Hey, I’m Brother Mark Mary with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and this is Ascension Presents.
I have the privilege of being the friar host of these vlogs that we’re doing with Ascension Presents,
so, you’re gonna be seeing a lot of me.
It makes sense to give you a little bit more of the story about who I am,
and I’m gonna do so sharing a song lyric and sharing a story.
The song lyric comes from one of our own friars, Brother Isaiah -- a lot of you have probably heard of him.
Brother Isaiah is working on a new album, and I’m working on it with him, and he's got this great line
“I’m just a poor child but I’m my father’s son and in my weakness I’m still his chosen one.”
And when I hear that lyric I’m like “Yeah, yeah, I can relate” ‘cause I’m just a poor child,
but I’m my father’s son.
Like, I don’t bring that much to the table but that’s okay, ‘cause the Lord’s got me.
And what I do bring to the table a lot of is baggage and weakness and drama and issues.
But the Lord is gonna provide. The Lord still called me and he’s gonna take care of me.
So, I’m a poor child but I’m my father’s son and in my weakness I’m still his chosen one.
Now that’s the song lyric.
And here’s the story, and this story is gonna be probably a little bit surprising to you.
It’s the story of this guy -- we’ll call him “Fitz.”
Now Fitz has just gotten out of jail -- a little bit over 20 years.
And it’s his very first night out and it happens to be December 24, Christmas Eve
and he ends up in our homeless shelter in the South Bronx.
And we gotta remember, right, jail’s kind of a tough place,
and there’s a lot of you having to look out for yourself.
So here he comes into this different environment,
and the brothers -- they welcome him, they talk to him,they treat him as a brother.
They take him to his room.
And he’s got his own room -- mattress, sheets, pillow, closet, nightstand.
A little bit different than jail, right?
So he comes down and he has the meal and meets some of the other guys
and immediately you can tell, looking at Fitz that... that something is different.
He’s looking around and he’s like “this is very different than jail.”
The process of letting his guard down, it’s going to be a slow one.
So we have the meal and we get all the guys together into this big room we have on the second floor,
because for Christmas Eve, we like to throw a party for the men in the shelter and we like to give them gifts.
So there we are, we share a little word about Christmas, we sing some Christmas carols,
and you should see all these homeless men with wide varies of musical talents singing the Christmas carols
- and there’s Fitz in the midst of it.
And then it comes to the gift time.
All the guys, they get a little bag of gifts, which some of our different benefactors provided.
So they get that. And then they get to go through the closet,
and they get to choose out on their own a couple of pieces of clothing they want.
So socks, jeans, shirt, jacket, hats, shoes.
And as they come back, they keep singing Christmas carols.
So finally, Fitz, it’s his turn, he goes through, gets all the different gifts, brings them back,
and there he is, and he’s just sitting there.
And the guys are singing and then finally it’s time for lights out, time to call it a night.
And slowly, everybody heads to their bed, and there by himself, just sitting on this couch
is Fitz with his head in his hands and he’s just shaking his head.
And the brother who told me this story, he says he comes up to him and he goes
“Hey what's goin' on man? Fitz, you doing alright?”
And he hears Fitz, just shaking his head, saying “It’s just too much, it’s just too much, it’s just too much.”
With emotion, with tears welling up in his eyes, he was overwhelmed
by the love of the men in the shelter, the love of the brothers, the gift,
he was just overwhelmed by being a part of a family on Christmas Eve.
And it’s really touching and it’s really moving and it’s really the truth of my life and my experience of God.
The Lord has just given me so much, the Lord has given me so many gifts.
The gift not only of my family, the gift of the brothers, the gift of my vocation, the gift of his mercy, of salvation...
*shaking head* ...you know, it’s just... it’s just too much.
I could tell you the details of where I’m from, where I went to school, what I like to do,
but the most fundamental truth is this truth which Fitz himself experienced.
I’m a poor child but I’m my father’s son, and in my weakness, I’m still his chosen one.
I’m just this poor young man who the Lord has called and loved
and poured out his salvation, his mercy, his goodness on.
And that’s the truth of who I am.
And, my brothers and sisters, I think some of you can relate, because the Lord is good.
Please, again, we want to hear what’s going on in your life - I want to meet you.
Share the good things the Lord has given to you,
share your needs, share your prayer intentions in the comments.
I made a deal with our producer - she’s gonna copy all of those prayer requests and she’s gonna send them to me.
And I promise you, I’m gonna pray for you.
That “Like” button - we’re using that to let us know - yeah, we can give it again as an “Amen” to the Lord -
but to let us know that we’re on the right path.
And as always, use the subscription button simply so that each video gets to you
and we can continue to walk this journey together.
My brothers and sisters, God is good, God is with us, God loves you, he’s with you this week.
Remember we are pilgrims, but *in Spanish* poco a poco, vamos a llegar.
We'll see you again soon. Bye.