Life is precious.🌈

He strolls into Church at the end of Holy Mass this morning. Our first meeting since last December when he agreed to have Father Larry hear his Confession, momentous occasion. Twenty years had passed since his last Confession, he was so happy that day.

‘I’m dying’, he informs me gravely. We both stand in stunned silence for what seems like the longest time. ‘Are you praying my prayer every morning’, I ask. ‘Sometimes’, he replies. ‘Will you pray it every morning henceforward and we here in Church will pray for you at every Holy Mass and always’. ‘Yes’, he replies, joyfully receiving my words of  Heavenly hope. We ‘elbow’ in agreement. 

‘That is life’, he utters, smiling sadly, diamond tear glistening in his eye as he walks away from me. All day my heart is heavy with sadness. Only thirty seven years of age, his weathered face looking older and tired. Alcohol’s devastating damage done. 

His family in another country, his sister keeps in touch with him but mostly his short life is one of burnt bridges. Let us pray for my young friend K, he is depending on us. 

‘When I stop and remember that I am with You, Dear Lord, I don’t fear the currents. I conquer them by navigating through them in Your peace, and I come out of all storms unharmed. But without You, I would be just like a whale stuck on the beach at high tide, condemned to death’. (Umilta of Faenza)