Persistence

By Joe Sullivan, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

Every year I make an eight-day silent retreat. This past December I did it at the Our Lady of Good Counsel Retreat House in Lincoln, Nebraska. 

“Arr ju Joe?” I detected a super strong Spanish accent from the Lyft driver when he asked my name. Immediately we switched to Spanish and in no time we were chatting away down the road to the retreat house. 

Angel told me he has been working in Lincoln for a few years since arriving from Cuba. “Where did you learn Spanish?” he asked. “In Madrid working as a Catholic missionary.” Angel’s eyes widened, “I am Catholic. I go to Church only now and then, but what do you know about the Jehovah’s Witnesses?” 

I paused, “OK. Well… they deny the divinity of Christ, Jesus is Michael the Archangel, there is no hell, and only 144,000 souls will enter heaven.” Angel pointed to the Tyson chicken plant. “I worked there before I started driving. My daughter in Santiago became a Jehovah’s Witness so that she could marry her boyfriend in Cuba. I don’t like it. It is wrong.” Angel’s voice sounded disparaged. “And she won’t listen to me!” 

St. Anthony Maria Claret, the Spiritual Father of Miles Jesu, was the Bishop of Santiago, Cuba. I said a prayer for Angel and his daughter asking St. Anthony for his intercession. “At least she should have learned the faith God gave her at birth before she goes off and abandons it for something else,” grieved Angel. I was impressed at Angel’s reasoning and of his love for his daughter. 

“I may not have been good at passing on the Faith, but I would go over to Cuba right now and speak with her if she would only be open to talk to me.” ‘This guy is serious’, I thought. 

“Well, just keep praying for her. She will come around.” “Yeah, I know Our Lady will take care of her. I just need to keep asking her.”