And so we prayed...

Sunday mornings in the House of the Immaculata are "free". The first time I heard these words I was in Argentina, but "la manana es libera", was more than comprehensible - it was a sweet sound. A "free morning" means no scheduled time to wake up, no scheduled time to pray, no schedule at all. Of course, 90% of the time there is something to do, but the sheer ability to choose whether to roll over in bed for an extra five minutes makes me positively giddy. I am very fond of being comfortable.

So, unsurprisingly, not only did I oversleep this morning, I missed the early Mass completely and attended 8:00am. On the way home I went by Vons to pick up some breakfast sweets for a small group of young adults I was expecting. Was expecting...

20 minutes after the gathering was to commence, the door bell rang. When I opened it, a 60 year old Vietnamese man introduced himself as a member of the group. 60 years old. A not-so-young adult.

Over the course of the next hour, this gentleman shared with me his personal-story. It is a story of incarceration, torture, escape, inculturation, parenting, and faith. His love for the Blessed Mother is so strong that he asked me to go to Vietnam, to Saigon in fact, in order to share her and the story of St. Maximilian Kolbe with the youth in Vietnam.

When we began to share specifically on prayer, he said, "It don't matter if I do many things. It don't matter if I have many things. It matter only that I pray with the heart. I pray for the first time when I was 55. I pray: Lord, help me love you more than I do today."

And so we prayed...

A Vietnamese gentleman. An American young woman.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.