Sandy Cruz Garcia was baptized Catholic and had received her first Communion, but growing up, she knew little about her Catholic faith — including how to make the Sign of the Cross.
When she was pregnant with her third child, she felt prompted to provide her daughter with a different experience and carried that hope to her whole family, which now consists of four children and her husband, Vidal Garcia.
“I needed to show them my faith,” Sandy said. “But I thought, ‘I don’t even really know my faith. How can I teach them?’”
Working as a manager in a pizza factory, her co-workers began teaching her about the Bible. At first, she didn’t even know how to look up a verse, but her curiosity grew.
“I downloaded a Bible app on my phone, and that’s how I began reading the Bible,” Sandy said. “I started having questions, and I tried to go to the Internet to get some answers. But I kept feeling like I needed more.”
First, Sandy made the decision to attend services at an evangelical church but felt something was missing. With some hesitation, she decided to explore her Catholic roots.
“I was kind of against the Catholic faith,” Sandy said. “I didn’t understand it.”
She attended Mass at St. Boniface in Cold Spring and was surprised to hear they offered a Bible class.
“Catholics don’t even read the Bible,” she thought.
With a cautious and doubting heart she continued to attend Mass and the Bible class. The more she engaged, the more questions arose. She read the Bible and studied at home and wrote down questions to bring to the class each week.
Sandy said ‘yes’ to every opportunity to learn more. She began taking classes at the Emmaus Institute, an intellectual and ministerial formation program for lay leadership ministry from the Diocese of St. Cloud.
Through the program, her doubting heart was flooded with information.
“I started learning so much — why we do certain things, Church history,” she said. “As I learned more, I realized what it was that I was missing — the sacraments, the Eucharist.”
“I remember when I was able to confess the first time again after so many years,” Sandy said. “It was such a relief and it was almost like chains were broken. I felt so light, like I could almost fly.”
All the time she was learning, she knew she needed to pass on what she learned to her family. Incorporating her faith into family life felt a bit awkward at first, but they started simply by adding prayer at mealtimes. Sandy incorporated a prayer cube.
“Each person had to roll the cube, and whatever prayer [it landed on], that’s the prayer they had to say. Once we all had a turn, then we could eat,” Sandy said.
Her family members latched onto prayer at mealtime, but her husband, Vidal, was reluctant to go to Mass, often working at a dairy farm on Sundays.
The couple was civilly married, and Sandy longed to have their marriage blessed by the Church and for Vidal to share her enthusiasm about the Eucharist.
“I was very set on what I wanted, and I told him, ‘I need this, and I want this. I want to receive God,’” Sandy said. “We were literally on the verge of going through a divorce, but we got through the storm and it was quite beautiful. We both knew that we had to walk the same path, with God being our guide.”
In June 2024, Sandy and Vidal had their marriage convalidated, which validates their civil marriage, transforming it into a sacrament.
Now, Vidal is often encouraging their kids to prepare their clothes for Mass on Saturday night and he takes weekends off to prioritize faith and family on Sundays.
“He is a very hard-working man,” Sandy said. “But he doesn’t put that in front of God anymore, and because he is with us on Sundays, I’m able to serve my parish — especially when I have classes or meetings after Mass.”
Faith in community
When thinking about becoming engaged in ministry, Sandy, who has become adept at quoting Scripture, called to mind Mark 6:4, “Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house,’” when thinking about becoming engaged
in ministry.
“I grew up in Cold Spring, but my family wasn’t really involved [in Church life]. My [new level of involvement] was sudden and out of nowhere, so some were thinking ‘Can we really believe what she’s doing?’” Sandy said.
As she learned more about Catholicism, she had a prayerful conversation with God.
“If this is your Church,” she said. “I will serve you.”
Now immersed fully in the Catholic Church, Sandy is an active lay leader for the Latino community at Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Rockville. She serves as the general coordinator of Latino ministries at Casa San Benito of St. John’s Abbey.
Sandy says she is fueled by “her love for Christ,” especially on the days when ministry becomes challenging.
The community has seen a change in parish life. There is now a Latino youth group, a women’s prayer group, the ministry team has grown and a new men’s group will begin soon.
“The various ministries Sandy coordinates are well established and work with efficiency and determination,” said Benedictine Father Efrain Rosado, who regularly celebrates Spanish Mass in Rockville. “Sandy’s work is excellent. She is a natural leader, leading the other coordinators and parishioners with kindness, patience and affection.”
Sandy is grateful to those who have led beside her to create a parish home where Mass attendance averages 300 on Sundays.
“I really thank Father Efrain who has been there supporting Latino community,” she said. “Otherwise, I don’t know
how we would have done it.”
As the community continues to grow, she encourages others to become involved as lay ministers in their parish.
“La miez es mucho y los obrados pocos,” she said. “The Church always needs volunteers, and it needs people willing to give their time to sacrifice. It really is a sacrifice.”
Father Rosado also calls for involvement for all lay leaders in the Church.
“The attention we give Latino ministries for the improvement of spiritual life and formation in faith will bear great fruits,” he said.
Although Sandy, as a lay leader, has served others, she feels the greatest reward is personal.
“It has brought me closer to God, but also it has given me a way to teach it to my family,” she said.
Knowing what she has learned, she encourages others to seek answers to questions about their faith.
“You have to experience it first,” she said. “I had questions, but if I would have just stayed with those questions or with that uncertainty, and I never got those answered, I probably wouldn’t be doing much. If you have questions, you need to ask.”
Sandy will never say the road has been easy or that she has all the answers.
“It’s been a journey,” she admits. “Although my family still has the prayer cube, and although we don’t need it anymore, we know our formation never ends. You can always, always learn something new about the Catholic faith.”
Pictured above: Sandy Garcia graduated from Emmaus Institute in 2023. Emmaus Institute is a four-year intellectual and ministerial formation program for lay leadership ministry. It is an initiative of the Diocese of St. Cloud, in collaboration with Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary. (Photo by Dianne Towalski)