Hey, I am Brother Mark Mary! — I'm Brother Pierre Toussaint.
We are the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and this is Ascension Presents.
So, Brother P.T. and I are both basketball players. —Ballers.
I remember as a kid,
when I had a new pair of basketball sneakers, and I was going to play a game,
I wouldn't even wear them into the gym.
I would carry them in and not put them on until I was on the gym floor,
because I wanted to take care of them.
I wanted a nice sticky grip
and I need the basketball shoes for my ankles, right? For support.
And the same is true still as Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.
When we're playing basketball getting a little exercise taking care of
ourselves we don't want to get hurt and we don't have much stuff and so if we
lose a pair of basketball sneakers something like that we got to wait and
pray until somebody else provides us with a new pair of basketball sneakers
so this takes place about eight or nine years ago that was in the novitiate
which is basically the beginning time of our life and as brother Mark Mary
previously mentioned I had just gotten these fresh pair of basketball sneakers
and I was super excited I think I use them only once or twice but anyway I'm
in the mission and the doorbell rings and so I go down to answer the door and
sure enough there is my man Jimmy there and Jimmy is just a homeless man in the
neighborhood I've come to know and throughout the past couple of months I
say hey Jimmy was going on it's not much brother and I asked him what can I help
you with and Jimmy says very simply I need a new pair of sneakers brother I
was hoping he had said I needed a sandwich or I needed some food because
that doesn't cost too much for me to do just to make a sandwich and just to give
it to him be on your way say a blessing and prayer or whatever it is but he was
asking for sneakers I said all right cool Jimmy what size sneakers are you
the reason I asked this question because yeah not too many people are size 13 is
like I am he says oh brother I'm a size 13 all right that's cool so I roll up
upstairs and I know we have a closet full of sneakers and so I was just on
the off chance that we had a size 13 sneaker I went through every single pair
of sneakers in the closet sure enough there's twelves twelves and a half's
Elevens or whatever no size 13s okay Lord I think I know
what you're asking me to do here and so I go into my room and I open my closet
and there at the closet basically are these fresh new basketball sneakers I
born once or twice and it's like alright here we go so I brought them down to
Jimmy and sure enough Jimmy looks at them he goes oh these these are nice
sneakers and I'm thinking yeah they are he says can you help me put them on I
said sure and so looking at his feet his feet were just this is a mess and so I
took off his sneakers and I took off the socks and it was in a bad state and so
right upstairs got him a new pair of socks came downstairs cleaned off his
feet with the hose and wiped it off with his house put the socks on put the
sneakers on and sure enough they fit perfectly like a glove and my dear was
super happy fast forward a couple of weeks later and I'm walking to the
neighborhood whisk with another brother and sure enough I see Jimmy he was like
your brother was like hey what's up Jimmy what's going on and he goes check
it out and he see no flashes his sneakers and he was like yo they're
comfortable thanks bro I was like all right cool you know and that kind of
sparked a little just joining me and this sense that sure Jimmy was still
homeless Jimmy had all these issues but the little sacrifice in a sense that I
made was helping him on his journey just for it to be a little bit more
comfortable ER and so I just simply praise God and you know I loud I thanked
him for allowing me the opportunity to to participate in a small way that way
and it's in a suffering my brothers and sisters I think a lot of us can relate
you've probably experienced this in your relationships in your relationship with
the Lord that sometimes love cost something but that's that's love and
it's it's it's worth the little sacrifices we know that we have a father
who's not done in generosity and anything we give for love of him it's
gonna be rewarded maybe not by like a bunch of more sneakers but just sort of
that peace and the comfort that our gift made the world a little bit of a better
place we invite you take a moment pray look on your life is there
something in your life that maybe you really like but that the Lord is
inviting you to sacrifice for somebody else
who's in need you can always use the comments below let us know what the
Lord's saying we wanted to be able dialogue we want to hear from you share
your ideas with others if we can get an amen that sometimes love costs but it's
worth the sacrifice hit that like button and if you want to make sure you don't
miss any of the stops along this journey this pilgrimage we're making together go
ahead and subscribe remember it's almost peregrinos po popopo vamos a llegar
we're gonna make it we'll see you again next week god bless athil peace