The Ordinary and the Profound Meet in Rural Jarpa, Peru
Sister Dominga Moore, OP
If you would like to drop in on our little Dominican community in San Juan de Jarpa, Peru, prepare yourself upon leaving Lima for eight hours of driving deep into the Andes mountains over climbs, twists, turns and bumps. When you enter into our river valley, you will be higher than 12,500 feet of altitude and surrounded by steep slopes dotted with tiny fields. In late afternoon you will meet our people heading home with their cows, pigs, sheep and donkeys. Possibly you will find us at home beside the church on the square, but quite possibly we will be on the road visiting one of the thirty villages that are part of our vast priestless parish.
This year there are just two of us sharing our Dominican common life and mission in rural Jarpa: Sisters Elizabeth and Dominga. Elizabeth Castro Cruz, who has been on mission here in Jarpa for the four years of her Dominican life, can give you a warm and thoughtful introduction to the people, the culture and the customs of this area. Dominga (Marie Dominic) Moore, even after twenty-eight years of Dominican life in Peru, is still a beginner in rural Jarpa where she has just come to live after twenty years in Lima. But Elizabeth has been teaching her the roads and so she would be happy to take you along to visit the remote villages and to invite you in to stay a few days to share our common life and mission.
Gladly we will share with you what gives us energy for this mission. We shared that last March when we began living together. For Elizabeth it is the people, their lives, their faith, their needs, and the wisdom they share. For Dominga it is the vastness of the parish, the margination of the people and challenge of Jesus to go forth and preach and to make disciples of all the nations. When our preaching mission opens the doors of our house to various groups or sends us on journeys for Sunday liturgies, marriages, baptisms, prayer for the dead, First Communion preparations, and much more, then we can get a tired, or a bit impatient with the frustrations but it is then that the deeper meaning of our lives that we share in conversation and in common prayer, gives us the understanding and the patience to continue on together.
If you stay on a bit you will discover our rhythms of both silence and communication. When there are spaces in the active life, each finds her moments to pray, to read, to prepare for mission, to do the chores, to create something beautiful, to cook something tasty, to visit, to rest or do whatever restores life for her and for our being together. Those moments alone and the encounters we each have with people and groups, later become themes for sharing at meals or in common prayer or in the calm of the evening. Sit at our table and you may hear stories of our lives, our families, our customs and of the experiences and wisdom we have gained in the course of life. You might get a taste of our shared tears, frustrations and laughter. You might hear our requests for help, our clarifications of possible misunderstandings, and sometimes the healing request for pardon.
All of that is part of our deeper sharing that is common life. It goes along with the give and take of all the ordinary things of life like answering the door bell, carrying water, cleaning the house, driving the car, scheduling, shopping for food and preparing meals. The mingling of the ordinary and the profound in which each gives her part and receives in turn what she needs gives flavor and beauty to our Dominican common life and mission in Jarpa. If you would like to come, taste, and see, we are waiting for your visit.
