WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015, SAINT PATRICK’S OLD CATHEDRAL

Here we are again. Bone chilling cold. A mere dozen of us. Lord, how can we do this? Answer: you can’t, WE can. And WE did. Some of us utterly new to the task, including four parishioners who joined us, and several Lumen men who showed up, answered the call, reported in. That’s all He needed. Despite the cold, the dark night, and the usual busy street scene, before long our nets were full to bursting, a steady progression of penitents found themselves being loved into, “joyed” into, and sometimes gently tugged and pulled into, the Ash Wednesday service with confessions to boot. All four Legionary priests were kept busy all night, many handling the now usual I’ve been away 20 year + confession. Later, one of us wrote this prayer of thanks:

“Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you for the joy of serving you and your mission of salvation for all of us. Thank you for calling me, however unworthy and imperfect an instrument I am. You could have done this yourself, but you chose me to share this experience of love with you. Thank you for the brotherhood and sisterhood in you that tonight gave all of us out there on the cold and windy streets, for the love we gave each other through you, for the love we gave and received from all the people we met. Thank you for once again responding so abundantly to our pathetic little, half-hearted “yes” with a load of fish so huge that we were nearly buried in the avalanche. Thank you for your infinite love.”

A missionary
February 18, 2015

Dear Missionaries,

I don’t think hell is hot. I think it must be cold…very very cold.

As a deterrent to cold, there is Legionaries of Christ, Regnum Christi and Lumen! I thought it was a very fruitful day, a harbinger of spring. Holy Week is just around the corner.

Please thank the priests and missionaries for all that they do.

Peace,
Monsignor Donald Sakano
Pastor at St Patrick’s Old Cathedral