touches

The touches continue.
The graces proliferate.
All week since the Mammy's gold necklace unravelled in my hands while I knelt in front of the image of our lady of Guadalupe.
All week I've been conscious of glory in ordinary things.
The swallows hovering over me in the garden singing praise to their creator.
The moth flying free from the jaws of Paddy Pup, then landing on my arm, and looking up at me.
Cousin Rowena deciding to baptise her baby.
Uncle Scutch breezing in and saying to the Mammy: "Are you giving up walking," and then next day and throughout the week the Mammy getting her strength back and returning to the cafes.
Me making a mental note to say to Uncle Scutch: "You are going about your father's business."
Karen getting accepted into Princeton.
Crissie coming back safe.
My feminist cousin Pauline saying: "A lot of parents aren't praying with their children. It's hard to see what the kids will have to take its place."
Ah.
You could have knocked me over with a feather.
But I should have known.
For Pauline's saved the world entire.
Valeria meeting me again and again by chance in Dublin and saying each time: "Pray for me," and I replying: "I do Valeria, every night," and me knowing full well Valeria is bringing the Lord's liberation to my life.
The touches.
Oh the touches.
On Thursday I had coffee with Jinwoo from Korea.
She told me: "I believe in God but at the moment my faith is weak."
I grinned.
In present circumstance this was right up my alley.
"CS Lewis has written that if you step towards Jesus you will begin to see glory everywhere," I mused. "You'll see glory in every object, every creature, every person. I think I'm seeing it this week. I look at the hamster and I see how well crafted she is. The delicate whiskers. The paper thin ears. The perfect russet sheen on her fur. The little hands. Because God made her, I see glory in her."
Jinwoo gave me a searching look.
"God made the smelly rat as well," she offered.
It was a good answer.
I didn't rush to try and refute it.
Eventually I just said: "You're right God made the smelly rat. I feel in my heart that the rat will be somehow glorious too. It's just we can't really see it at the moment. But in some way I'm sure the rat is glorious."
We left it there.
Back home this evening I was watching the Arab television channel Al Jazeera.
They had a news item about rats being trained to sniff out land mines in Mozambique.
The country was riddled with mines during its fifty year communist dictatorship.
Al Jazeera showed one of the rats and his handler.
The rat was on a leash like a dog.
When the rat found a mine, the handler gave her a banana, which she ate from her own little hands.
At that moment I think I saw another hint of glory.
The touches.
Oh the touches.
The touches are everywhere.