Young adult’s reclamation of faith took great drive

     Jessica Amarillo wasn’t looking for a sign, but a dazzling one appeared from out of nowhere, in the form of a flower.
     Last year, while engaged in evening prayer at a church in her native Chicago, a stranger tapped Amarillo on the shoulder and handed her a rose. Amarillo, who had for months quietly been praying for the intercession of St. Theresa of Lisieux – “The Little Flower of Jesus” – was dumbstruck.
     “He handed me this pink rose and said, ‘This is from our mother. I was told to give it to you,’” said Amarillo of the man’s random gift.
     Amarillo put the rose above the headboard of her bed, realizing that its pink hue was a symbolic blend of two paths she was considering: the “white” path of religious life; and the “red” path of marriage.
     “I still contemplate over my rose, even though it’s not pink anymore,” Amarillo, 20, said with a smile.
      Amarillo began a year of service last August as a Salesian domestic volunteer at Our Lady of Prompt Succor School in Westwego. While she is still a member of the laity, Amarillo made a promise to live alongside the four Salesian sisters in their on-campus convent and assist them in their educational ministry in exchange for room, board and a small stipend.
     Since her arrival, Amarillo has spent most of her time as a teacher’s assistant in OLPS’s two kindergarten classrooms, tutoring the youngsters in math and taking them to lunch and recess. Last month, the sisters deployed her to the school office to take attendance, handle tardy arrivals and see to students’ bumps and bruises.
     “I see daily tears – everything from a paper cut to a big gash on the knee,” said Amarillo, who also leads OLPS’s after-school flag team, streamer team and “Yu-Gi-Oh” trading card club.

Unchurched for years

     Amarillo said the fact that she is Catholic at all is an even bigger miracle than her reception of the pink rose.
     After attending Catholic school from prekindergarten, she was abruptly pulled out as a fifth grader and denied all contact with organized religion. Amarillo’s parents, who had parted ways with the church for reasons that are still unknown to her, refused to take their daughter to Mass, telling her she could pick the religion of her choice when she turned 18.
     “The only thing I remember ever doing was Christmas at home – that was it,” Amarillo said of the years between ages 11 to 18. Her faith was temporarily reignited when a friend took her to Mass in her sophomore year of high school, but no adult would agree to take her on a regular basis.
     As she neared her 18th birthday, Amarillo learned that St. John Bosco Parish on the northwest side of Chicago, staffed by the Salesians, was looking for bilingual CCD teachers to help with English and Spanish students. Amarillo eagerly signed up, telling her fellow catechists that she would “learn with the kids” as the year progressed.
     “On the night of my 18th birthday there was a meeting for all the CCD teachers, and my mom said I could go,” said Amarillo, who also attended the post-meeting liturgy. “I hadn’t been to Mass in so long, so I sat in the back – I wasn’t sure if I was worthy of sitting in front.”
     When the time came for the consecration, Amarillo realized “then and there” that the Catholic Church was “where I wanted to be and where I was called to be.”
     “I started crying. I just felt that this was where God was leading me all those years,” Amarillo said. She went to confession for the first time since second grade and began preparations for her April 2012 confirmation.
     “It was so great to know that you don’t have to hold (your sins) in any more,” she said. “You’re free to do that in front of a priest.”
      Amarillo became active in St. John Bosco’s vibrant youth group and began attending the parish’s 7 p.m. daily Masses, a 15-minute bike ride away from her home. She even changed jobs – from managing a McDonald’s to managing a Taco Bell – because the latter was closer to church.
      “I said, ‘Wow! Look at the Salesian family and all they do!’” she said. “I was able to meet all these young people who were practicing their faith. I realized this was a parish where the young can thrive and meet Christ in different ways – through adoration and being young missionaries.”
     Amarillo’s volunteer year in Westwego marks her third visit to the West Bank, having taken two previous “Gospel Roads” service trips organized by the Salesians.
     “We stayed at Archbishop Shaw and showered at Academy of Our Lady,” said Amarillo of the trips that included cleaning a storm-damaged school and working at Gretna’s Community Center for Life, a Christian ministry that helps young women in crisis pregnancies to choose life.
   “They have clothing, toys – all the things mothers need to encourage them to carry their babies to term,” she said.

Fledgling youth minister

   As a domestic volunteer, Amarillo joins the West Bank’s Salesian priests, brothers and sisters at their Saturday morning Masses at Archbishop Shaw’s chapel and assists the youth groups at OLPS, St. Rosalie and St. John Bosco parishes.
   Using the format of her Chicago parish’s “Women’s Vocation Nights,” Amarillo recently held an overnight lock-in at OLPS for 20 girls with a possible interest in religious life.
     “It’s an open space for girls to share their faith and be open about discernment,” said Amarillo, noting that the lock-in included time for journaling and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Amarillo also hopes to launch a spiritual adoption program at OLPS in April in which students will pray for recently conceived babies and celebrate their births nine months later, on the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade court decision.
     Amarillo said the charism of Salesian founder St. John Bosco – “Reason, Religion and Loving Kindness” – guides all her works.
     “It’s not enough to love the children; they must know that they are loved,” said Amarillo of the charism’s final pillar.
     “I see how wonderful the teachers are here (at OLPS) and it brings me to tears, because now I want to find my own teachers and thank them for all they did for me,” Amarillo said. “If it weren’t for all those who ministered to me in pre-K through fifth grade, I wouldn’t have felt that call to return to the church; I wouldn’t have known who God was!”
     Amarillo is one of four Salesian domestic volunteers (based in the United States); her blog is at jessicavictoriayellow.blogspot.com.
     There are also 21 Salesian lay missionaries currently serving in locations such as Cambodia, Brazil and South Sudan. For more information on the Salesian youth ministry, visit www.salesianym.com.
     Beth Donze can be reached at [email protected].