn time.
 
Sister Fara also helped to enlighten us to all the religions of the world and to find the commonality in many of them – especially as it related to the common paths they have for members to take the purgative, illuminative, and unitive stages of spiritual growth. Another great book we read that semester was Interior Castles by St. Teresa of Avila.
 
On the light side, even though Sister Fara and most in her community did not wear the usual “habit” that was and still is associated with women in a religious order, she used to relate that it came in handy when she had to catch the streetcar on St. Charles Ave., as she was not required to pay a fare if she was recognized by that apparel!
 
Sister Fara and her other community members were very dedicated in their faith and commitment to serving God, so when she announced in class that her order sponsored a summer volunteer program, I became very interested. 
 
Even though I had a part-time job all through college at the Loyola Book Store, I made plans to take off the month required to join other lay people in outreach with the sisters.
 
My assignment was for Yscloskey, which is a small community in St. Bernard Parish south of Chalmette and Arabi – which is less populated after Hurricane Katrina devastated most of that area. Sister Luisa was the nun I worked with there, and we had another volunteer from Arizona, Maria, who helped us.
 
Father Roch Naquin was the pastor of the parish, San Pedro Pescador (St. Peter the Fisherman), where we stayed at during that tenure. There was a trailer for Father Roch and me, as well as one for Sister Luisa and Maria. 

It was a simple and carefree area with mostly residents who made their livelihood off of fishing with many great places nearby like Delacroix Island, Hopedale and Shellbeach. The church was shaped almost like a boat and a long net was hanging from one of the walls to enhance the theme.
 
Most of things the volunteers did in outreach with the sisters during the summer involved home visiting and coordination of apostolic activities for the families – especially in educational and social activities with children. 
 
We ate lunch every day with one of the kind families who opened their homes to us – and usually with so much seafood goodies that we couldn't eat much for breakfast or dinner!
 
The experience was so moving and enriching that I did another summer of volunteer month with another volunteer and the sisters the following year in outreach to the poor in Scott, Louisiana with Sister Diane. 

After college and before graduate school, the sisters' influence helped nudge me to do a year of volunteer work as a layperson in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in California before going into a career in social work.

Thank you, Sister Fara, for all that you have taught me in seeking to be eucharistic. In my work in the Diocese of Baton Rouge with veterans and seniors, your influence has been life changing.
 
And many thanks to all the many local priests, religious and lay people who shepherd and guide us to follow Pope Leo XIV's call for us to be everyday, simple eucharistic missionaries!

Horcasitas, a licensed clinical social worker, is founder/owner of Prayer Care, LLC in Baton Rouge.