The family is the cradle where the seed of the faith is planted and nurtured. In the Latino/Hispanic family, it has been the women in the family, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and godmothers, who have taken upon them the responsibility to nurture the faith. They have kept the traditions passed to them by other women in their families to pass them to the new generations.
Tradition doesn’t happen in a vacuum, it is embedded in our culture and our way of living. It is in “lo cotidiano” “the everyday life”, and expressed through the popular religiosity that we have inherited from past generations. Either by praying aloud, doing the sign of the cross before leaving the house or by displaying in our homes pictures and statues in different sizes and shapes of Jesus, Mary and the saints, we are performing faith. Popular Catholicism is called ‘popular’ because it arises from the people’s need to express their faith.
Mostly women take a more active participation in the life of the church, mainly in catechesis and sacramental preparation as a continuation of the task of catechizing their own children at home. They also helped in the organization of religious feasts and the needed settings for the church festivities. For them to help in the church is a privilege and an honor that they carry on with respect, reverence and gratitude to be able to serve in “La casa de Dios”, “The house of God”.
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2015 © Ana María G. Hernández Alstrum. All Rights Reserved.
