On your Grand Feast…

Only love called you to the mission.

His Nazarene voice became in you reason and destiny, essence and root, complaint and praise…

You decided to unite your heart with that of the Amazonian peoples.

And in their faces you recognized His face.

In their stories, the story of God with us; in their language you learned the language of love.

And you went forth, becoming river and canoe, schools and paths.

You immersed yourself and anchored yourself in the life of the natives.

You joined your cry to their cry for dignity.

You became involved and complex; you became an accomplice of the Spirit,

and the spirits of the jungle watched over you.

And there was no shipwreck, contradiction, or abusive power that made you falter.

Continue, Father, infusing us with your passion,

that the flow of the rivers may move us

and give us courage to care for

and defend this land that is splendor, drama, and mystery.

Amen.