By: Sr. Virgie Mozo

Sr. Virgie Mozo goes into the desert to prepare for her final profession. There she finds herself and finds God-she also finds that the people have no priest and have joined other faiths.

Special Preparation
Part of my formation as a junior sister before making final commitment is to have approximately two months of special spiritual preparation before the final profession. As I’m working  in a ‘poblacion’ with different groups such Basic Christian Communities of women, men, and children I asked Sister Ita McElwain, who is my companion on my journey in religious life, that I would withdraw from actual participation during this period of preparation I would go into the desert.

But before I made this request, I prayed and reflected on the text below:

Into the Desert
I felt that the two-month period would be very precious for me as I reflected on my life, before pronouncing the final unconditional “YES” to HIM who called me to this way of life. For six weeks I was in Territorio Antartico, one of our houses here in Santiago, praying, reading and reflecting on my life from the time of my “Nazareth” period to the time that I said ‘yes’ for my mission here in Chile.

Team of Four
Our pastoral action team was headed by one of sisters, Kathleen McGrath. Our team of four set out for Colchaine, a place up in the altiplano or highplane. The four of us who comprised the team, Elsa a lay volunteer from Iquique, Jesus Maria Ortega a young Spanish priest, Kathleen and myself, were of four different nationalities, Chilean, Spanish, Irish and Filipino.

God’s Mysterious Presence
One morning we left Iquique for Colchaine which is approximately a six and one half hours’ drive. We had one stop in Huara for the police check point. As three of us were drivers, Kathleen, Jesus Maria and we took turns at the wheel and what a magnificent journey it was. I was truck by the of God’s creation. The desert even brown and barren, has its own meaning. The mountains with their awesome majesty and color are hard to describe. One experiences the beauty  and the mystery of God’s presence in the desert, in the mountains in the long and winding never ending roads.

Colchaine
On the road we meet shepherds with their llamas, alpaca and sheep. We saw wild ducks and many birds and cacti starting to flower. When we finally reached Colchaine, it was twilight. We unloaded our things from the car and opened the parish house, which was newly repaired with the addition of a small kitchen, sala and bedroom. We discovered that the key of the bedroom was not included in the bundle and even though there were other open areas in the house, we realized we couldn’t sleep there. So we could have to look elsewhere. I checked the bedroom and noticed it had a Yale lock so I thought of “Mac Gyver” in one of his TV series who used his plastic laminated identity card to open door locks. I slipped my ID card into the side of the door and OLALA it opened! My companions were still wondering how to arrange the beds when I opened the door. It pays to watch TV sometimes.
We planned our activity fro the following day and slept. I slept peacefully and the following day, being from the orient and Manila, I was the first one to awake early. I prepared the breakfast and went to the well to draw water; not so easy but I learned the technique after few days.

Majority are Now Evangelical
We had our morning liturgy after breakfast and then we went to the municipality and the school. There is no church presence in Colchaine and because of this a lot of the Catholics have changed their religion to the evangelicals. The majority of them are now evangelicals, including the school children who naturally were influenced by their parents and aunts or uncles. We had some time with the teachers who are still Catholics.
The children were simple, dressed in their school uniform with a thick blue sweater to protect them from the cool breeze and they wore “condorito” or Chinese sandals” that we have back home.

Vienna Children Choir
In the evening we had our Mass after the school activities had finished. It was the evangelical children who provided the choir that filled the church. They sung beautifully like the “Vienna Children’s Choir “; this is the gift of the altiplano people aside from simplicity, humility and gentleness. Some of the staff in the municipality came to the mass as well as the school teachers. The celebration was very touching, the priest related the lives of the people to the Gospel, God’s creation and his gifts to us. It was very cold that evening and we only had our ponchos to protect us.

Not Friendly
On the third day we visited the small towns of Cariquima, Cullachane and Villa Blanca. In Cariquima we met the school children as usual they are the evangelicals. In this place the children were quite distant when we arrived. But with a little friendly talk and an out-of-tune song by me the ice was broken.

Timeless
Up in the altiplano you don’t know what time of the day you’ll have your meal. There is no timetable and you have time for everything-prayer, reflection, self and ministry- On the fourth day we had our lunch in the middle of the desert. It was past 2:00 P.M. when we sat down to have our meal and to relax before going to another town.

Asked for Mass
In the afternoon when we reached the next town, the people asked for the celebration of Mass. They cleaned and prepared the church. We had an evening Mass to facilitate the people coming from their farms. The place has no lights, only a gas lamp. It was nearly 9:00 P.M. when the Mass started and it was quite dark.
I was fascinated by the gentleness, intelligence, adaptability and simplicity of the people especially the children. They were receptive during the Mass and participated in the singing. The children of the altiplano have a spirit of solidarity with one another, fetching water, taking care of their younger sister and brothers when their parents are in the fields or absent from home. Sometime the older ones have to do the cooking, cleaning and washing. They also have a sense of the presence of God in their lives and in creation. During the shared homily at Mass, the priest touched on all these aspects of their lives.

Children Teach Us
The song Greatest Love of All was the song I remembered as a message for and from those children we “I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way... give them a sense of pride to make it easier, let the children laughter remind us how we used to be...”

Sacrament of the Desert
On our last day we had the opportunity to cross the boarder between Chile and Bolivia. It was their market day every fifteen days. It gave me a great joy as we walked the border. While walking in desert I thought of my language studies during 1989. It was here in Bolivia that I learned the language and it was here that I had my first taste of my Latin American reality and I thought:
“Was it not in the desert that the Israelites, together with Moses, experienced the steadfast love off God made their covenant?
Was it not in the desert that John cried out and prepared the way for Jesus?
Was it not in the desert that Jesus stayed alone for His prayer and His fasting, was tempted and was with the company of his chosen friends?
And was it not in the desert, that I Virgie experienced a new God’s steadfast love, as I prepared for my final vows?”