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Two Faces of Hope

by Jean Fox, deceased director general of Madonna House

By August 2, 2021November 23rd, 2023No Comments

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Two young men who were with us for our spiritual formation program endeared themselves to us.

One has rosy cheeks and bright, sparkling eyes. He has always been a model of youthful maturity, to put it in simple language.

The other one arrived more of a challenge to the entire family. He had a tendency to try to skip out of common chores. For a time, it looked as though he might not make it here, but with a little encouragement and a wee bit of a correction here and there, he settled down.

He became a sterling, prayerful, and ardent young man. The two of them recently returned for a visit.

They were like the face of hope arriving, because they had just spent four months pilgrimaging to holy places in Europe.

They did not go by modern convenience or as bourgeois tourists would go. They went as pilgrims, knocking at monastery doors for lodging, seeking their meals from whoever would feed them, carrying with them a sleeping bag in the event that there was no bed for them.

These two young men prayed their way through Europe and walked or hitchhiked from place to place. They had story after story of how exceedingly well cared for they were throughout the entire trip. They carried nothing with them except one change of clothing so their backpacks wouldn’t encumber them.

The highlight of their pilgrimage was meeting a grand, elderly man in Rome. Although they had no connections in the higher echelons, they were standing in St. Peter’s Square on the eve of the opening of the Holy Doors.

A woman walked up to them and said, “Would you like two tickets for St. Peter’s?” They were escorted to a place in the Basilica not far from the Holy Father at that momentous time when John Paul II led the Church into the third millennium.

As they told their story, it was as though they took us all with them, because they have a great love for Madonna House and radiate the hunger and thirst that is so unquenchable in the hearts of young people like them.

When they left the other morning, it was as though a ray of sunshine left with them.

Pray for all these young people who carry within them the future of the Church and the future of the world, whether they live out their life as married people, as lay people in the marketplace, or as priests or nuns.

These two young men are symbols of this surge of life all around us. What an honor it is to receive them into our home and our hearts. What an incredible grace it is for us to pass on to them whatever incarnation of the gospel is placed in our hands, in whatever corner of the apostolate we are living and serving in.

I pray that we pass it on with fire in our hearts, because love is the only thing that can never be extinguished from the face of the earth.

Excerpted from Inflamed by Love, (2002), pp. 195-197, available from MH Publications