<\/p>\n Teaching in a high school in a small state (Delaware) it was not uncommon to have elected officials visit.\u00a0 Then Senator, Joe Biden lived not far from school and often visited.\u00a0 Besides my memory I can actually document this occasion with a photo\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By far and away, however, the most profound meeting came when I was a novice many years ago.\u00a0 Its impact on me has not waned over time and I can still close my eyes and experience the moment as if for the first time.\u00a0 Cardinal O\u2019Connor had invited Mother Teresa of Calcutta to speak at Saint Patrick\u2019s Cathedral in New York City.\u00a0 Our Mother House was several hours away in Pennsylvania.\u00a0 Assuming that she would speak during Mass, perhaps at the post-communion, we did not attend Mass before we departed for New York.\u00a0\u00a0 We learned when we got there that she would be speaking shortly but not within the celebration of Mass.\u00a0 She gave a wonderful message, elegant in its simplicity.\u00a0 When she concluded the Cardinal graciously invited all present to a reception in the lower church.\u00a0 We were informed by our superior that we would not be attending the reception since we had not yet attended Mass.\u00a0\u00a0 We would attend the Mass which was about to begin and depart immediately thereafter for PA.\u00a0 We were, I must admit, not very devout, because we really wanted to meet Mother Teresa.\u00a0 All present, except us, filed out of the cathedral to the reception, leaving us and a few others, to attend our Sunday Mass.<\/p>\n End of story?\u2026oh no.\u00a0 After Mass we piled back onto the yellow school bus and headed out of NYC and onto the New Jersey Turnpike.\u00a0 About 30 miles down the Turnpike one of the novices in the back of the bus called loudly, \u201cMother Teresa\u2019s in the car behind us!\u201d\u00a0 You would have thought someone had just spotted one of the Beatles.\u00a0 We all stood and looked toward the back and sure enough there she was with a younger sister who was the driver.\u00a0 Mother still had a dozen red roses on her lap that someone had given her at the Cathedral.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Just then the driver motioned for us to pull over.\u00a0 So, at the next interchange we did just that.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine what the passersby on the turnpike thought.\u00a0 We looked like a scene from the Sound of Music.\u00a0 Can you imagine driving by and saying to your friend, \u201cIs that Mother Teresa in the middle of that?\u201d\u00a0 Yes, and In the middle of all of that one of the novices began taking pictures as Mother Teresa graciously and gently hugged every one of us.\u00a0 She offered her roses to us until they were gone.\u00a0 She said that she was disappointed that we were not at the reception and that she had seen us in the cathedral and recognized out habits.\u00a0 We explained about Mass.\u00a0 We said our goodbyes and made our way back to our Motherhouse in PA.<\/p>\n Susan O’Hara<\/strong> teaches theology for Saint Joseph’s College Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve never really thought of myself as a person who is overly concerned or even that aware of celebrity or celebrities.\u00a0 \u00a0In retrospect, it being 20\/20, I can see that I\u2019ve been fortunate to be in the right place at … Continue reading ![\"IMG_2051\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/04\/IMG_2051-e1460602059847.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>For me the enduring effect of that meeting resides in the experience of grace. \u00a0The old Irish speak about the \u201cthin places\u201d.\u00a0 Celtic spirituality holds that the separation between the natural and supernatural is very small and that in some cases very, very small.\u00a0 These places are the thin places.\u00a0 A thin place can be a place.\u00a0 It can also be a person or an experience.\u00a0 In this case, the thin place was Mother Teresa.\u00a0 The experience while vivid is still ineffable, but I can say that I experienced a palpable sense of grace and I felt an urgency to be open to it.\u00a0 I smile when I think of the details of this story, but I pray when I close my eyes and remember the grace.<\/p>\n