by Sr. Jo Anne Kelly MMM                                    Ireland                                           31.12.2023

A few days before Christmas I had two health related appointments on the same day in different hospitals and in different towns.  Luckily one was in the morning and the other in the afternoon.  The first one was local and no problem.  The second was at 2pm.  The sister driving, I will call her Maeve, was not so familiar with the route.   She had been there once and was shown the way but had not the chance to drive there herself, and so was uncertain.  I had been that route many times and should have known it well but when not driving myself I do not pay much attention to the roads.  We gave ourselves one hour to get there and we set out.  We started with a prayer and Maeve said “We need an angel to guide us on this trip.”  So together we said the prayer to our Guardian Angels which we learnt as children ending “——–ever this day be at our side to light and guard, to rule and guide.”

Approaching the town, we came to a roundabout and Maeve thought she remembered being told “Don’t go into the roundabout.”   So we took a left turn and I soon knew that we were on the wrong road.  Traffic was heavy, and there was no chance to turn.  Eventually we came to a place where there was a small car park on the left and opposite, on the right ,was a house and pub.  We drove into the park and Maeve waited for an opportunity to cross over to ask for directions.  Cars were flying past and one heavy motor cycle roared past and disappeared quickly round the corner.  Finally across, Maeve knocked on doors but there was no response from either house or pub, except the frantic barking of a dog which we couldn’t see.  She had to wait again to get back.  I was getting anxious about the time.

Just as she got to the car, the motorcycle roared back round the corner and came right in to where we were parked.  The young man said “Are you alright?”  Maeve explained.  He took out his phone and started scrolling, found the information and explained to her how to reach the hospital.   She thanked him and got back in the car.   Then he got off the bike, came over and said, “Sure, look it!  It’s only 6 minutes away.  I’ll ride in front of you and you can follow me” and he insisted.  We got on the road before he did and, when there was a chance, he whizzed past us and we followed him.  We had to go through two roundabouts. He swung his big machine to the right and then he swung to the left and we started laughing for it seemed like we were swinging too.  He went right into the hospital car park.  He turned round came to the window and before we could thank him properly, with a lovely smile he wished us a happy Christmas and zoomed away.  We had 15 minutes to spare before my appointment.
We had been visited by a Christmas Angel.

It reminded me of something in our MMM Constitutions

“See and seek God in all things
that you may recognize
the humble but often surprising ways
that God visits you,
to claim each moment of life”.