Encounters

Last night, after a Mass for the Spanish-speaking, a pregnant Mom and her husband came up to me, an adorable toddler in her arms.  She asked that I bless the child, and also his “hermanita” (little sister) still in the womb, soon to be born.  I lightly touched the child’s head and also the woman’s belly, each with a gentle cross. Tears came to my eyes as I beheld this family—the sheer beauty of these lovely people.

Then a distraught young mother came up to me in tears, begging prayers for her teenage son, who was in trouble. To behold such sorrow and pain, and to want so much that it be lifted from her—and from him…  In an encounter such as this, I am reminded yet again that God’s kindly face turns to each one of us.  God does not want us to suffer.