Who could fail to see the sadness of the missionary Priest as he came to the death bed of his lost sheep?
It would not have been easy for the Father to simply watch his spiritual daughter die a bad death.
The Light that he had given to her soul at Baptism eight years ago had been extinguished by her
wanton pursuit of pleasures. Reminders and reproaches had failed to bring her back to the fold.
As she lay waiting for death at the Intensive Care Unit, mission staff took turns to invite her to prepare for Confession but she would not give up her attachment to sin. Yet, despite her stubbornness, the priest persisted in exhorting her to make peace with God.
When sowing a seed, you never know if and when a sprout will break through the ground; so, when it does, there is indescribable joy. But when it grows then you see its leaves suddenly turn brown and fall, and then it dies before your very eyes, your sense of loss would be inexpressible. It takes courage and faith to keep watering, hoping for the dead plant to spring back to life.
Silently, Grace worked. Aided by the kindness of the priest, her resistance melted and she resolved to leave sin behind. She received Extreme Unction and the Holy Viaticum.
Against her family's expectations, she survived. It took her two months to gain enough energy to get up and move about and another month to come back to Holy Mass. In this perilous journey through a world of temptations, many fall and never rise again. Her return to a life of grace is a miracle - but as her life story is not yet ended, additional chapters are yet to be written. Anything can happen and how the story finally ends remains to be seen.
Thanks to the donors who, despite not knowing how the story will end, support the mission and enable a story like this to be written. Most importantly, thanks to all who keep praying for the mission because, after all, everything is Grace. If the Lord does not build the house, they labor in vain who build it.
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The patient came from a non-Catholic family that knocked at the medical mission office to ask for medical assistance. When she befriended the mission volunteers who came to her village to conduct home visits, she got interested in the Catholic religion. She started attending catechism lessons and after some three years, she asked for Adult Baptism. One by one, over the years, her family also began to embrace the Catholic Faith. Fast forward, when she started working away from home, she fell into temptations and left religion. How she returned to the practice of the Faith is the subject of this story.
