Black Catholics
Guest Post: The Remedy To Cultural Discomfort by Amanda Vernon
I’ve been culturally uncomfortable most of my life. It’s not something you get used…
I will never forget one of the most challenging times in my life. I had just been diagnosed with Breast Cancer and had to embark on a new journey filled with numberless appointments, treatments and become familiar with a new vocabulary. As a leader in the Church, there was, and is, the temptation to show others a “brave face” because of your “strong faith.” I mean, didn’t I believe that God was stronger than my fears? Or that God works all things for the good of those who love him? These and many other memorized bible verses were part of my daily vocabulary until I realized that I was fighting alone.
As soon as I began to suffer the chemo’s side-effects, I could not recognize the person staring back at me in the mirror. So many “well-laid plans” had to get interrupted, I sunk deep in my despair and screamed to God; I cannot do this anymore! This happened more times than I’d like to admit. What I noticed, though, was that, while I certainly did have “bad” days of going back and forth with God, there were other days where somehow I seem to have forgotten the despair I was feeling and felt as if a huge weight had been lifted. I realized then that what was happening was that when I did not have the strength to lift a prayer, someone else had lifted one for me.
I am currently reading a book called “This Present Paradise” by Claire Dwyer, and there’s a chapter on the Power of Intercessory Prayer. In this chapter, she says: “It is a graced moment from God to be asked to pray for another, a sign of His love that he wants us to participate in His immense work of redemption.” And how beautiful it is that as brothers and sisters when we see someone who is suffering or going through a hard time, and we may be at a loss of words to make them feel better at the moment, that our prayers really do make a difference in their life. It may not be immediate, but we know that God hears and carries them. Claire also says, “How often have we heard someone say, ‘it was your prayers that got me through? That’s not just a sentiment: it is a real spiritual exchange that people experience whenever someone carries another in his or her prayers. It is being the Body of Christ, being bound to another.”
It brings me great joy that our Lord trusts us to help others with their crosses through our prayers. I am grateful to so many people who have shared mine through my journey, and I hope to continue to unite my prayers to the litany of saints whose “intercession is their most exalted service to God’s plan” (CCC 2683). All Holy Men and Women, pray for us.
Cynthia Psencik was born and raised in New York City. Her parents are from the Dominican Republic. In 2004, Cynthia began working for the Archdiocese of New York as the Hispanic Ministry Office Assistant. Through her ministry with youth in retreat centers and especially through her involvement in the First Encuentro on Hispanic Youth and Young Adult Ministry, she fell in love with youth ministry. She pursued a Master’s Degree in Pastoral Ministry with a concentration in Hispanic Ministry from Fordham University. She then became the Associate Director for Youth Ministry, and for the past few years, has been serving as the Director for the Office of Youth Ministry. She was also the Vice President of La RED – National Catholic Network de Pastoral Juvenil Hispana and is a member of the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM). She is married to her husband, Evan, and lives in Connecticut.