Praying around the cross...outside

     So a couple of  Fridays ago there was not a big crowd gathered at 9:30 for prayer around the cross. In fact it was just myself, the Yangster (about whom more later) and Thea.Well, two or three, the Bible says, and Thea is a force. She comes when she is able, and that is not a throwaway sratement from her. Thea is dying rather mor quickly than most of us, but her determination to do what is to be done in the meantime is, as they say, a witness.
     In the event, it was one of those perfect, silken late spring evenings, and we decided to carry the cross outside the red doors. We stood it upright and put the candles where we could and just got on with the singing ad the praying and the chanting. Then we talked for a sweet long time. A blessing.
     Thea was there the first night we did prayer around the ctoss a few months ago.So was the Yangster, my 11 yea rold, who is a boy scout kinda guy and good with fire. There, too, was a somewhat challenged but extremely game fella. I said a few words of introduction, we talked about those for whom we were praying and prayed for them. I invited people to light candles and place them on or around he cross, then settled into some chanting after I lit a candle to show how its done. Pasta, especially vermicelli, makes a fine candle lighter,so I took a light from a candle already on the cross and lit a tea candle.  The Yangster lit a few, then our somewhat callenged but game brother started in. He apparantly thought the idea was to light all the candles, and he went at it with great gusto and little success. Pasta is a good lighter, but if you take a light from a candle at one ed of the cross and arc it toward a tea candle on the table at the other end...well, the Yangster observed the next day, "I never quite gt it before about insanity being doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." He moved in to assist. And then I glanced over at Thea, who was bent double in her motorized chair. Oh, dear thought I, tere's no better place to meet God and all, but....  I went to her and put a hand on her back. She was breathing. I was delighted. So I got down on the floor, peered up in her face, and whispered, "Are you OK, or do you need a little push?"
At which point Marilyn, who is rather more attuned to God's time than mine strolled in, assumed I was hearing a confession, and made to leave. So I tried to call her back quietly (foolish, she is a bit deaf) while pushing Thea to upright,  and holy laughter ensued.
    I may have told you all you need to know about St. Johns' already. We'll see.