Sunday, October 12th
Trinity Catholic church, 10:30 am
Mark was preparing to celebrate the morning mass on the day before Thanksgiving, but this mass was really a Thanksgiving celebration because Andy and Grace Cooper would renew their wedding vows after twenty years of marriage and after so much suffering and worry only a few weeks before.
As he came out of the sacristy and climbed the three steps that led to the altar, he turned to face the crowded church in front of him and his heart was really joyful and grateful to the Creator who had given him so much grace in his years of priesthood.
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He thanked God for Andy and Grace, who were sitting in the front pew with their daughter, Meg, and their relatives. They were elegant and smiling, a really beautiful family united in love and respect, living an honest and serene life and bringing up their daughter in the values of faith, generosity and righteousness. They had faced the time of danger, prison and of false accusations, united in their mutual love and now they were enjoying the affection of many people gathered in the church to pray with them and for them.
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He thanked God for Louise, who was sitting between her uncle and aunt, with a radiant and happy countenance, so different from the worried look she had only a few weeks before between her father and mother. Yes, it would not be easy for her, because all the love of her aunt and uncle could not substitute for the suffering her parents had caused her, but she was not alone, she had someone to support her and give her all the affection she had longed for, for more than sixteen years.
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He thanked God for Miss Lewis, who was in church today, invited by the Coopers. She had completely recovered and she was serene. Mark hoped she would start to participate in the community, so that she would be a little less lonely, but he knew that for her now the most important thing was having her job and being able to take care of her sick mother….
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He thanked God for Agent Hogan and his wife, Sue, invited by the Coopers. They had had their share of worries and suffering but now Sue was better and Mark prayed her periodical check-ups would confirm the remission from cancer.
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But his heart was really full of joy and gratitude for Jason and Miriam. They were sitting next to each other behind Louise and her relatives. Father Mark had prayed so much that Jason could find comfort in his loss. As they looked at each other at the beginning of the mass, Mark saw love, admiration, mutual support and understanding and he said really and from the heart,
‘Thank God, because in your mysterious design you never leave us alone. Protect them, please! They have already suffered so much!’ A week before they had gone to him to tell him the good news and they had tears in their eyes for the emotion of that moment. He had taken them to church and together they had thanked the Lord and prayed to Him to protect them.
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He thanked God for all the students, schoolmates of Meg and Louise, and all the teachers he saw in church with their families. Without them, his life would be empty, he filled it with their stories, their personal lives, their joys and their sorrows…
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He thanked God for Angela Dawson and her husband, Tony. Angela was the only one in church who seemed detached and troubled. Tony had come to him a few days before and he had asked him to pray for his wife because he had told him that she had to deal with something from the past that tormented her. Mark sighed. He would concentrate his prayers on her as he had seen she was restless and anxious but he knew that, when she felt like it, she would come to him, as everybody did.
But for her, as for most of the people in front of Him, this was really a new life!
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