Pauline Hovey

 The world of ocean freediving gives us a picture of what it means to surrender ourselves to the depths of the divine, writes Pauline Hovey.

Even as Pauline Hovey experienced just a tiny taste of the frustrations that immigration attorneys handling asylum cases deal with every day, she found a great gift in helping to free asylum seeker Sofia from detention.

Pauline Hovey hadn't thought about how impractical love is until she started serving hundreds of plates of warmed-over spaghetti to table after table of migrants in Juarez, Mexico.

Volunteers understand firsthand how Christ is present in the face of the migrant and refugee. No one has taught me more about what it means to live the Gospel.

Commentary: During this season, I see them in the fields every morning. The onion pickers. Watching them reminds me that I have a responsibility to use the knowledge I've gained of the difficulties farmworkers face.

Soul Seeing: Why has this internal tension of mine shown up? I suspect it's because what is being asked of me is unending. It's neither comfortable nor convenient. Nor is the outcome within my control.

Soul Seeing: An early episode of "Call the Midwife" brought me back 11 years, when I may have been like a midwife, an intermediary.

Catholic women have come to El Paso, Texas, to live out a call they say honors the sacredness and respect for life their faith teaches. And how these Catholic women define "pro-life" goes far beyond a single issue.

Soul Seeing: Surprisingly, the tempestuous time of the past year taught me how to live a more grounded life in 2021. The key is to release my grip on the helm and trust in the providence of God.

Soul Seeing: Wait in Mexico? They have been waiting. Especially the Guatemalans, the Hondurans, the Salvadorans. Waiting for justice and safety that do not exist. Waiting for hope that may never materialize.

Soul Seeing: Sometimes, to be in service to love goes well beyond being inconvenienced. Sometimes it smells like feet that have been stuffed into shoes worn for weeks on end. 

Soul Seeing: I wonder what Jesus' parable would be about the poor outside our gate in the 21st century. What would he say about causing more harm to those who have suffered so much already?

"El Paso, you have inspired us," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told the crowd. "We have watched in awe at the outpouring of compassion of this community."

While the Trump administration seeks to prove the existence of a national emergency at the country's southern border, the El Paso, Texas, community is humanely responding to the reality.

Interfaith leaders joined Catholic bishops in a procession 900-strong through downtown El Paso, Texas, ending in a candlelight vigil for the plight of migrants and refugees.