I came across this just today in an article by Andrew Sullivan, published in Time Magazine, October 9, 2006, adapted from his book The Conservative Soul.
Mr. Sullivan writes, “I remember my grandmother’s faith. She was an Irish immigrant who worked as a servant for priests. In her later years she lived with us, and we would go to Mass together. She was barely literate, the seventh of 13 children. And she could rattle off the Hail Mary with the speed and subtlety of as NASCAR lap. There were times when she embarrassed me – with her broad Irish brogue and reflexive deference to clerical authority….And then, as I winced at her volume in my quiet church, I saw that she was utterly oblivious to those around her. She was someplace else. And there were times when I caught in the middle of saying the Rosary when she seemed to reach another level altogether – a higher, deeper place than I, with all my education and privilege, had reached.”
God saw her faith, felt her devotion, and he found her in her need and her desire.
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Doesn't this remind you of the nun who went to St Teresa complaining that she could not reach the state of contemplation she desired and thought her vocal prayer was stagnant and that she was getting nowhere in recollection, but just 'saying her prayers"? She, like this grandmother , had well passed the state of just 'saying her vocal prayers' and was a true contemplative.
I only wish I knew people like this grandmother when I was younger.
Thanks for posting this, Fr Ben.
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