My wife and I moved to a new city to help our son and daughter-in-law take care of our new grandson. We are glad to be here for them but we did leave behind some special brothers and sisters in Jesus in our former city. We have found a couple of good churches here but haven't really made connections yet. I have become a Catholic Christian and my wife is a non-denominational Christian, hence the two churches but I go with my wife to her church in addition to mine. So far I am a lector (reader of Scripture) at my parish and I get to read about once a month. And we haven't gotten involved in any long term small groups yet.
So I have been feeling rather lonely without any Catholic brothers and sisters to share the journey with. I decided to start doing prayer walks at my Catholic parish, St. Francis of Assisi, after my wife went to bed. It is a beautiful church up on a ridge overlooking the valley below and you can see for miles, north and south. And, of course, it has a statue of St. Francis of Assisi in front of it who is famous for many reasons way beyond Catholic circles. One of the things he is known for is his solidarity with all of God's creation and creatures so if you see a statue of a monk with animals around him and birds on him you can safely guess that statue is one of St. Francis.
So my first night up there at dusk, I was walking around the church parking lot praying the rosary and offering up prayers for people I know and for our world in general. While I was at it, I talked to God about my loneliness. No sooner than I finished praying about that I hear an owl call and an owl comes swooping in and lands on a gazebo near me. For the rest of my prayer walk, as I moved around the parking lot and the church grounds praying, the owl kept flying and landing near me. Smiling, I thought how Franciscan God's answer to my prayer about loneliness was and I said, "Nice touch, God" and the ache in my heart receded. So I named the owl, Brother Owl, although it very well could have been "Sister Owl". A biologist I am not.
I truly am not alone even when I feel so.
