Peruvian Women in National Costume

One of the highlights and growing edges for me was my time in Lima, Peru, working on a team with the English Mercy Sisters and the Columban Fathers and Associates.   The Pastor appeared one day with all these plastic animals and threw them out on the table.

We were to tell each other which animal best represented us as seen by the others.  There were tigers, horses, deer, giraffe, monkeys, etc. and what was picked out for me was a little burro.  Needless to say, as I first humbly received their comments as to why I was like the burro, I was kind of hurt and insulted…so I was not even a little bit glamorous, intelligent, funny, graceful?  The Pastor said, “You put your head down and get on with the work.”

After this, I have always had a great love for the humble burro, whom I have witnessed carrying the burdens of the poor, bringing water to those in the desert and giving rides to children who may be afraid of a horse. There are of course many references to the burro in the Scriptures.  This image comes back to me many times since in my own life and I am happy in it.

Susan De Guide rsm
US Region