Pam father Marc marry brother Malachy
we are the Franciscan friars the renewal
and this is a sense present so brother
Malky is here with us to share a pretty
amazing story about God's providence so
brother Malky early on in our life one
of the joys for me was the ability to
live out our valve poverty in a way
that's very concrete and real so we beg
for basically all of our needs and that
includes food which can make cooking and
a friary a pretty interesting experience
you know kind of the craft of figuring
out how to take some of the ingredients
of a recipe and come up with something
that's more or less tasting good for the
brothers one of these times early on
cooking for the soup kitchen and my dad
had sent the recipe of like his best
potato soup and I remember this potato
soup growing up and I was like I want to
share this with our neighbors at the
soup kitchen and I was so pumped about
it so he sent me the list of the
ingredients and I look at it and go to
the cabinet and I'm finding different
parts of it like yes we have this we
have this we have that you know and then
I get to the end of the list and of all
the items that are on there there's
probably eight different things we're
missing three of them and I'm thinking
all right well thank you Jesus you know
we've got you know five out of the eight
we're gonna be alright potatoes were
there so that was an important part of
the deal and I just said you know Lord
if you want this to be the best potato
soup ever for the brothers and sisters
at the soup kitchen you're gonna provide
and so I just said a prayer in the
kitchen I remember just stand-in there
and saying Lord just need these
ingredients and what we were missing was
just carrots you know which that's
that's a pretty normal thing to have but
then chives green onions which like I've
never seen that in a friary before and
then fresh parsley so fresh anything in
a friary is a rare thing so anyhow I was
praying to the Lord I'm like alright God
you know I'd love it if these
ingredients came in so I'm cooking and
making the soup and you've got
everything and addy we started the day
before it's Wednesday we serve Thursday
and a brother is getting ready to head
out the door somewhere and he says hey
I'm stopping by Trinity one of the
places that would donate food and I said
awesome if they have any carrots you
know like grab him and so he went and
sure enough about five hours later he
comes
back through the door he's like bro you
must have prayed hard they had carrots
I'm like yes you know we got carrots
some well pumped chop the carrots put
them in the soup cooking away and
thinking you know all right well fresh
parsley and chives like that's a little
bit over the top anyhow so we'll let
that one go
and then the doorbell rang after dinner
and there's a government housing
building that's up the way from us in
Harlem and they have events there from
time to time and when they've got
leftover trays of food they'll come and
let us know and give them to us because
they know how we live and how we help in
the neighborhood and so they said hey we
got some food come on up and so I walked
out the door with another brother went
up the block we're going to their
basement and getting all these trays and
we're stacking them and carrying them
back down to the friary and then I go
back up to see if there's anything else
and the woman who was there says brother
brother one more thing this is leftover
in the kitchen she's got this like black
trash bag so she just hands me a black
trash bag here take this is leftover
from cooking I was like okay I grab the
black trash bag walk back down to the
friary and I just put it on the counter
I ignore it and start putting the rest
of the food away and figuring out how we
can stuff it into the fridge in the
freezer and one of the brothers opens it
up and starts taking some stuff out it's
like oh sweet man there's some fresh
herbs in here and I was like what and
I'll walk over to the bag and I'm like
going piling through this stuff and all
of a sudden I see two fresh things of
chives inside this black trash bag and
I'm like thank you Jesus you know
totally pumped and I take them out and I
start chopping them and chopping them
and chopping them and I throw them into
the soup and I'm just like this is
amazing you know like God's providence
is so good and then all of a sudden
another brother was like hey dude were
you looking for parsley and I'm like jaw
just dropping I can't believe this are
you frickin serious and he's like dude
fresh parsley and I'm just like stunned
I'm just I don't
I've got no words I'm sitting here
thinking like God you are so good such a
good father to the very finest of
details you know and it was such a
moment for me to experience how how God
the Father is so concerned with us and
loves are so particularly that it's down
to the details you know there's nothing
too small to ask for from ABBA and in
our life and living out
this poverty we have the joy of actually
getting to experience it in those kind
of tangible ways through this being
voluntarily in a place of need we're
able to experience the richness and the
abundance of God's love for us but Maui
thank you for sharing the story thank
you to to God most of all right mm-hmm
or not prayer for being a father who
provides and again we invite you just to
live in that from that place this week
that you have a father who loves you who
knows your needs God of the details and
who wants to take care of you so we'll
see you again next week god bless you
god bless