"God’s grace is at work in our world and in our Church today."

A great story of "spiritual obstetrics":

I saw Philip walk into St. Benedict’s that first morning. I was intrigued by his appearance: He was tall and slender with long dreadlocks, multiple ear piercings, and green and black tied-dyed knee high socks. I thought to myself, “I wonder what his story is…” I caught him after Mass sitting by himself. I walked over to him with my pilgrim lunch in hand and asked him how it was going. I took a bite of my pilgrim lunch (an ice cold sausage), and immediately I knew that God’s grace was at work. It had to be, or how else could I explain eating every last bite of that sausage?! He told me that he used to be an atheist and now he didn’t know what he was. His girlfriend is an atheist and she wasn’t too excited about him coming to World Youth Day. He came because his mom had invited him to go, so he agreed, and the two of them set out for Sydney from New Zealand. He spoke of wanting to know the truth and of being happy. I smiled because I knew that in searching for the truth and for true happiness, he was likely to find only one answer—God. So I encouraged him to have an open heart and to dig deep into his own heart and lay all his deepest desires and questions and hurts before Christ’s own merciful heart. I saw Philip the next day...