I just had a remarkable experience. It may have been the strength and particular hue of the light in my room right now that triggered it.
In a flash a memory flooded back to my conscious mind of standing behind a chair at the table in the dining room of St. Agnes parish in St. Paul many years ago, in the earliest ’80s when I was a shiny new Catholic.
There was once a remarkable culture to that place, often focused in that room around that table.
Remarkable days and dead friends summoned in a remembrance of things past.
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When something like that happens and I recall a person who has died I try to say a prayer for them just in case they are in need.
Interesting experiences aren’t they.
Fr. Z,
You have made reference to your conversion to Catholicism before. Is there some place we can read the story?
Thanks!
Paul
I just noticed the time of your posting Fr. The Hour of Divine Mercy. Yes I would definitely say a prayer for all those you remeber from that room!
Yes, I also do fondly the dining room at St. Agnes, wonderful conversations with Monsignor Schuler, may he rest in peace. St. Agnes will never be the same without him.
“Is there some place we can read the story?”
Audio: The Journey Home
I’ve had great flashbacks like that too, Father. I remember being confirmed by Archbishop Krol before he was elevated to the College of Cardinals.
I hope that there is still a remarkable culture to that place.
That is definitely a dining room filled with a great deal of happy memories, and was a source of tremendous grace in the lives of so many people. Something a foretaste of the heavenly banquet – with coffee, day old pastries and Mrs. Altier’s strudel
ohh the good old days of St. Agnes!!
Now thousands of miles away, I miss St. Agnes too! I was homeschooled until I started going to the school in 3rd grade, taught by Sr. Mary Claire, and I was able to hear Monsignor Schuler’s sermons many times through his remaining years with us.
Isn’t that a gift? Don’t you sometimes think it’s a shame to blog about these kinds of experiences?
I had never been able to go to St Agnes’s, I lived up north in Mn, but do remember calling down to Msgr Schuller when I had a serious question as to the Church teaching, when raising my children. His answers to me were always right, and helped me to want to learn more deeply my Catholic faith. God bless him and all who were fortunite enought to have known him.
Vincenzo:
Thanks for posting the audio of Fr. Z’s interview on EWTN. Hearing his(and other conversion) stories are amazing and powerful examples of the work of the Holy Spirit. Fr. Z’.s reflections on how Mons. Schuler ‘brought him along’ as a patient, spiritual fisher of men was wonderful. He must of been an inspiring priest.
There is something about Lent and the Divine Mercy, along with our agressive self-denial, that thins the veil between that which we knew and that which we long to know.