As I entered a tiny village, an elderly nun wearing a short veil approached me. She was determined to engage me, for she spoke, in Spanish, a lot of words I didn’t understand but I finally understood her to ask me where I was from. Her demeanor was so kind and even funny. When I asked in broken Spanish how many nuns there were in her Community, she responded eleven. And then she made gestures indicating that many weren’t doing well mentally. How she let me know they were most likely suffering from dementia was ironically so funny.

When I was ready to keep walking, she motioned for me to follow her to a tiny chapel a ways down. We got there, she retrieved a key from her pocket and opened the door to the chapel which was beautiful. Then she looked at me and put her hands on my head saying she wanted to bless me!!!

And indeed she did!!! A very lengthy one, asking Christ to be with me and guide me. She ended the blessing by giving me a Miraculous Medal on a leather cord that she placed around my neck. I’ve never been blessed by a nun… ever. It was moving and left me with the strength to carry on.

SHE opened the little church; SHE welcomed me; SHE blessed me. In the gospel Jesus teaches us to be like this nun: welcoming, engaging, blessing people. In the story Jesus told, a man gave a large dinner and invited many. But a large number of those invited made excuses why they couldn’t go. So he asked his servants to invite the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. He wanted his “home” filled to capacity.

We all have excuses why we delay in following the Lord‘s many invitations in nourishing our lives with the bread of mercy, forgiveness, serving in some way, helping to fill the house of the church. What might your excuse be?