Today is Friday, and the little corn is popping up in the fields now. It looks like tiny green stitches sewn across the dark Iowa dirt. Some rows are still shy, but some are plain as can be, and I kept watching them from Robert’s pickup while we rode to St. Mary’s for Holy Mass.
Robert picked us up as usual and right on time. Sister Mary Claire had her prayer book with her, and Mini sat close beside me with her bright Corgi ears up, as if she were listening for church bells before we even got there. The morning smelled like spring fields, damp earth, and new growing things.
At Mass, Father LeRoy read the Gospel about Jesus meeting the eleven disciples on the mountain. He said something that stayed in my heart all day. He said the disciples worshiped Jesus, but some still doubted. That made me feel better somehow, because even the friends of Jesus had weak moments. Father said Jesus did not turn away from them because they were not perfect. Instead, He came closer and gave them a great mission.
Father LeRoy explained that when Jesus said, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” He was telling them that He was truly King over everything. Then He sent them out to teach all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Father said this is why the Church keeps going from year to year, country to country, and little church to little church, even all the way to our St. Mary’s in Littlemore.
But my favorite part was the very last line.
Jesus said, “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Father LeRoy said those words are like a lantern that never goes out. Jesus did go up to Heaven, but He did not leave us lonely. He is with His Church. He is with us in prayer. He is with us in the Blessed Sacrament. He is with us when we are brave, and He is with us when we feel small and unsure.
On the ride home, Sister Mary Claire said the little corn rows made her think of the Gospel. The farmer plants the seed, but God gives the life. Father LeRoy plants Jesus’ words in our hearts at Mass, and then we must let them grow. Robert said the corn has to push up through the dirt before anyone can see it, and maybe faith is like that too. Sometimes it is growing quietly before we even notice.
I looked out the window at the fields and thought maybe every tiny corn blade was saying, “Jesus is with us always.”
Tonight we made our patchwork quilt prayer tent again in the bedroom. Sister Mary Claire helped tuck the quilts just right, and the lantern made everything soft and golden. I read the evening prayer from my sheet of paper, and Mini lay there with no collar, looking pleased to be included. I imagined Jesus and Mother Mary very near, not in a pretend way, but in the quiet real way that comes when a heart is praying.
It felt like our little prayer tent was a mountain, and Jesus was saying the same thing to us that He said to the disciples:
“I am with you always.”
Evening Prayer
Dear Jesus,
thank You for staying with us always.
Help my faith grow like the little corn in the fields.
Help me remember that You are near
when I am happy,
when I am afraid,
and even when I do not understand everything.
Dear Mother Mary,
keep me close to Jesus tonight.
Bless Sister Mary Claire, Robert, Father LeRoy,
and my dear Mini sleeping beside us.
Please make our little prayer tent
a quiet place where my heart remembers Heaven.
Amen.
Love,
Kathy
___________
Gospel Reading
A reading from
the holy Gospel according to Matthew 28:16-20
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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