Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
John 11:5-6
So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.
I hate to suffer. I hate to see anyone else suffer. Very likely, you feel the same way. Had it been up to me, this account would have read, “So when He heard that he was ill, He rushed to his side and healed him immediately and celebrated with the whole family and they all lived happily ever after.” I’m always eager to skip over the tough parts and jump to the happy ending.
Providentially, God has not put me in charge of the universe. (Insert wild cheering here.)
Jesus intentionally allowed this suffering because it brought about a much greater good. The suffering stretched and strengthened the faith of His friends. The suffering provided an opportunity for many more people to receive the gift of faith. Countless additional people are now in Heaven enjoying the only TRUE happy ending because they came to believe in Jesus after witnessing this miracle.
I have no idea why Jesus hasn’t immediately answered my urgent message that the one He loves is sick in soul and rushed to 933 Liberty Avenue to stop the suffering. But He knows exactly why. And His reason will be good when I learn it one day. May God stretch and strengthen our faith and, in His own best time, bring us all to our happy ending.
Vince and Pat M.
(From Pat) I have never woken up during the Lenten campaign, knowing that I have to face my once-a-campaign Sunday morning shift, with more gratitutde. And yes, it was the unbelievably mild (and dry!) weather that did that for me. Thank you, Lord!
But I have even more gratitude in my heart for SB Vince who, as always, led us through all four sets of a scriptural rosary, ending with the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Vince had his Knights from St. Sebastian’s and I had mine from St. Regis for the first hour, but then we were joined by LOTS of members of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus Parish.
While we had no one harassing us because they were in opposition to what we were doing, we did have repeated annoying encounters with a small group of people who seemed to be living on the streets and may have been high.
Ken and Pat S.
(From Ken) The sidewalk was filled with the Spirit of prayer as ‘grace did abound all the more’. Most Precious Blood of Jesus Parish turned out in large numbers as we prayed multiple Scriptural Rosaries and Chaplets of Divine Mercy. We had the warmest day for this campaign with the temperature passing the 80 degree mark. And the warmth of the prayer warriors exceeded the high temperatures on the thermostat. With the faithful downtown rosary walkers adding to our numbers, that exceeded 20 faithful at one point. There was some raucous behavior from a group of street people that appeared intoxicated. They repeatedly passed us, sometimes screaming at the top of their lungs. The police eventually arrested one of the more outrageous members who tried to walk off with one of our signs.
Jim and Andrew
Sue
(From Sue Mc) Today I was honored to pray with wonderful pray-ers from Most Precious Blood of Jesus Parish. Thanks to Nikki for serving as my shift buddy today. The shift was a continuous stream of devout prayer. Fortunately, too, it was relatively uneventful. Of course PP was closed as it’s Sunday, but the springy weather always brings out more passersby. Thankfully we received mostly positive comments.
Charlie
(From Charlie) Today was our best shift so far for our slot. Filled with beautiful people and even more beautiful prayer. We were joined by Joan and her church St Oscar Romero. We also had Jeannine with Most Precious Blood of JESUS. John and Amanda led a rosary and sang a beautiful song after. The minutes flew by as there was constant prayer. Perfect timing as lent is coming to the end and so is our time together.
Thank you to all who witnessed on this beautiful day. May God reward your efforts with closure of this terrible place.