My Mouth Will Declare Your Grace.

Cedar of Lebanon

This was the responsorial psalm from today and was the encouragement I needed to share a beautiful story with you all.  It begins with an email a few weeks ago from a friend who for years went to 8 AM daily Mass and stayed with a group of us to pray the rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet.  About six months ago she stopped coming to Mass.  I had not heard from her until her message.  She had written because her back tooth had broken and she knew I was a dentist.  Due to things beyond her control my friend is not able to work and has no means to have medical or dental care.  She hoped that I could help her.  Unfortunately due to my disability I can no longer practice dentistry.  I asked if the tooth was badly broken and needed an extraction or root canal as my boss at the dental school might be able to help her.  As it turned out the tooth only needed a filling and maybe a crown.  These type of procedures my boss does not do as he is a specialist so I gave her the number for the clinic with the hope she might be accepted to our state charity care.  I knew however, that her chances for having the work done through our dental school might be small.  For a couple of weeks I thought of my friend and wondered if I could do more.  There was a person who had just joined our daily rosary, Nada, who had a sister who was a dentist but I was reluctant to ask her for such a favor.  

Then two days ago my new friend, Nada,  approached me after the rosary and asked if I knew a women with blue eyes who went to St. Mark’s Church on the other side of our town.  My mind went right to my friend with the broken tooth.  I wasn’t sure if she had blue eyes and I had no knowledge that she had ever gone to that Church but somehow I knew she was speaking about her.  I gave Nada a description of my friend with the broken tooth and indeed we were speaking about the same person.  She said she had gone a few mornings to the other Church for Mass and seen her.  She remembered that she had also seen her some time ago at our Church.  Nada had appreciated the reverence and love by which my friend had received communion and felt a holiness about her.  As Nada looked at her she had a feeling that she wanted to help her.  

Hearing Nada say these things I was stunned. The Lord had orchestrated everything so beautifully.  I remembered how the Lord promises to take care of us as he does the birds of the sky and indeed he had done just that.  I told Nada of my friend’s broken tooth and my hope that maybe her sister could help her.  The following day Nada rushed in to share that her sister was happy to help her and would double check with the dentist she works for to make sure all would be okay.  

In reflection the beautiful unfolding of this story is a testament to Our Heavenly Father’s care for his children.  My friend who broke her tooth usually prays 15 decades of the rosary daily as well as attending Holy Mass and daily prayer of the Stations of the Cross.  She lives each day at the very edge of society and at the complete Mercy of the Lord.  As the Most loving of Father’s he so beautifully was taking care of his child who was probably scared and concerned that she could not fix her tooth.

I loved today that the first reading was again from Hosea and spoke of the tenderness of Our Heavenly Father.

“I will heal their waywardness
    and love them freely,
    for my anger has turned away from them.

I will be like the dew to Israel;
    he will blossom like a lily. 

Like a cedar of Lebanon
    he will send down his roots; 

    his young shoots will grow.

His splendor will be like an olive tree,
    his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.(Hosea 14:4-6)