Associate Marissa Galvan-Valle of Resources and Relationships in Theology, Worship and Education says she was “ecstatically happy” when she heard the news that Ayudas Litúrgicas – weekly liturgical helps in Spanish – is one of the most popular resources on the General Assembly Mission Council website. “It was so nice seeing Spanish-language words on that list,” says Galvan-Valle. “When I started doing this work I was sending these resources to a specific list, and the liturgical helps were not on the website. It makes me feel like we are contributing to the whole church.”
From the beginning of her work Galvan-Valle saw that people from churches in Mexico, Venezuela and Spain were using the materials she was producing, and asking to be added to her list. “The amazing thing now is that if people from around the world come to our website and look for liturgical helps in Spanish, they can find them,” she says. “It is a great honor for me to see this.” At this point, Galvan-Valle doesn’t know if Spanish speakers are the only ones using these liturgical resources, since they are bilingual. But she does know that not all Spanish-speaking churches use the lectionary. So she tries to provide a standard version of our liturgy with as many resources as possible. “Maybe they won’t use the confession, but they’ll learn a song, or see an image that will spark their imagination.”
Galvan-Valle produces a weekly email, Recursos y relaciones, that provides a link to Spanish- and English-language liturgical helps, as well as other information about resources and news of interest to those who work with Hispanic/Latino ministry. “I know from my parish experience these liturgical resources can serve as an educational component to reinforce the preaching and teaching of the Word of God,” she says. “It makes my heart smile when pastoral leadership of our congregations say ‘I receive your communication, thank you.’ It is a blessing for me to support them in their efforts to reach the Latino people with the gospel.”