4 minute read
A Life Built on Faith and Service: Meet the Rodriguez Family
— Malena Rodriguez
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You might say that Erik Rodriguez and Malena Serrano-Rodriguez were already a little closer to God than Earth on the day they met. As flight attendants for American Airlines, they first got to know one another in the sky, from opposite ends of a drink cart. Malena noticed Erik’s servant heart as he warmly smiled and chatted with passengers. As for Erik, he knew immediately that this incredible woman was “the one”! As Erik and Malena began dating, their shared Catholic faith brought them even closer together. Now, 19 years of marriage and two children later, the couple continues to keep their faith at the very center of family life.
Both Erik and Malena were given a strong foundation in the faith from an early age, with their grandparents as role models.
“My family has always been very involved with the Church,” Erik says. “My grandfather was a Eucharistic Minister for the longest time, and all the priests used to go to my grandparents’ house for lunch. Both my grandparents sacrificed a lot to help build the church in our neighborhood in Puerto Rico.”
Two thousand miles across the water from Erik’s home in Puerto Rico, Malena grew up attending Mass in her native Mexico before moving to Texas at the age of 13. Some of her earliest memories involve helping her great-grandmother tend to the flowers at the church and watching as her grandmothers donned their best Sunday dresses and mantillas for Mass.
“I have all these great memories,” Malena says. “I still think I have to thank them, my great-grandmother and grandmothers, for instilling that in me. They probably never knew how much their faith impacted the young kids at the time. And of course, Erik and I now try to pass that on to our daughters. It’s a joyful thing, I think, that we do in passing that on.” Indeed, a love of faith and service is truly a family affair for Erik and Malena as their two daughters — Karla, 16, and Frida, 11 — have come to enjoy participating in parish life as well. A move to our area brought the family to St. Vincent de Paul just three years ago, but they already feel very much at home in our parish as they find various ways to serve.
Karla plays the saxophone in the choir, and Frida is an altar server. For both girls, filling these roles has helped with their understanding and focus during Mass.
“It’s easier to keep up with Mass and pay attention and know where we are,” Karla says of playing in the choir. “It made me learn how the Mass goes and how to focus.”
“I know more about the Mass when I’m serving,” Frida agrees. “I like ringing the bells the most!”
Karla and Frida also participate in the Bear Collection Ministry with their mother. Malena treasures this special time with her girls.
“When we sort the stuffed animals, we think about the generous arms that put them there and into whose arms those bears will go, and how they will bring a smile and real hope,” she says. “We talk about that and about what a blessing it is that we can go pick them up, sort them out, and take them to the hospital. It’s easy to put things in perspective with this ministry.”
The Rodriguez family also helps our parish with landscaping, tending to the flower beds around the church campus. As they live just two blocks from our church, it’s not unusual for the family to decide to take a walk or bike ride after dinner, and stop in to water and care for the church plantings. Erik and Malena feel they receive so much more than they give in this ministry with the opportunity to bond with their daughters and teach them about gardening.
Recently, Erik was inspired by Karla’s participation in choir and decided to join himself. Though he was only able to sing at Mass a handful of times before the COVID-19 pandemic put the full choir on hiatus, he looks forward to getting back to singing when he can. While Erik recognizes that it might be intimidating at first to become engaged in parish life, taking that leap of faith is a way to express gratitude for all of God’s gifts.
“For us, it’s important because we’ve been blessed so much,” Erik says. “When I look at the blessings God has bestowed on us, I feel like I still owe so much. If we can do something, that helps to make it a little bit even, though it will never be even! God is way too good to us, and getting involved is a way of saying ‘thanks’ for all of this.”
Erik and Malena both count the warm community here at St. Vincent de Paul among their many blessings,
(From left) Karla and Frida Rodriguez help their parents, Erik and Malena, tend the flower beds around the church. and they could not imagine a better place to raise their daughters in the faith.
“We feel very blessed to have such good parishioners and community,” Malena says. “Your friends from church become your family, so it’s a blessing. We feel the love here, and the people have embraced us and inspired us to take part in the church and in the ministries. Right now, it’s our daughters, and later on, God willing, it will be later generations.”
