The Burden

(originally) August 19, 2011

The other day I went to pick Donald up from his program around 3pm as I do often. I hadn’t had a chance to stop by church to have prayer time so I asked Donald if it was ok if we stop by for 5 minutes to pray and his eyes lit up, “Yaaaa!!!” So since it was right around the corner from his program we went, but what happened next I had never expected.

We walked in the huge, dark, cathedral-like church where one man was kneeling praying a rosary. We went in and sat in the pew. Donald, being a gentleman, took off his hat. I knelt, then Donald sat on the edge of the pew, folded his arms one on the other and put them on the back of the pew in front of him. Then took a huge sigh and rested his head on his arms, facedown. I just stared at him, but you could tell he wasn’t into his surroundings. He was into his own type of prayer, not aloud, but in his heart. He had his own burden he was carrying but never spoke of it and finally he is letting it out to Christ. I couldn’t speak, I just wanted to cry. This poor little guy gets some assistants (through their weaknesses) always yelling at him because he is slow, doesn’t move quick, doesn’t listen, doesn’t remember why he does what he does, he is stubborn and wants things his way… and he has burdens too, just like everyone else. And yet, what does he do with those burdens? He carries them to the cross of Christ, never unloading them on anyone else. He carries His cross. I’ve noticed this in some other core members also.

I asked Donald, “What are you praying for?” I didn’t even ask him if he was praying because I just knew in my heart he was and sure enough he responded right away, “Sally.” Sally is the mother of one of our other core members. She passed away last week and Donald knew her well and is going to her wake and funeral with some other people. I pointed at the crucifix and asked him if he knew who that was and he said Jesus. I also asked him some other questions about Jesus and told him some stuff about Christ’s love and it seemed to make him feel better.

We had to start heading back and as we got up the guy in the pew started talking to us because he recognized Donald from bowling and knew some of the other core members in the community. This guy’s brother was having serious brain surgery. Donald and I promised to pray for him and his brother. It was an amazing divine appointment. Those 5 minutes with Donald I will never forget. It’s like it says in scripture: God doesn’t speak in the earthquake or the storms, but in the whisper of the wind. I feel it’s been in the small moments of L’Arche where I have been most impacted, not the big, giant, festival like stuff, but in those small divine appointments.