Recently, a colleague and I had the opportunity to attend
the Northern California Faith Formation Conference “Cultivating
Disciples”. We arrived with ample
materials to share our message of the mission of Maryknoll with the conference
attendees. As the second day was coming
to a close, we decided that we were going to try and get as many of the
magazines we had left into the hands of those that passed our booth. So, we
each filled our hands with copies and as people hurried past us to the last
session asked them “English or Español?” and offered them a magazine. We asked
them to do two things, read it and share it.
A woman approached us pulling a full bag on wheels behind
her. The convention center host site was a large venue and people had to move
quickly to make it to their destinations in a timely manner. This woman was
moving at a rapid, determined pace with her high heels clicking a rhythm en
route to the end of her day. We greeted her as the other attendees with the
same invitation and extended our hands with the magazine. Her eyes went wide
with surprise and wonder, she put her hand to her head and said “Oh my gosh!
Maryknoll magazine! My nonna used to get this! I remember sitting on the front
steps and just flipping the pages and looking at the pictures before I could
read. When I was older, I would read to my nonna in the kitchen while she made
gnocchi. Oh my gosh! I know Maryknoll!”
At that moment, this woman was transported back to a memory
with her family and those moments when she began to learn about mission. She
wasn’t even going to go past our booth, but she believes she was guided there
through divine intervention. Before she
hurried off to her last session of the day, she signed up to receive the magazine
in her house, took a copy for each of the teachers in her school and as the DRE
signed up for the classroom program for all of her students in her parish.
Sharing those last few magazines made our boxes
to carry much lighter, but ending the day with this joyful memory lifted us
all. Marie Lawler is a Maryknoll Mission Animator and Educator stationed in the San Francisco.
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