This Friday, we met at the St Antoine convent after a beautiful adoration for a street mission to migrants at the Gare du Nord train station.
It was really delicate because there was a summit of the 21 in Brussels, which was debating the issue of migrants, a subject that is creating tension within the EU.
And what are we to do in this politically tense context? There are earthly laws, and we are bound by them as citizens. But there are also heavenly laws that guide us too.
How do you reconcile the two and stay true to both? Well, it was humor that saved us. The Lord's humor. It's called "Holy Spirit"! Because the "classic" mission was transformed into an "unexpected" one.
Brother Jack, who was to have been completely given over to "street mission with young people" all this week and unavailable to accompany us on our Riverkeeper street mission, had a brilliant idea that gave another direction to our mission rosary in hand and hand on heart.
He had us draw clues (from words written by the youngsters on this week's mission) and we formed teams into randomly drawn pairs. Each pair came up with two words, which served as clues for our street mission this afternoon.
With my teammate Sentinelle we shot
"Fruit" and "Poppy/Pavot".
After a beautiful blessing by our brothers (Daniel Marie and Jack, young people and Sentinels) we set off on our mission.
This mission began as a Visitation from one to the other (an opportunity for us to get to know each other better and hear from each other's families), while we waited to arrive at the place we had defined together (Place Ste Catherine).
In the street on the sidewalk
On our way, praying to our Sentinel Ten, we came across a pharmacy with a red flower resembling a poppy in the window. At the foot of the pharmacy stands a tired man in his forties. We approach him and offer him a bottle of water. He drinks greedily. His name is Bogdan and he's Polish. He has lived in Brussels for 15 years. He has two daughters, aged 18 and 20, who stayed behind in Poland. He lives on the street but used to work in the building trade.
When asked: "Do you know John Paul II?" his eyes light up. We give him Jesus' card "I trust in you" (St Faustina's vision).
A moment suspended in time: in slow motion and with infinite tenderness, he delicately takes the card in his hands and brings it to his lips. The moment lasts an eternity. Nikki asks him questions, but he remains deeply focused on his inner prayer.
Then he raises his hands to heaven, as if the kiss that had rested delicately on the merciful Jesus were joining the heavenly Father on the wings of the Holy Spirit.
His green eyes are filled with tears, then with joy, the joy
of a child in wonder.
Every trace of fatigue fades from his face. We forget that he hasn't washed his clothes recently, we forget his hands black with dust, his worn pants, his head covered with badly healed wounds.
Sweetness and joy in bitterness.
All that remained was this look of Love and Joy.
My team-mate gives him his Medjugorje rosary and we pray the Our Father and a Hail Mary with him. Finally, we learn that he did dabble in hard drugs (linked to poppies, one of our clues) 10 years ago, but has vowed never to touch them again.
We have to go back to the convent and leave Bogdan.
Embraces, and to give him a material boost, even though he hadn't asked for anything, he was told that he could come to the convent on Tuesdays to eat. He'll probably also come to pray, as St. Anthony's is in his neighborhood, as is St. Catherine's, which he often visits.
Martine and Nikki
Sentinels
