Thursday, January 01, 2009

Happy New Year!

Last night as we walked to church I said to my oldest, "This is the end of World Youth Day. The pilgrimage, the year, we worked so hard to reach will be over in a few hours." She was silent. I didn't pry into her thoughts. Being a teen, sometimes that is best. I know she had a life changing experience in Australia, on pilgrimage. On that snowy walk, God's grace is enough.

At Mass during the homily the local priest said that God is timeless in our lives, which are so centered on time. How interesting that I would mention the end of a time to my daughter just moments before.

This priest is from Africa. I don't know his name, nor his country of origin, as we are visitors to this parish. But when I asked why he was here my relations said, "There are a lot of priests in his home country. Coming to America is their missionary work." Their missionary work... I have never thought of any African country being in a position to be offer a mission. After all the U.S. is a power house in the world. We are a rich country that supposedly is a dominating world power -- a force. Are we?

It looks like the poorest of the countries in the world might actually be the richest.

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