Last week we did a course at the Apostolic Penitentiary. That’s not a prison. It’s where tough confessions cases are figured out. We had to learn how to deal with these cases if they ever come up.
I could recount the whole course but one thing stood out – the snack time. Several brothers would bring chocolates, cookies, and coffee for the 30 minute break. They started offering them to everyone. At one point the Cardinal in charge, Manuel Monteiro de Castro, walked by and accepted a coffee and a chocolate.
The course was hard – it’s 3 hours of class in the afternoon after 4 hours in the morning. Some points were a little boring since we had already covered them. I needed that boost at snack time more than usual. There were 500 at the course, and other than our snacks there was bottled water and few who brought for themselves. We draw strength from those, often from their simplest acts.
