Around a year ago, we received an unexpected phone call. A woman asked us, in an almost apologetic tone, if we were available to meet her child who wanted to get to know these sisters at all costs, and for this reason would not leave neither her nor his parents alone. Jeff (invented name) is a 12 year old boy, with a cloud of curly hair the color of carrot, two lively and curious eyes, and a stubborn and impatient streak. He is affected by a rare syndrome that, beyond the physical health problems it causes, gives rise to a cognitive delay and to significant disturbances in behavior.
His parents were not believers and Jeff did not know anything, or next to nothing, about faith and the Church. But when his maternal grandmother died, he was left troubled and began to ask insistently to meet some religious sisters. No one knew exactly why; likely, his grandmother had spoken to him about them on some occasion. The parents, won over by Jeff’s insistence, began to seek and, one day, Jeff and his father went looking around the cathedral of Grenoble, in search of a house of religious.
God uses us; we just need to be available
They ran into a Spanish friend of ours who knew the priests of the Fraternity of St. Charles in Madrid. Struck by Jeff’s determination, they gave them our phone number. And so Jeff’s mother finally reached us. We invited them over for an afternoon snack at our house. Jeff was so overwhelmed that he ate an entire package of cookies by himself. Then, he asked us questions, in particular about his grandmother (“Where is she now?”) and on his friends (“At school, how do I not do the bad things that the other kids are telling me to do?”). We proposed to him to participate in Mercredi chez les soeurs, the group for children that meets every week at our house to play, sing, and discover the beauty of the faith. For Jeff, it is not easy to follow a proposal and stay with other kids but he decided to try. From the very first day, he was won over: he gained an affection for the group and now is super happy to come every time he can, when his doctor’s visits allow. Even the other children love him and are gaining familiarity with him, even despite his bizarre reactions: if he is not there, there is always someone who asks about him. For his part, Jeff never fails to do the roll call of those absent.
The desire to discover God did not stop at the sisters. A few Sundays ago, entering into a church in the center of the city, we were welcomed by Jeff’s little cloud of red curls who came towards us, exclaiming excitedly, “Ah, the sisters!”. We thus discovered that, for some time, a cousin of his mother volunteered to attend Mass with him, to respond to his desire.
It is mysterious how God reaches us and finds unforeseeable roads to make Himself known. God uses us; we just need to be available. And, in the end, grateful.
