A presentation on the Latino/a sacramental spirituality of suffering and transition.

1. La Cruz del
Cambio
On the Sacrament of Transitions
(Sobre un Sacramento de Transición)

2.  This PowerPoint presentation will examine a
sacramental spirituality from a Latino/a perspective
that responds to these drastically changing times.
We will:
 Introduce the idea of a Sacramental Theology from
a Latino/a spirituality.
 Explore the context of our changing world with a
new and emerging cosmology.
 Consider Latino/a spirituality of redemptive
suffering and solidarity as a response to our global
context of change and transition.
 Throughout the presentation resources and reading
abstract related to this topic will be offered.
A Sacramental Spirituality

3. Latino/a Sacramental Theology
 At its core Christian theology is an
incarnational theology.
 The Human experiences
transcendence through the
immanence of the Divine.
 Sacramental Theology witnesses grace
throughout crucial moments of human
experience.
 Latino/a spirituality witnesses to
sacramental theology by placing its
locus theologicus with the daily
experience of the people (popular
theology)
 Click here to read the post “Latino
Sacramental Theology and our
Contemporary Social Context.” “God Became Human so that Humans
might become God”

4. Resources for Latino/a
Spirituality
• The following are organizational resources on Latino Studies
and Spirituality:
• Center for Latino Spirituality and Culture: A program of the Notre
Dame based center for studies on the U.S. Latino experience
focused on Latino spirituality.
• National Catholic Conference for Hispanic Ministry. : A national
network and forum for the religious, social, professional, and civic
advancement of Roman Catholic Hispanics in the United States.
• Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States : A
theological academy of U.S. Latino/a Catholic theologians with
their latest research and work on U.S. Latino studies.
• This article by Professor Gilberto Cavazos-Gonzalez, OFM
offers an excellent exposition on Latino/a Spirituality:
• Pan de Vida Y Bebida de Salvacion: Latino/a spirituality for
Hispanic Ministry.

5. “Creation has been groaning
in labor pains until now”
 Our social and cultural reality is one
of seismic change and transition
 We are aware of a new cosmology
where creation is dynamic and
interconnected
 Watch the following link on the
New Cosmology:
 The New Story
 If Sacraments are moments of
grace within our human
experience then these experiences
must relate within a spirituality of
creation that makes these
experiences relevant.

6. TRANSITION AND TRAVAIL
The emerging cosmology is
at the root of our changing
world and our spirituality
must respond to the physic
impact of this reality

7. Latino/a Cosmology
• Instead of a mechanistic
cosmological model that
struggles with the emerging
cosmology, Latino/a presents
a different cultural model.
• This model is based on an
aesthetic cosmology where
the universe is seen as
beautiful, dynamic, spiritual
and interconnected.
• Read the following blog post:
Cosmological Sacramentality

8. FROM A COSMOLOGY OF TRANSITION
TO A SPIRITUALITY OF SUFFERING
 Cosmological Sacramentality occurs
when creative and violent
“moments of grace” bring forth
new life comes forth from a
process of transition and change
(death).
 Christian mysticism offers us this
through the Paschal Mystery and
the spirituality of “Mystical Death”
and “Divine Rebirth”
 Western culture does not have an
adequate way of responding to this
creative image of death and rebirth
in a communal sacramental
experience.

9.  Hispanic popular
Catholicism offers
sacramental opportunities
depicting these moments of
grace with the following
elements
 Celebrating death as a passage
to new life.
 Accompaniment and solidarity
between ourselves, Christ
(logos of creation) and one
another.
 Sharing in a communal
experience of being
interconnected in all things…
especially in our suffering
 Read the following blog
post: Redemptive Suffering
in the context of transition.

10. RELATIONSHIPS, A GLOBAL HUMAN FAMILY
 Sacramental theology brings We do not live alongside one
another purely by chance; all of us
moments of grace so that are progressing along a common
humanity may experience path as men and women, and thus
transcendence. as brothers and sisters.
 Hispanic culture places a high -Pope Benedict XVI, 2008 World
regard on the family unit within Day of Peace Message: The
Human Family, a Community of
our cosmological experience.
Peace.
 Communal experience of
sacramental suffering brings an
element of solidarity that
transcends the boundaries of
relationships and allow us to
become a global human family
that celebrates our cosmological
interconnectedness.

11. • The true measure of humanity is
essentially determined in
relationship to suffering and to the
sufferer. This holds true both for
the individual and for society. A
society unable to accept its
suffering members and incapable
of helping to share their suffering
and to bear it inwardly through
“com-passion” is a cruel and
inhuman society.
Spe Salvi (On Christian
Hope): 2007 Papal Encyclical

12. Further Readings
• “La Vida Sacra: Contemporary Hispanic Sacramental Theology”
o by: James Empereur and Eduardo Fernandez
o This book offers a comprehensive examination into Hispanic Sacramental Theology by detailing the
various aspect of sacramental life that occur throughout the human experience. The authors
consider contemporary cultural issues and then thoroughly reflect on the sacramental life with how it
responds to popular theology, social justice and the emerging cosmological framework.
• “From the Heart of our People”
o Edited by Orlando Espin and Miguel Diaz
o For the student of Latino theology this book is an absolute must. Espin and Diaz take a number of
excellent essays on topics related to Latino/a theology. The diversity of the articles offer the reader a
good sense of the fundamental elements of this contextual theology with the flavor of some of the
brightest members of this academic community. It is a resource that rarely will sit on a shelve for
those of us engaged in this discipline.
• “Caminemos Con Jesus: Toward a Hispanic/Latino Theology of
Accompaniement”
o By Roberto Goizueta
o Goizueta’s thesis is to examine Hispanic popular theology that conveys explicitly or implicitly a
theology of solidarity and transcendental accompaniment. The thesis embarks on a journey of social
justice ritualized within prominent popular devotions. Goizueta also offers an accurate critique of
Western culture’s inability to adequately address cosmological meaning and proposes along the
way an Hispanic aesthetic cosmological model to create a culture of interconnectedness and
diversity.
• “Mozarabs, Hispanics, and the Cross”
o By Raul Gomez-Ruiz
o For the student of history this fascinating research into the origins of popular devotion to the cross will
be an exciting journey. Gomez-Ruiz takes you to the controversial development of Spanish
Catholicism and then allows you to experience the rich but marginalized tradition of the Mozarabic
community and their emphasis on the image of the Cross. This survey will bring to life the origin of this
fundamental practice that has been extremely meaningful for the other marginalized Hispanic
communities throughout North and South America.