PERUVIAN JOURNAL
Solidarity and What Unites Us BY SISTER SUE SCHARFENBERGER
As I write this, I am feeling like it is chapter 2 or maybe 3 of previous Peruvian Journals. The themes keep weaving themselves together, even from the corners of creation to the center. So, I want to share a story. You may recall our asking for prayers for Miguel Tenorio Sernaque. He is a teacher at Saint Angela Merici School, and the brother of Javier Tenorio Sernaque, about whom I have written in previous journals. Javier and Miguel are sons of Dominga Sernaque, a staunch defender of human rights and an active participant in the founding Christian community since the early days of the parish with Sisters Lee Kirchner and Martha Staarman in the 1960s.
and entertain with folk music, and then pass the hat to get donations. For many years, he supported his young family that way. The doctors say that now, the reason Miguel is still alive is that his lungs were used to being stretched and exercised by the musical instruments, and so they avoided collapsing even under the strain of COVID. He is not yet out of the woods, but he is still resisting the virus.
Dominga died a few years ago, and this story is not really about her, but about Miguel and Javier who, indeed, learned much from their mother. Miguel is struggling into the fourth week with the coronavirus. The doctors do not know how he is still alive, but they say he is a fighter.
Javier is also a teacher in our school, but more than that, he is the person everyone goes to when there is a problem, a difficulty, or when they just need something done. Javier has been an intercessor during this time of the pandemic for many families who have been in need of prayers, oxygen, or financial support. He is a connector and someone you just cannot say “no” to when there is a prayer vigil to be organized, a collection taken up for someone to get the oxygen they need, or simply to help provide food for a family that has no income at the present.
As a young man, Miguel would step up into the local buses and vans and play the quena or zampoña
Javier has been making the daily hourlong trip to the hospital to get the doctors’ daily reports and provide
L to R: Miguel as a young musician, portrait and playing music at a recent celebration
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SUMMER 2021 | DOME
