Mass at the Missions went well, despite our old enemy the Weather, and everyone was happy, the Spirit moved. The Spirit moved! How lightly we take that phrase, the third person of the Trinity moved with infinite power amongst the people of North Central Texas. Really? Yes, really. That in mind, I recall a time outside Philadelphia, in a failed, asset-stripped steel town.
The church was beautiful, very, and had a perfect side chapel, I do not say that lightly. So that was used for daily Mass, the Divine Office and, at Noon, the Rosary. There I'd be, at 12, praying the rosary and sometimes a few people joined in but mostly not. No bad thing, say your prayers, LSP.
Well, one day I rolled up for the devotion, all very cassock and beads, and said the prayers, I forget which mysteries. And, as I recited out loud, was pleased to hear a few voices behind me joining in, the rosary's better in company.
Good, I thought, this habit of prayer's catching on. Then, when the devotion finished I turned around and no one was there. Had I hallucinated? Conceivable. To test things out I invited a friend to join me the next day, which he did.
The same thing happened, several voices joining in, they sounded like women, and no one was there apart from us. I asked him if he'd heard what I heard, and he had. He is now a priest.
Make of this what you will and as you do, remember Lepanto.
LSP
5 comments:
What a wonderful memory, Parson. How amazing that must have been.
You all be safe and God bless.
The Battle of the Mountain, when Italo- and Siculo-Normans fought Italians, Muslim and Byzantine forces.
The Normans were losing, and on the final return to the lines, they broke out in songs of praise to God.
At that point, a host of mounted and armed horsemen wearing white cloaks came riding through the lines and joined the host of Normans. And the final charge resulted in a stunning victory where only defeat lay moments before.
At that time, the voiceless horsemen disappeared.
Tell me God doesn't exist.
It was quite a thing, Linda.
Beans, that's new to me! What a powerful story and I think there's a few more like it, even into modern times.
The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.
The Normans overall don't get a lot of positive press. Which is a shame.
The first real Renaissance of Arts, Science, Architecture, Literature and in the Church since the Dark Ages? The Norman Renaissance as Normans traveled to Sicily, Italy, Greece and the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Lands and brought back to France, to the cultural and religious center of Normandy, the city of Bayeaux. It's how Romanesque architecture was spread to France and England.
But all everyone remembers is they were the bad guys in "Robin Hood."
Except they weren't. That whole Prince John being a jerk was because he had to mortgage England and the continental properties of Normandy and Brittany to pay for Richard the Lionhearted's Crusade and the ransom when Richard was captured. That's why John had to squeeze the last drop of money out of everyone. But he's the bad guy and Richard's the good guy? What's next, Richard III was actually a good man unfairly murdered by the Tudors? (wait, um, that one is true also)
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