Be Not Afraid

There is a group of nuns that have recently moved to Kansas City, Kansas. Their mission is to spread the Gospel. The nuns are known as The Little Sisters of the Lamb. They live by divine providence. They awake each day for early morning prayers and have no idea of when and where their next meal will come from. They prefer to live like the poor in order to serve them better.

My family has come to know and be close friends with Little Sisters Stephanie, Lucie, Aude, Benedicte, Alma and Maria Angels. The nuns are Austrian, French, Luxembourgian, Polish, and Spanish and all our young and vibrant. They have come to America in obedience and humility and they have been welcomed here by Archbishop Joseph Naumann. In fact, the Archbishop has provided a priory for them to live. It is a site abandoned for many years and in former disarray. They have learned to speak and write English.

They have formed a close bond with my wife and especially our two youngest daughters and we love them very much. On New Years Day, the nuns asked our family over for a vespers service and dinner. Bernadette’s youngest brother, Father Andrew Hofer, a Dominican Priest, attended with us as well. In the middle of the service a little 10-year old girl, named Jasmine, walked into the priory and began to pray with us. The priory is located in a crime-ridden, impoverished neighborhood but here with “The Little Sisters” she finds love and hope. Little Jasmine comes almost daily to help the nuns and to have a place of solitude. The neighborhood families protect “The Little Sisters”, as well. During the service I am overcome with emotion and embarrassment. I am embarrassed that a little girl struggles to find peace in her life and that nuns from countries far away have come here to help us, Americans no less, who struggle with addictions, pornography and a culture of death. I am embarrassed for my own sins.

It was a beautiful evening with no television, computers, or cell phones. The nuns tell of the day at the soup kitchen when the people were so excited to have them present. A poverty stricken woman tells the nuns, “Jesus is among us today,” as they eat with the homeless. They tell of being at a medical clinic and a woman coming to them and thanking them for being there to help with her little sick girl. They talk of the man on the street that stopped them this morning and asked for their prayers as he was heading to the police department to turn himself in for a drug offense. They talk of a day that they begged for a piece of bread and as a result a little boy hands them over a full bag of groceries that his mother has prepared for them with a note that said, “I give this to you will all my heart.” And finally, they tell of the man that rings the doorbell in the middle of the night, who had been beaten up and is bloody. He is invited to stay the night and later they all pray with the man at Mass. “Yes, Teodoro, God is with you,” the nuns tell him”.

Even in a world of hate and despair, they show us how we can share love and hope with others. 2009 will be a great year when all is placed in proper perspective. Because you see, a lack of money does not equal a lack of faith.

May God grant each and every one of you the true blessings of life, liberty and happiness! Our Founding Father’s saw this due to His Providence and set out a document never before laid, our Constitution.

“He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
- Deuteronomy 31:8