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THIS IS A TRUE STORY. MAKE
OF IT WHAT YOU WILL.
This story involves a “true confessions” on my part.
I am not proud of the “true confessions” part. However,
I have promised to do better in the future.
You see, it’s like this. I am accustomed to parking my
car in the garage on Preston Street (behind St. Joseph Rectory)
whenever I drive over to St. Joseph Church, although not when
I go to St. Joseph Chapel. One Sunday afternoon, very recently,
after having finished the 11:30 am Mass and after having lingered
a while in order to do a few things around the church, I went
to the garage to get in my car. Here comes the “true confessions”
part: Over the past few months, I had developed the bad habit
of exiting the garage rather quickly, without being cautious
to check as to whether any vehicle should happen to be coming
along Preston Street. I think I got careless about this because,
quite frankly, I never saw any traffic on Preston Street. So,
giving in to the false assumption that “nothing is coming
along now because nothing has ever come along before”, I
turned the key in the ignition, put the gearshift in reverse,
lightly touched the accelerator and prepared to back out. To
my surprise, the car stalled! Now, I would like to point out
that my car never stalled before. I was surprised that it stalled
now! So, I repeated the process: turned the key in the ignition,
went into reverse, touched the accelerator and --- lo and behold
--- just as I did this, I looked in the rear view mirror and
saw a car go by. I’m sure this was the first time since
I’ve been in Girardville that I ever saw a car go by on
Preston Street. I know this much: As surely as God makes little
green apples, my car and that car would have rammed into one
another, IF my car had not stalled out. I had, at that moment,
something akin to a religious experience. I had a profound sense
of gratitude that, once again, my Father had treated me better
than I deserved! Someone might say (as “someone” is
always prone to saying) that the whole thing was a coincidence
— a fortunate coincidence, but a coincidence nonetheless.
I believe otherwise. I truly believe that my guardian angel
did me a favor. Why did he do me a favor? I guess because he
loves me and because he wanted to humble me and make me aware
of his presence and, maybe, because he knows that there is not
a day of my life when I do not, in some way, acknowledge the
existence and ministry of angels. I acknowledged my debt to
him by saying (at least ten times in a row) the ANGEL GUARDIAN
PRAYER.
I encourage you to say this prayer and to teach it to your children:
ANGEL OF GOD,
MY GUARDIAN DEAR,
TO WHOM GOD’S LOVE
ENTRUSTS ME HERE,
EVER THIS DAY
BE AT MY SIDE,
TO LIGHT AND GUARD,
TO RULE AND GUIDE.
AMEN.
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Saturday, 27 December