They came on foot!

During the mass, the church door opened. A young Pakistani mother, who have been in our parish for a good six months, scurried a little shyly into one of the benches with her three still very young children. The father was missing. I knew the family well, since I had baptized the three small children, and I knew about various surgeries that the father of the family had already undergone. After Mass, I went to the woman and asked where her husband was. "We missed the bus this morning. That's when we decided I'd walk to church with the three little ones. We walked fast! And my husband went back home." She beamed, carrying the youngest child in her arms. Then, with a deep joy in her eyes, she added, "I'm so thankful!"