Where Will You Plant Your Seed

I have enjoyed a variety of Bible studies, but my favorite happened when I was not looking for one… Months before I had approached an elderly couple that had just put their handicapped daughter into their van. It was after church and one of my volunteer jobs was taking the homebound to church. I told the couple if ever they needed a hand getting their daughter to church to just give me a call. Months later, the daughter called me and said she wanted to go to a Bible study. I said, “I go to a Bible study. I will look around for you, but we are currently on a summer break.” She told me she was both blind and quadriplegic. I said, “In the meantime, I would be happy to read to you.” Vivian said she had prayed for two years for someone to read the Bible to her … We started at the beginning of Matthew, and every night for an hour, I read the Bible to her over the phone.

As I read Holy Scripture, one of the things I find is how I do not always live up to it, or more popularly stated, “Walk the Talk.” When we got to the part in Matthew about not lusting, I had to stop. I said, “Vivian, would you please pray for me?” The following day, when I was at one of my deliveries, I went to their employee bathroom, and across from the toilet, were several copies of Playboy. My first thought at the time was, Vivian does not have eyes for sinning. Who am I?

Vivian became my favorite prayer partner, not that we saw the most answers to prayer, but since she looked to me to be her eyes. We spent many hours over the phone exploring both Holy Scripture and praying The Liturgy of the Hours. Additionally, spending considerable time praying for some of the needs I would see through my day. Since she was both blind and quadriplegic, she could not feel Braille in order to read it. We would spend seven and a half months over the phone an hour a night, covering the New Testament and six and half years praying the Liturgy of the Hours. During our prayer time, I would bring up different needs that people had brought to my attention that day. One of her occasional prayers was that she could minister to others. We had a unique way of praying The Hours. We prayed it not in the normal A B format like in a group, but I would say part of a verse and she would echo it back to me. One of the wonderful benefits I was able to put whole chapters of the psalms to memory.

A year or so into our adventure of prayer, I went to my parish’s ministry fair. I remember a very tall woman going up to the ministry table besides mine. We spoke for a few minutes, and she said, “Is your name Robert?” She told me that a year before she had stopped in Vivian’s home to be her occupational therapist. She joined us in the nine o’clock prayer time for two and a half years. Margaret was one of about a half dozen that would be a third person in our evening prayer time. One day I stopped in the parish of Our Lady of Confidence next to the tabernacle were thirty copies of Christian Prayer, I immediately went over to the rectory and asked, “When do you pray it?” I prayed with that group for two and a half years while waiting for my workday to begin.

In mid-April, all my files from the C drive on our home’s computer were erased, and I was stunned. The files were of my pilgrimage spanning the last twenty years written during the last ten. I remember I wanted something from the store and I did not feel I could safely drive there so I walked. Along the way, I realized that the files more than money in the bank were my treasure. I realized that my treasure should be more in God’s kingdom. I prayed and spoke with a few people along the way, and before I returned home, I told God, “If You want it restored, You are going to have to help me."

I shared what had happened with Father Brian. He seemed stunned as well. He said that I could have what I gave him back, that it was still on his desk. One of those mornings that the group from Our Mother of Confidence and I prayed the Morning Prayer, there was a woman with a camera that wanted to take the group’s picture as if we were praying. Afterward I asked her why. She told me Bishop Brom wanted her to produce an introductory video of praying The Hours and she was taking some still shots of some of the groups that pray it. I told Bernadine if she really wanted her day made, she should ask Vivian what The Hours mean to her … Months later Bernadine went to Vivian’s bedside with a camera crew and filmed a segment that became part of Praying at All Times. It is to be used for the next twenty years … In Vivian’s segment; they did a mock call from Margaret and me to give the viewers a taste of our nine o’clock hour. I was very moved when I saw the film—Vivian answering the cordless phone. She reaches for it from the sound of the ringer, has to grasp the phone until her bones in her hand feel she has it. She brings the phone to her face and touches the answer button with her lip to pick up the call. It was special for me because I had not given much thought of the obstacles a blind quadriplegic goes through to answer a phone call.