Binghamton, NY

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This report comes to us from team leader Fr. Ignatius with our Endicott-Mount St. Francis Hermitage team in New York:

Our team took to the streets of downtown Binghamton for the first time yesterday, setting up at the busy corner of Court and Washington. Three evangelizers brought the presence of the Church to the heart of the city, and the city responded. The corner proved to be a very good location…foot traffic was steady, the atmosphere was alive, and more than a few passersby slowed their step to receive a Miraculous Medal. Among those who stopped was a fallen away Catholic.

A man approached, polite, clearly a spiritual person, and in conversation it emerged that he no longer fully practiced the Faith. He was not, by his own account, indifferent to God. He prayed every day. But Mass had slipped away from him, crowded out by the press of a busy life. There was simply too much, he said, pulling in too many directions.

The response came gently but directly: there is one reason, above all others, to return: Jesus Christ, truly and really present in the Blessed Sacrament. Not a memory, not a symbol, but the living Lord, waiting. The man listened. He took a Miraculous Medal and held it quietly, turning it over in his hand. Something in him was weighing what he had heard.

Our Lord’s own words came to mind and were respectfully shared: the seed that fell among the thorns, choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, bearing no fruit. The thorns are real. But so is the Sower, and He does not stop casting seed.

Please God, today one fell on ground that may yet prove good.