Sometimes in hindsight, I feel like a pawn being moved around by a master chess player, especially when things work out better than I could have planned myself. Our mission house of sisters had an experience like this during our house time together earlier this month. All of our houses have a time away at the beginning of the year to get to know each other and have fun.
Thanks to a couple of donations from benefactors for an outing, we decided to take in some local history by visiting the earliest Ohio mission settlement, Schoenbrunn, about 1 ½ hours away from Steubenville. Between our walking tour of the historic village and the outdoor performance of the settlement’s history - we drove around looking for a place to eat our picnic dinner and pray evening prayer. On the GPS we looked for a spot outside near the water. The first spot near a creek was too close to the highway, so we drove on. On the GPS, we saw some water nearby and drove to find that it was the town park with a large pond.
We drove around the large park looking for the right place. After almost completely circling the park, we turned in, parked, and got out our sack dinners. Right near where we parked was a wooden deck with a high table and tall chairs next to the duck pond with a fountain – perfect!
Before we even settled ourselves into our chairs, we were approached by a couple of young men who noticed the crucifixes around our necks. They said they came to the park to talk to people about Jesus and thought we may be open to this because of our “crosses.” (They didn’t seem to know exactly what we were, but they recognized the Christian symbols around our necks and the garb that set us apart.) What ensued was a very engaging and respectful conversation. The men were from the local Baptist Church and came to the park eager to introduce people to Jesus - the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
After asking us who Jesus was, John, the main guy who did almost all the speaking, kept asking us questions about what we believed as Roman Catholics. A couple of our sisters are converts from Protestantism and were able to share about their journeys into the Catholic Church. He seemed to be intrigued by our answers - even satisfied and relieved by many of them - especially the ones that dispelled rumors he had heard about what Catholics believe. He was so humble and respectful in the way he began his wonderings: “Ok, now I have another question for you” or “I’ve always wondered about…” or “I’ve heard that Catholics believe_____. Is that true?” He even asked if we had any biases against Baptists like they had against Catholics – talk about open dialogue! After 2 hours of discussion (!), we had to leave for the amphitheater. We gathered in a circle and prayed together. I prayed in gratitude for this “divine appointment” and for blessings on the two men. John thanked the Lord in humility for showing him that he may be wrong in some of his beliefs. We then prayed the Lord’s Prayer together and as we parted John said, “If we don’t see you here or there, we’ll see you in the air.”
How refreshing! We sisters were all agog at how everything worked out so perfectly – God had had it all planned out and we’d had no idea what had been in store for us. The next day I was reading a meditation by St. Bernard of Clairvaux which summed up our experience: “‘I am the way the truth, and the life.’ The way is humility, the goal is truth.” That is exactly what happened during our 2-hour conversation with our brothers in Christ.
-Sr. Joan Paule Portenlanger, T.O.R.
