BOSTON -- Those who regularly visit the St. Francis Chapel in Boston's Prudential Center shopping complex often liken it to a plaza outside an Old World church.

As Sunday Mass let out on April 26, it wasn't hard to see why. People of all ages and races poured out of the chapel doors. Some were alone, others were families with children. They stood in the square, went for lunch at nearby restaurants, and chatted with Oblates of the Virgin Mary Father Jeremy Paulin, the chapel's director.

When Beatriz Soto was new to Boston, having just arrived from Mexico, she and her friends would call Prudential Tower "the Good Shepherd." If they were lost, all they had to do was look up at that skyscraper, and they'd know how to find St. Francis Chapel.

Nowadays, Soto needs no help finding the chapel. She has been a fixture there for over 30 years, preparing lectors, bringing Communion to the sick and homebound, teaching the 33-day Consecration to the Virgin Mary, helping out at Mass every Sunday, and supporting the chapel's robust Hispanic community. She helped establish Spanish celebrations of the Easter Triduum at the chapel in 1997. She has been a member of the Archdiocese of Boston's Asociacion Mariana for almost 20 years and served as its president from 2016 to 2022.

"I've been here half of my life, probably a little more," she said. "It's the chapel, it's the community, it's the priest that makes me feel at home."

Soto described St. Francis Chapel as a place where she and others can "say hi to the Lord."

"I believe that it is a gift from God to have the chapel here," she said. "It's so special. And I think it's a place to stop in the middle of our crazy life."

For her work in the chapel, Soto, 63, was one of 101 people to receive the Cheverus Award in November 2025. The annual archdiocesan awards, named after Boston's first bishop, honor long-time service to the Church. Nominating Soto for the award, Father Paulin wrote that her behind-the-scenes work in the chapel has been "immensely helpful to the directors, priests, and thousands of chapel-goers and visitors over the years."

"She has been a mother figure to the Hispanic community," he wrote.

Soto says she's just trying to live the way Jesus wants her to. When Father Paulin told her that she was getting the award, the two cried together.

"Every time, when I remember that moment, I cry again, because it's a gift from God and for the whole community," she said. "It's not just me, oh, I receive this. No, it's the whole community."

St. Francis Chapel is a place of prayer and adoration for regular visitors, as well as students, hospital patients, and anyone visiting Boston. On the weekend of the Boston Marathon, runners come to the chapel for blessings. University students come, and years later return to tell Soto how important the chapel was during their college years. Red Sox players and famous singers can often be found in the pews. Famed Mexican actress and singer Maria Victoria visited the chapel when her son-in-law was in the Boston Marathon.

The reason the chapel is special to Soto isn't because of the celebrity guests. It's because "the Lord is there."

Soto was born in Obregon, Sonora, Mexico, a six-hour drive from the U.S. border. Her mother was a homemaker, and her father was a bus driver. She spent the first 12 years of her life in a small house with her parents and seven siblings.

"Lots of fun, lots of fights, also sharing lots of things like bedrooms, bathrooms, all the space in the house," she remembered.

Soto attended Catholic school until fourth grade. The Church was "everything" to her. She divided her time between her parents and her grandmother, who lived next to a church. There was no distinction between the church and the home. After graduating from a public high school, Soto went to college to become an elementary school teacher. Her studies took her to the Pontifical University of Mexico. She worked as a teacher at public and Catholic schools for 11 years, while attending and teaching Bible classes at a local church.

"In both places, I was very happy," she said. "But the difference I could say, in the Catholic school, I could show more of my faith, and we pray."

She came to the U.S. in 1993 to study English. Boston became her destination on the recommendation of friends, who told her that Boston had "the best English" because it was so far from the U.S.-Mexico border. The plan was for her to learn the language and return to Mexico, but she liked life in the U.S. so much that she decided to stay. She found that people in Boston are friendly, but not as religious as they were in her hometown.

"After I came here, I immediately got involved in the Church here," she said. "And I love the community. I love the place. I love Boston."

She stayed with a friend who lived a few blocks from the Prudential Center. Less than a week after her arrival, Soto was attending Mass at St. Francis Chapel, which had a large Colombian community.

"They were so friendly, and I immediately felt at home," she said.

Soto works as a nanny. Father Paulin knows the children she cares for by name. Sometimes she will bring them with her to the chapel.

"I love it," she said. "It's a lot of blessing doing that, watching the kids growing and also being part of different families, sometimes with different ideas, but always, I will say, with great, great hearts."

Over the years, friends she met in Boston have had to return to Mexico, Costa Rica, and Colombia, but she has remained.

"I always notice, after one friend had to move on, another good friend comes," she said. "God is always sending new people."