One Saturday morning, Madonna House Vancouver held a morning of recollection, its first since the pandemic. What a providential them it chose for this hybrid mix of in-person and online participation: the chit-chat apostolate.
At first the title of the presentation felt mundane to me, and even now, it challenges my preconceptions and values. Yet the talk by Madonna House’s Marie Therese McLaughlin has been one of the most impactful and fruitful ones I’ve heard.
She spoke of the importance of encountering people, and how every person is worthy of being seen and encountered.
She shared stories of how keeping an available heart to the Holy Spirit and to people around her has brought about some of the greatest grace-filled encounters.
She spoke of how we are living tabernacles who can bring Our Lord to people even as we chit-chat about the weather or smile at passersby.
She encouraged and challenged us to choose to trust, because trust generates trust in others.
We also discussed how spending time with the Blessed Sacrament in heart-to-heart conversation gives us the disposition of heart to be truly present.
As often happens when the Spirit moves me through a talk or message, the Lord gave me an opportunity to experience this chit-chat apostolate in a tangible way just the day after the talk.
I was on my way to Wendy’s with a friend to pick up food for some neighbours. While we were waiting for the food I was drawn into chatting with an elderly man who was having lunch there. I asked him if his fries were good, and that started us talking.
Ten minutes later we had found out he was dying of cancer and that after years of pushing God away for something that had happened to him as a child he could now say that he was passionate about God.
My friend shared with him how he was discerning becoming a monk, and this moved the older man.
The three of us ended up being deeply touched. I personally was edified beyond words by the inner strength and joy of this man after all he had been through. As a 6-year-old child, he had witnessed his mother being tortured and killed in Africa. After eight years of being mute from the trauma, his grandmother’s love and perseverance reached him and he finally spoke.
He went on to join the Canadian military, dedicating his life to combatting evil, especially violence against women.
Now that he has cancer, he said he could be strong and even joyful because everything he has gone through has made him stronger.
The last thing he told us with tears in his eyes was that to him women are the greatest gift to mankind, to be cherished and loved.
I don’t know if I’ll ever see this man again, but I left that conversation with love and hope in my heart, and a deep sense of inspiration and gratitude for this man’s life and witness.
When I started chit-chatting, I didn’t have an agenda. I was just following a prompting. It was the elderly man who brought God into the conversation.
Bishop Guy Desrochers of Pembroke, speaking about this chit-chat apostolate that Madonna House strives to live, wrote: “Love is transmitted by the fire in our hearts. It is transmitted by a glance, by shaking a hand or holding a hand, so that the power of your love passes to the other. It is found in an intense listening that makes the listener feel that you are completely interested in him or her, and nobody else. That kind of love comes directly from God.”
Thank you, ladies of Madonna House, for being witnesses to love and hospitality of the heart.
Thank you, Doug, the brave man at Wendy’s. I hope to encounter you again!