SO.
Remember that yesterday I was going to go to bed at a reasonable hour? I DIDN’T.
I’m an adult. I can make decisions like this. BESIDES, I got a phone call.
(The gifs might load slow…if you have a slow internets connection).
Phone call from: Father Pio Maria.
Cue all that is good in the world happening at one time. He is seriously such a good man and a great, great priest and a holy father and, man, I can’t say enough of the good things.
This actually started on Monday night, I think, when I realized I had a voicemail of the man singing my name over and over to a popular church-tune.
And I was all:
Because, seriously, who calls and sings your full name over and over into a voicemail recording? NO ONE, that’s who, even though my recorded message clearly states to “sing me a message.”
Small matters.
That was me, laughing and showing my family.
That is, until:
I realized: I didn’t actually get a chance to talk to him. I only had a recording instead of real-life, real-time.
(Like that gif??? Get it? The Father? Mufasa? And Father Pio is a Father, too! Heh!)
So then we played phone tag for a bit, which is never satisfying. Only sad.
Like a sad baby-kitty stuck in a roller blade.
(It wasn’t all bad, though, I talked to one of the other men in his community one time around).
And then…finally…WE DID GET A CHANCE TO TALK! I was like:
Hooray, hooray, hooray!
And he told me some great stories and I was like:
Thees ees thee LIFE!
It was one of those things, though, where I knew I had to tell him things, too, but I had so many things to say that I was afraid to start that word-avalanche of STORIES/EMOTIONS/DRAMA/ALL MAH PROBLEMS.
Finally, though, I was like,
And out it all came.
All of the emotions.
Dear priests everywhere who sit and listen to people vomit their problems everywhere in confessionals and spiritual-direction-appointments and (in my case) my parked car sitting on my driveway: I don’t know how you do it…and I love you.
^Watch it. It’s applicable.
Anyway, he was so cool about everything (he always is)
We talked it out. He offered the best advice (always)–level-headed and kind and gentle and caring. But, it’s more than advice, really. Kind of like, “I don’t have answers, but I hold you in prayer.” Really, I guess, he’s just offering care.
Dang, he cool.
Then he was like, “Let me pull out my calendar. Hmm, May 8th is empty. I’m going to pray my mass for you that day.”
Cue golden sunlight and little-girl-me feeling all the loving feels:
Then we hung up.
And it was all:
Forever and ever and ever.
Except for the fact that his time zone is different than mine, so today I was a little bit:
But only a little.
And mostly just:
Because, seriously now. I understand that I’m one of the luckiest people in the world right about now.
And I’m kind of loving it.
Not as much as I love Fr. Pio Maria, CFR, but still. I’m loving it.
He’s zee coolest.