Wish List
Shepherd for the broken sheep
Something shiny glints off the processional cross as it makes its way down the center 
aisle at El Paso's El Buen Pastor Mission for the start of Mass.
Far from gold, it's a piece of cellophane tape around the waist of Jesus, gamely trying to hold the broken corpus together at the midsection.
A new processional cross for this poor mission in the Texas colonias is one of hundreds of requests that have come to Catholic Extension's Christmas Wish List this year in hopes a far-off donor might share a bit of our Savior's joy.
A little less than a year ago, Father Roberto Alvarado, pastor of the mission named for the Good Shepherd, was serving one of El Paso's wealthiest parishes. Now he shepherds the poor and sees the incredible gulf between the haves and have-nots.
The processional cross is a hand-me-down, as is the stand for the Paschal candle. The base is too big, so the candle tilts like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The holy water font leaks onto the worn floor; altar linens have stains that no scrubbing can erase.
There is no cross outside of the small mission - though someone rigged up a lumber crosspiece on a nearby utility pole to look like a makeshift cross. Nevertheless, the church is packed every Sunday.
Poor but proud of their faith
Though poor, the mission is by no means neglected. The worship space is freshly painted, those altar linens lovingly ironed and starched. Nearly every week, fresh flowers add color to the altar. It's a measure of the people's devotion to their church, which spent many years without a resident priest.
The people rejoiced when Father Alvarado was appointed here last December. Yet even with help from a Catholic Extension subsidy, Father worries about all the bills.
Plus, there's an even poorer mission - La Resurrección del Señor - two miles away. The people there sell tacos and barbacoa to raise funds, even on days of pouring rain.
With such concerns, niceties like decent church furnishings fall to the back burner, even at Christmas. Last year Father Alvarado borrowed a Nativity set from one family to use at the church.
"Set" isn't quite accurate. It was more of a cobbled-together collection of knick-knacks. A plastic doll in a manger dwarfed a flea market Mary and Joseph. Plaster sheep and cows with broken legs. Some colorful beads lent the bleak scene some cheer.
Any other church would have thrown it out. But that odd collection was assembled lovingly, reverently, to express the wonder of the Nativity to the 300 families that crowded into El Buen Pastor to await the Saviour's birth.
To the children, their eyes round with wonder and delight, it was the most beautiful display most had ever seen.
Just imagine their delight if you could send them a new set - or any of the other items their church needs!