La cruz del cambio

La Cruz del Cambio

On the Sacrament of Transitions(Sobre un Sacramento de Transición)

This PowerPoint presentation will examine a sacramental spirituality from a Latino/a perspective that responds to these drastically changing times. We will:

Introduce the idea of a Sacramental Theology from a Latino/a spirituality.

Explore the context of our changing world with a new and emerging cosmology.

Consider Latino/a spirituality of redemptive suffering and solidarity as a response to our global context of change and transition.

Throughout the presentation resources and reading abstract related to this topic will be offered.

A Sacramental Spirituality

Latino/a Sacramental TheologyAt its core Christian theology is an

incarnational theology. The Human experiences

transcendence through the immanence of the Divine.

Sacramental Theology witnesses grace throughout crucial moments of human experience.

Latino/a spirituality witnesses to sacramental theology by placing its locus theologicus with the daily experience of the people (popular theology)

Click here to read the post “Latino Sacramental Theology and our Contemporary Social Context.”

“God Became Human so that Humans might become God”

Resources for Latino/a Spirituality• The following are organizational resources on Latino Studies and

Spirituality:• Center for Latino Spirituality and Culture: A program of the Notre

Dame based center for studies on the U.S. Latino experience focused on Latino spirituality.

• National Catholic Conference for Hispanic Ministry. : A national network and forum for the religious, social, professional, and civic advancement of Roman Catholic Hispanics in the United States.

• Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States : A theological academy of U.S. Latino/a Catholic theologians with their latest research and work on U.S. Latino studies.

• This article by Professor Gilberto Cavazos-Gonzalez, OFM offers an excellent exposition on Latino/a Spirituality:• Pan de Vida Y Bebida de Salvacion

: Latino/a spirituality for Hispanic Ministry.

“Creation has been groaning in labor pains until now” Our social and cultural reality is one

of seismic change and transition We are aware of a new cosmology

where creation is dynamic and interconnected

Watch the following link on the New Cosmology: The New Story

If Sacraments are moments of grace within our human experience then these experiences must relate within a spirituality of creation that makes these experiences relevant.

TRANSITION AND TRAVAILThe emerging

cosmology is at the root of our changing world

and our spirituality must respond to the physic impact of this

reality

Latino/a Cosmology

• Instead of a mechanistic cosmological model that struggles with the emerging cosmology, Latino/a presents a different cultural model.

• This model is based on an aesthetic cosmology where the universe is seen as beautiful, dynamic, spiritual and interconnected.

• Read the following blog post: Cosmological Sacramentality

Cosmological Sacramentality occurs when creative and violent “moments of grace” bring forth new life comes forth from a process of transition and change (death).

Christian mysticism offers us this through the Paschal Mystery and the spirituality of “Mystical Death” and “Divine Rebirth”

Western culture does not have an adequate way of responding to this creative image of death and rebirth in a communal sacramental experience.

FROM A COSMOLOGY OF TRANSITION TO A SPIRITUALITY OF SUFFERING

SACRAMENTAL SUFFERING AND RITUALIZED ACCOMPANIMENT Hispanic popular Catholicism

offers sacramental opportunities depicting these moments of grace with the following elements Celebrating death as a

passage to new life. Accompaniment and solidarity

between ourselves, Christ (logos of creation) and one another.

Sharing in a communal experience of being interconnected in all things… especially in our suffering

Read the following blog post: Redemptive Suffering in the context of transition.

RELATIONSHIPS, A GLOBAL HUMAN FAMILY

Sacramental theology brings moments of grace so that humanity may experience transcendence.

Hispanic culture places a high regard on the family unit within our cosmological experience.

Communal experience of sacramental suffering brings an element of solidarity that transcends the boundaries of relationships and allow us to become a global human family that celebrates our cosmological interconnectedness.

We do not live alongside one another purely by chance; all of us are progressing along a common path as men and women, and thus as brothers and sisters.-Pope Benedict XVI, 2008 World Day of Peace Message: The Human Family, a Community of Peace.

Spe Salvi (On Christian Hope): 2007 Papal Encyclical

• The true measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship to suffering and to the sufferer. This holds true both for the individual and for society. A society unable to accept its suffering members and incapable of helping to share their suffering and to bear it inwardly through “com-passion” is a cruel and inhuman society. 

Further Readings• “La Vida Sacra: Contemporary Hispanic Sacramental Theology”

o by: James Empereur and Eduardo Fernandezo This book offers a comprehensive examination into Hispanic Sacramental Theology by detailing the various

aspect of sacramental life that occur throughout the human experience. The authors consider contemporary cultural issues and then thoroughly reflect on the sacramental life with how it responds to popular theology, social justice and the emerging cosmological framework.

• “From the Heart of our People”o Edited by Orlando Espin and Miguel Diazo For the student of Latino theology this book is an absolute must. Espin and Diaz take a number of excellent

essays on topics related to Latino/a theology. The diversity of the articles offer the reader a good sense of the fundamental elements of this contextual theology with the flavor of some of the brightest members of this academic community. It is a resource that rarely will sit on a shelve for those of us engaged in this discipline.

• “Caminemos Con Jesus: Toward a Hispanic/Latino Theology of Accompaniement”o By Roberto Goizuetao Goizueta’s thesis is to examine Hispanic popular theology that conveys explicitly or implicitly a theology of

solidarity and transcendental accompaniment. The thesis embarks on a journey of social justice ritualized within prominent popular devotions. Goizueta also offers an accurate critique of Western culture’s inability to adequately address cosmological meaning and proposes along the way an Hispanic aesthetic cosmological model to create a culture of interconnectedness and diversity.

• “Mozarabs, Hispanics, and the Cross”o By Raul Gomez-Ruizo For the student of history this fascinating research into the origins of popular devotion to the cross will be an

exciting journey. Gomez-Ruiz takes you to the controversial development of Spanish Catholicism and then allows you to experience the rich but marginalized tradition of the Mozarabic community and their emphasis on the image of the Cross. This survey will bring to life the origin of this fundamental practice that has been extremely meaningful for the other marginalized Hispanic communities throughout North and South America.