The Line of Joy

Mission Blog Day 2

Holy Monday

St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, SoHo.  We’ve had our share of Holy Mondays in SoHo with brutally cold weather, wet weather, and storms.  Not today.  The Lord sent us warm sun and clear skies, both meteorologically and figuratively.   Following a brief talk on the importance of joy and love to the mission’s success, our dozen some odd missionaries swept out of HQ just after 4:30, spreading joy and love through the neighborhood around the church.  Before long, joyful conversations were happening everywhere, and soon the confessionals began to fill.  By 5:30 the confession line had grown to nearly a dozen penitents, and never seemed to shorten even as our three wonderful priests were dispensing the Lord’s mercy soul by soul.  By 7:00, the line was so long we had to cancel Mass, as we could not spare a priest.  More on that below. 

The stories of these joyful conversations and conversions are so many that I’ve only captured a few samples here.  Enough, perhaps, to transport you to this very special evening….

Alysha and Samantha Consider Changing Course

Prince and Mulberry, SoHo. 

Out on the very busy corner of Prince and Mulberry, we had a team of new missionaries from Focus who took to the task like fish to water.  Within minutes of their arrival on the two corners there, a variety of sidewalk chats began happening simultaneously.  Lucy almost immediately brought two young people into the church through the back door for confession.  Another missionary stopped two young ladies on their way to work, Alysha and Samantha.  Living and working in the neighborhood, they hadn’t been planning on Easter services and confession was a while back in time.  When offered, their eyes lit up.  “That feels like something I really need to do,” Sam told us.  “We will back ahead of work on Friday.  Promise.  It’s time to change course.”

Mitch Comes Home

Prince and Mott, SoHo.  A joyful young 20 something approaches the team on Prince and Mott.  “Mr. Auth, it’s me!  Mitch!”  Mitch is the son of a long ago transferred-away missionary from NJ, Alex.  Mitch is known to Mr. Auth as just a kid.  He’s now a grown man.  And he fondly remembers his days helping his dad at the mission 15 years ago.  “Thank you for reminding me, and for being here tonight.  It almost feels like coming home.  Wait till I tell my Dad!”

A Strange Coincidence

Prince and Mott, SoHo.  Christi meets a missionary out on Prince and Mott.  She’s a young woman in her mid-20s, on her way to dinner.  After a long chat, Christi agrees to visit the church and light a candle.  Then she pops the question:  “By the way, do you know anything about RCIA?  I was baptized Catholic but I never got formed and never had First Holy Communion.  I’d really like to do that.  I’ve been considering it but didn’t know how to get started.”  The missionary immediately connects her with Fr. Daniel, and a meeting is arranged the next day.  Later, she tells him, “This is a strange coincidence.  Here I was looking to join a church, then I run into you.  Do you think the Holy Spirit was involved?”

Alyssha Finds Her Soul

Outside The Little Cupcake Shop, So Ho.  One of our new joyful missionaries, Allyssha, was engaged for some time with a young man outside the cupcake shop.  Later, near the end of the night, she found me.  “Steve, it’s just like you said!  A man stopped to talk with me who was Jewish.  I didn’t know where this was heading, but we really connected and he began to talk about the fact that Jesus was a Jew.  When he finally went off, I felt a strong sense of the Holy Spirit’s presence and that somehow this man was deeply touched by our meeting.  I remembered what you said about the woman at the well and the importance of persevering till I found “my soul.”  And I thought to myself, ‘Now I know what he meant.  I did it.  I found my soul.’”

The Line of Joy

St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, SoHo.  At 7:00, the missionaries start streaming into the church for our traditional Holy Monday missionary Mass. For the first time in nearly 20 years, we decide to cancel it; the confession line is simply too long, nearly 20 people waiting patiently and yes, joyfully, for their chance with one of our last two priests. They are being nurtured and attended to by the little missionary in the back of the church, and the whole crowd, rather than seeming to be worried or embarrassed, are smiling joyfully as they prepare and interact with her.  They are clearly on what to them has become a  line of joy.  Mass cancelled, the missionaries instead pray the Stations of the Cross for priestly vocations, as we know more than ever the impossibility of fulfilling  our mission without the Lord’s priests to help us, to “connect the last mile”, to dispense the Lord’s mercy at the end of that line of joy.  Around 8:30, with the line down to just six people, the last two missionaries leave the church.  We bump into a recently absolved, glowing penitent emerging from the confessional.  “Evelyn, thank you for being here tonight.  I went to confession because of you.  This would not have happened to me without you.”

A missionary

March 31, 2026