The Power of Presence
November 29, 2024
This article appears in the November Issue of Reflections and Connections
Sister Anne Jude Van Lanen worked with Sister Mary Agreda Touchett and Peg Cerny to establish Hospice Hope in Fond du Lac in 1980. However, her inspiration for that work came from her ministry in Nicaragua beginning in 1961. This story is an abridged version of some of her reflections about that experience.
Early in my missionary experience in Nicaragua, I became aware of how little I had to effectively minister among the people living along the Río Coco. It was during an incident when I expressed my feeling of inadequacy, that a wise old Capuchin missionary, Fr. Philip Casper, reminded me, “Remember, you bring your greatest gift when you come empty-handed.”
These were words never to be forgotten, as Sister Julieta (Portocarrero) said to me shortly thereafter, “When speaking Spanish, don’t worry about your mistakes–-just keep talking—we will understand you.” Words never to be forgotten, when I visited a remote village and during the night was called to a bamboo dwelling in the jungle where a young man was dying of tuberculosis. He was surrounded by his wife and small children, as well as several neighbors. My medicines were all gone, my vocabulary in the Miskito language was limited and I had “nothing I could do” for him. I knelt at his side and expressed my regrets at “having nothing” to offer. He opened his eyes, and with a big smile and raspy voice, said, “Trabil apu, Madriki, man balram.” (“Don’t worry Madre, you came.”) We prayed together, and he died peacefully.
. . .This taught me a lesson for life that I have never forgotten, and it is the power of presence . . .
We have heard the expression, “It was painful, but it was a time of grace.” And, so it was. This entire experience awakened in me a new “call”, when after years of restlessness, the Spirit “moved within” and my religious superiors gave me permission to pursue the establishment of Hospice Hope as part of St. Agnes Hospital in 1980. In this endeavor, credit is due to God and many others, especially Sister Mary Agreda Touchett and Peg Cerny, for their untiring efforts to initiate hospice care in this geographic area of Wisconsin. The death of my family members while I was out of the country was a motivating factor in this pursuit of hospice care.
I publicly credit the Miskito people along the Río Coco for having taught me “How to be born and how to die…” surrounded by those whom they love. And by allowing the God of nature to be God.