Catholic in the City: A Woman's Journey to Living Out Her Faith

(This article was written for the People of God, the Archdiocesan Newspaper for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. It will possibly be published in May.) When one is an undergraduate in college, sometimes, the world one lives in is similar to living in a “bubble”. College students tend to focus on their school work, outside work to pay the bills, their social lives, and maybe their families and religion. Thinking about issues of social injustice in our world is something that is merely beyond their view. I know these are generalizations and there are always exceptions to these generalizations. However, for the students that this does characterize exposure to social injustices both locally and globally are essential to broadening their minds and hearts. From Sunday, March 13th to Wednesday, March 16th, two students from Highlands University’s Newman Center in Las Vegas, New Mexico, their campus minister and staff advisor came to learn about and volunteer with Catholic Charities and othe

Rosie & Sofia (36 weeks) The last few weeks have been life changing. On Thursday, March 10th, I received a phone call from a doctor asking for me and my husband to go Lovelace Woman's Hospital for a follow up appointment (following up on an appointment I had on Tues. March 8th) as soon as possible. Because my fluid levels in the amniotic sac have been consistently in the normal-low range they wanted to do another follow up ultrasound. The day I received the phone call I was thrown for a loop. Just two days before my midwife had told me not to worry. She said the fluid was in the normal-low range but that we would just wait things out. I was in a total panic when I received the phone call. I felt a rush of anxiety and stress. I cried and I apologized to Sofia for not producing what she needed. What I do naturally in a time of distress is turn to God, I went to mass with my husband. We prayed. We asked God to watch over our little Sofia. After mass I felt somewhat relieved. At

A few months ago, Mike and I, took a drive to Las Vegas, NM. I had an appointment with the campus minister at Highlands University in Las Vegas, NM for my job at Catholic Charities. I had decided to ask Mike to join me because at that point I knew I was already pregnant with baby Sofia, it was the first trimester, and there were times during that trimester where I was feeling nauseated. Anyway, during this trip there were two goals for me when meeting with the campus minister: 1) to listen to their, the college students and the local communities, needs, 2) to tell them what Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe already does. In the end I was eagerly surprised that there were many things that came from the brief one hour meeting. In Albuquerque, from my experience of living in Albuquerque (five years), there are several social justice issues that are prominent: poor school system that translates into poorly educated people, immigrant rights, lack of housing for low income i