Near St. William Church, Naples, Florida. This morning on an early ride and rosary through the unusually quiet streets of Naples, I saw the peloton coming towards me in my rear view mirror. Seemingly oblivious to the dangers of the Corona, they were packed tight as usual, and would be passing me in a whirlwind of aerosols within seconds. I pulled over to the center of the road, normally dangerous but I had not seen a car in 10 minutes… As they speed past, one of the strong young man whizzing by at 35 mph barked, “Hey buddy! Pretty dangerous what you’re doing!” Immediately, uncharitable thoughts for a missionary of Christ to have welled up inside me. I had to pray them back down where they belonged, at my feet at best. Maybe the young man was legitimately concerned about my safety, or his. Maybe he was having a bad day in the Peleton of his. Either way, I managed a short prayer for him, sent him a bit of love. In this time of Corona, that and the Lord is all really need. It’s all we’ve ever needed.
This week, we will be embarking on our first ever virtual Holy Week Mission. I know you are all primed for this, ready, armed with your rosaries, dangerous lovers. Together, we will have an impact. One that, as usual, as agents of the Kingdom and not as Kings, we will never really be able to know or measure. But if we share a little bit of the love of Christ this week with everyone we can possibly touch—virtually! – that impact might be immeasurable, priceless, even eternal. And it might just be what that guy in the Peleton, having a bad day, needed to feel at just that moment.
Everyday this week, our mission teams will be busy doing something for the Lord. The teen group has a whole program developed, and their leaders, veteran street missionary Janet Nolan, backed up by the joyful Jeannine and BJ Agugliaro, have developed their own web page for this which you can click on here and find on both our missonaryofwallstreet and regnumchristinyctnj sites. In addition, the adult missionaries will have an evangelization challenge each day that we will be working on together. You can access that at the same two websites. Today’s request is simple: invite a virtual friend to attend one of the Palm Sunday Masses available on the internet or EWTN (see our site for details) and hang your mission tee shirt as a makeshift flag outside your front door or on the front porch/window if you are in the city. Display prominently our logo, "Be Not Afraid."
We’re living in scary times. This Holy Week, let’s more than ever Be Not Afraid. He is with us. All we need is love. His Love.
A Missionary
April 5, 2020
Comments