Today was the feast day for St. Therese of Lisieux. She is most known for her writings called “A Story of the Soul”, in which she outlines the path to holiness by doing small things with great love. It is encouraging to me because when I learn about the tremendous lives of the saints, I don’t feel like I could ever do that. But, to do the small ordinary things with great love, I still need a lot of help and grace, but it definitely sounds more doable. It is commonly known that if you pray for the intercession of St. Therese, you will receive a rose as a sign that your prayers have been heard. This evening I went to Mass at the Newman Center. During the homily, the priest said that, even though he prays to St. Therese, he had never received a rose. After Mass, one of the young ladies gave him a rose. As we were visiting, she started touching my hair. She had found a tiny praying mantis perched on a strand of my hair. The young woman gently got it out and brought it outside. That was very weird. I didn’t receive a rose, but a praying mantis instead. According to the Internet, it is a sign of good luck, or is a message to be still, meditate, and get to a sense of peace. Basically to pray. It was just so odd. I was grateful to go to church and to have a strange, interesting encounter.

I Found God today in a strange encounter.