Ray Almanza

Maryknoll Lay Missioner, Gaby Hernandez, stands in front of the American, Bolivia, Vatican, and El Salvador flags signifying her connection to MKLM in America, her home nation of El Salvador, the Catholic connection from the Vatican, and her place of mission in Bolivia.

Mission Country: Bolivia

hometown: Colton, CA

home parish: Immaculate Conception, Colton, CA

faith community: My most recent experience of community has been the creation of a small faith community where we gather every other week. This small community is comprised of persons on same wavelength who are discerning what is our mission and purpose rooted in principles of spirituality, justice, and solidarity. One of the benefits of community is to have people on whom to lean in moments of difficulty. When I have experienced moments of darkness or a dryness in my spiritual life, I simultaneously had the experience of being sustained by the faith of others.

languages: Spanish

travel: I have traveled internationally to El Salvador, Mexico, Bolivia, Jamaica, and Guatemala. Many of these were leading mission immersion trips for Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.

Ray Almanza, of Colton, California, brings more than a decade in ministry and theological education to Maryknoll Lay Missioners. Holding M.A. degrees in Philosophy and Theology from Loyola Marymount University, he has served as a director of catechetical ministry and vicariate coordinator in the Diocese of San Bernardino, taught adult faith formation and youth ministry, and contributed to national initiatives such as V Encuentro and the Synod on the Family. Most recently, he helped lead young adult outreach in Maryknoll’s Mission Formation Ministry—work that expanded his view of mission across cultures and deepened his call to serve.

Rooted in the Catholic social tradition and liberation theology, Ray accompanies communities through a “see–judge–act” pastoral lens—bringing scripture into dialogue with lived reality, racial justice, and nonviolence. Spanish-speaking and a seasoned facilitator, he has led immersion groups to places like El Salvador, Mexico, Bolivia, Jamaica, and Guatemala, emphasizing solidarity, listening, and mutual transformation.

Ray’s spirituality took shape early through the Gospels and has been animated in recent years by Pope Francis’s witness to joy, mercy, and a “culture of encounter.” He describes community as a garden—nurtured by what we invest rather than what we extract—and hopes to keep celebrating joy as a form of resilience and fuel for justice.

A reader, cyclist, and traveler with Chihuahua roots (including Tarahumara heritage), Ray is known by friends as intelligent, authentic, and kind—with a quiet sense of humor that surfaces among close companions. He and his wife, Elizabeth, look forward to serving together with their kids Solomon and Siena, grateful for the supporters who make this vocation possible and eager to live the Gospel alongside the people who will welcome them.

education:

B.A. Philosophy (University of Arizona 2010)

M.A. Philosophy (Loyola Marymount University 2013)

M.A. Theology (Loyola Marymount University, 2021)

work:

I have over a decade of experience in ministry and theological education. I’ve held various ministry leadership roles, including Director of Catechetical Ministry and Vicariate Coordinator in the Diocese of San Bernardino. I’ve taught adult faith formation, youth ministry, and marriage preparation, and I’ve contributed to national initiatives like V Encuentro and the Synod on the Family. I also hold M.A. degrees in Theology and Philosophy from Loyola Marymount University, where I worked as a research assistant studying the ministerial experiences of lay leaders of color.

In my most recent role, I led the young adult outreach team in Maryknoll’s Mission Formation Ministry. This experience has blessed me by giving me exposure to many different mission contexts. This work deepened my desire to become a lay missioner.

Across all my roles, I strive to live up to the prophetic tradition and call to solidarity.

hobbies:

Reading, cycling, traveling.

What motivated you to become a Maryknoll Lay Missioner?

I desire to live my life according to a set of values and feel called to make a difference in the world. I believe that what makes life meaningful is the fulfilment of a purpose, and over the course of my life, I have come to understand that my purpose is found in working out my own salvation. For me, this salvation is a conscious, intentional process leading towards healing and reconciliation, elevation of my mind and body, not in isolation but in community. I believe salvation is only communal. This path has led me to care deeply about justice, education, and spirituality.

The reason why I feel called to do this within a Catholic context is because my discernment of that mission has been rooted in the spiritual tradition of the Catholic Church, especially Catholic social teaching and liberation theology. My understanding of the work of justice and peace, healing and reconciliation, love and joy are all inspired by Jesus and his mission of liberation. What inspired me from a young age, and even to this day, is the life that Jesus lived, especially as it connects to his mission, and that is tied to my conception of mission in the world. My experience of faith, from as early as I can remember, is connected to the person of Jesus as I encountered him through reading the gospels. I had a very impactful experience reading the gospel of Matthew when I was 13 years old, and that led me to explore religious vocations and eventually grew into an interest in philosophy and theology. What affected me was the tangible essence of Jesus in the world doing normal things like hanging out with friends and eating meals, but also the power of self-transcendence in his spirituality. In a very rudimentary way, from a child’s perspective, I felt that the meaning of life was being communicated to me but I couldn’t quite grasp it. As I matured and developed my theological perspectives through deeper study, I understood that the dynamism of the gospel as I was sensing it from that early age is mission. And that mission of Jesus is articulated best in the Gospel of Luke when Jesus proclaims from the book of Isaiah that he came to liberate and heal: “to proclaim glad tidings to the poor… to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” (Lk 4:18)

What drew you to Maryknoll Lay Missioners specifically, as opposed to other mission or service organizations?

What drew me to Maryknoll Lay Missioners, as opposed to other mission or service organizations, is Maryknoll’s long-standing commitment to a model of mission rooted in global solidarity, accompaniment, and the preferential option for the poor. These values deeply resonate with both my personal experience and spiritual formation. Unlike many organizations that approach mission primarily through service delivery or short-term projects, Maryknoll emphasizes presence, listening, and mutual transformation over time. That distinction was important to me. I was especially moved by the legacy of the Church women martyrs of El Salvador—Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, and Jean Donovan whose lives and deaths are a powerful testimony to what it means to be with people at the margins in a spirit of love and justice. They didn’t go to El Salvador to “fix” things; they went to be with people in their suffering, to walk with them in solidarity during a time of brutal repression and violence, and to live the Gospel even unto death. That kind of witness is what inspires me.

Of MKLM’s 5 Core Values, please choose one and share an example of living it out.

I don’t think joy is escapism from the realities of suffering and evil present in the world. Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer expresses this poetically when she says, “a word that means devastated and stunned with joy. I want a word that says, I feel it all at once… the churning of opposite feelings weaves through us like an insistent breeze, leads us wordlessly deeper into ourselves, blesses us with paradox so we might walk more openly into this world so rife with devastation, this world so ripe with joy.” Joy is important because in my experience it is what nurtures the seeds of hope. Joy is found in every liberation movement throughout history–singing, dancing, laughter–in the midst of struggle and pain. Joy found within the pain. Joy is resistance. Joy is fuel. It is easy to get lost in activism or struggles for justice, but joy paves the way and waters the garden. It’s not only a well-deserved reward but the material of the struggle.

In my life, I am intentional about celebrating. When I reach a milestone or someone close to me does, I don’t shy away from celebrating. Even holidays and vacations are sacred things in our family.

What personal gifts or strengths do you bring to mission?

As a as a philosopher and theologian my training centers on the tradition of liberation theology that overlaps with nonviolent movements. To this effort I bring the skills of interpreting scriptures in the context of a particular reality through social analysis. Additionally, the application of faith and tradition to real world circumstances through the pastoral circle of see judge act is a central skill that I employ in everything I do. This can be used to facilitate community discernment about nonviolent action or simply raising consciousness through education.

One area within liberation theology that I have had emphasis on is racial justice, and I would be excited to work on implementing ideas or learnings from the academic discipline of racial justice. This includes deeper analysis of the different levels of racism as they manifest within historical and social processes and how it is embedded in culture. One thing I’m excited to learn is how the community that would be placed in is are already doing non-violent work. This can be through community organizing, base ecclesial communities, through activism or in other ways.

My sense of solidarity is connected to my own experience as a person who comes from a community who shares in identities that are excluded. For example, as a second generation child of immigrants who grew up in with limited social and economic resources, I have had plenty of experiences of racism and marginalization. I have suffered the outcomes of poverty in my own life and felt it in the lives of those closest to me. My desire to work for justice in the world comes from some of those personal experiences, but also expands into solidarity with others. There are many forms of marginalization that I have not experienced personally, but feel equally committed to.

How do you define “mission” in your own words?

My understanding of the mission incorporates the work of justice and peace, healing and reconciliation, love and joy all of which are inspired by Jesus and his mission of liberation. As someone who grew up navigating systems of exclusion—whether economic, racial, or cultural—I’ve come to see that mission is not about bringing answers, but about accompanying others in their realities, and in doing so, discovering our shared dignity. Maryknoll Lay Missioners offered a pathway for that kind of mission: Maryknoll Lay Missioners offers me a way to live my life in a way that aligns with my own vocation and commitment to the Gospel.