Mass Readings and Scripture Reflections

Miss Mary’s Army

Miss Mary was a lifelong parishioner, homebound, and I was a newly ordained priest bringing her Holy Communion every First Friday. She watched Sunday Mass at 10 am on the television in the living room of the house in which she had raised four children. Her husband was deceased. Her friends were mostly gone. Her daughters and grandchildren had moved out of state. 

She missed their visits and being alone was a growing struggle for her. Her daughters agreed. They helped her sell her home and move into a new senior facility in the neighborhood. I continued my First Friday visits to her there. She found adjusting and getting to know other residents hard. What bothered her the most was that her savings were quickly diminishing and she could not make her weekly church donation. What could she do? I thanked her for her decades of generosity and said that she had done more than her share. I suggested that she take time every week to pray for me and our parish. That would be a great way to support us.

The next month, when I visited her, she was in the common room sitting with a dozen other residents. She introduced me to them, proudly calling them her “soldiers of fortune.” She got them to gather with her weekly to pray for the church or temple or mosque that had been their spiritual home. That was their weekly donation to where they had worshiped, and a gift of friendship for each other.