Whoa. A tornado touched down in White Plains and the concurrent thunderstorm over our heads knocked down trees and telephone poles and left most of Ossining in the dark last night. Except for us. Our generator kept this "city in a hill" well lit.
Thus, the Summer Vocation Encounter ended its first full day. We also had a mini miracle of the multiplication of men interested in checking out the Society. We had three officially registered from among the 30 checking out the lay missioners and the Sisters. Then lo and behold, three more guys showed up! Now, I'm not suggesting cause and effect, but yesterday was also the anniversary of the death of Bishop James E. Walsh and during our morning prayer, his intercession and blessing were invoked on the gathering. Then BAM--the number doubles.
On the other side of the street, I hear one woman decided to return home after attending evening prayer at the Sisters'. In a flash of revelation she concluded she didn't want to be a missioner after all. Well, better to realize this before rather than after.
It is nice having the building bustling, albeit briefly, with young Catholics interested in mission through Maryknoll. I commend our guys for their patience yesterday as we delayed starting our community Mass for about six minutes to allow the participants to assemble And for some reason the air conditioning wouldn't kick in. And various breakdowns in communication all helped replicate the frustrations of mission!
Luckily, the joys and satisfaction of mission carried the day. Tornado? We're Maryknollers. We're used to chaos.
No comments:
Post a Comment