God, not the work of God [part 2]

I'd been to Confession* the day before but I heard something in the Catechesis by the most Reverend Luis Antonio G. Tagle, Bishop of Imus, Philippines that lead me to decide it was time to visit the confessional again. (I will probably talk about that in another post).

So it was that I skipped out on the daily witness talk (see [part one]) and headed for the makeshift confessionals situated throughout the halls of the Colisée Pepsi.

The line up was short, just myself and one woman ahead of me. We struck up a conversation in which I learned she is a convert from Hinduism via marriage and now very active in her Christian faith. Based on our conversation she asked if I would wait after my confession time as she would like to return to chat briefly. I agreed.

As she went to make her confession I plugged in the ear buds of my portable radio so I could listen to the talk that was in progress in main part of the building. At that moment I heard Mrs. Elizabeth Nguyen Thi Thu Hong stating these exact words:

If you were in my place

Blessed Brother André was the humble doorkeeper of Notre Dame College, Montréal, QC and the founder of Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal which I had the happy priviledge to visit on our pilgrimage to the 49th International Eucharistic Congress (June 08). Here is a prayer of B. Br. André as given for / to a friend:

O good St. Joseph, grant me what you yourself would ask if you were in my lace on this earth, with a numerous family and financial difficulties to vercome. Good Saint Joseph of Mount Royal, be my help, harken to my prayer

::thrive!