The River of Love

San Genaro Mission Blog

September 12, 2025

Bloomberg Studios, New York City, 7:00 am. My day today started like many

others—early and lots going on! I’d come to Bloomberg that morning expecting the

normal discussions on the economy, the Fed, and the markets, so I wasn’t really

prepared when after the TV hit I caught up with Tom Keene on Bloomberg Radio and,

instead of going into the markets' discussion, he went instantly to something else.

Charlie Kirk. And what if any relevance that might have to what me and my fellow

missionaries are doing on the streets of New York.

Tom didn’t know that, in fact that very night, we’d be doing precisely that—engaging the

culture out on the streets of SoHo. Yet given the tragedy of Charlie’s assassination

earlier this week, he’d felt inspired to ask the question.

“Tom, Charlie was about engagement with folks of differing views; constructive engagement, motivated by and effused with Love. And there is nothing about this tragedy that should stop the rest of us by continuing to do just this…. In our experience over many years out on the streets, New Yorkers of all stripes respond well when engaged with Love. It’s what makes us human. And none of us are inclined to stop loving.”

And with that, Love became the theme of the day, out in the deep water, in the River of

Love….

Happy Birthday Ally

Prince and Mott, So Ho. When our missionaries first burst out of HQ and into the

streets, the festival was still getting going so we stationed a team out on Prince and

Mott, near the arts and crafts stands set up along the church wall. Mary ended up in a

long chat with one of the hand-made jewelry artisans there, and both were all smiles by

the time I arrived. Love was conquering all. Later, two young women out shopping

stopped at the corner for a moment, and before long got engaged in a dialogue with one of the missionaries there. Eventually, they figured out that both of them were

celebrating their birthday. They’d not been to confession in a while, but that

“coincidence” seemed more than enough to justify a return to Church. Ally and Alex

headed into the basilica and emerged a while later glowing. Glowing with love. Happy

Birthday Ally!

Swimming in the River of Love

Prince and Mulberry, at the head of Little Italy. As the festival warmed up, our

missionary team stationed at Prince and Mulberry became overwhelmed with the flow of humanity up and down Mulberry. We pulled all our other teams in the neighborhood

and re-deployed them to Mulberry River. Two took up positions literally in the middle of

stream, with assorted food and beverage stands on either side, and all of New York

flowing past them. It was a river of humanity. Over the blast of a fried mozzarella stick

salesperson’s megaphone encouraging the passersby to try his special, slathered with

Amatriciana sauce, one of the missionaries stood amidst the flow and used a slightly

different line.

“Hey, we’re the only stand out here that isn’t charging you a dime. We’re giving away

God. For free! Just come on over to our cross here and write down your prayer!”

“Free” seemed to be the magic word, and people of all kinds and stripes were taking

rosaries and pausing a moment to scribble down their prayer—even the fried

mozzarella hawker! With several of our love-filled, joyful missionaries acting as human

buoys out in the river, everyone seemed caught up in the net. Caught in the River of

Love.

Juan Writes a Prayer of Love

Mulberry River, Little Italy. Out in the river of Love, a missionary encounters a

Spanish-speaking delivery man on his way home from work. In broken Spanish, he’s

trying to get Juan to understand that he can leave an oracion (a prayer) on a note on

the cross. But Juan is suspicious and seems worried this is some kind of trick. The

missionary persists, and it’s clear that Juan, though suspicious, sense the opportunity of

this moment.

He keeps staring at the Cross.

Eventually, the missionary brings Juan in and he writes an oracion in English for Juan’s

mother. But Juan wants to sign the prayer note himself.

As Juan takes the pen, instead of scribbling his name as the missionary had expected

he would, he very slowly and carefully prints each letter of his name. He wants to be

sure that God knows it’s from him.

The prayer of Love.

The Cross of Love, with a Little of Padre Pio Sprinkled In

Mulberry Street, near the back entrance of the Basilica. One of the most popular stands on Mulberry last night was not a stand at all—just a simple wooden cross, manned by a four-person missionary team. Each of them was over-flowing with joy and love as they stood by their station. At first, no takers. Then Vic thought of an old “tip

trick”.

“To get things started, why don’t we post one of our own prayers on the cross first? No one wants to be the first one.”

That one prayer opened the floodgates, and soon a line had formed of folks waiting to

post their prayers on the Cross of Love. That night, over dinner, several of the

missionaries reflected on how, incredibly, the Cross became the most popular stand on

our little section of the festival.

“It seemed like people were really drawn to the Cross. It amazed even us.”

It could be, that deep down, whatever vitriol and hate might be spewed out in the culture of our world, people know what the cross stands for. For someone who gave everything he had to save humanity. Agape. The cross of Love.

And then, maybe a little Padre Pio sprinkled in.

It turned out that one of the young missionaries there, Vince, was a distant relative of the great saint. And he carried in his wallet all night a relic of Padre Pio. Hmmm….

Loved back in

Saint Patrick’s Old Basilica, So Ho. About 6:00 pm, I headed briefly into the basilica

to pray with Jesus, in particular for one of the fried potato stand sellers whose two

autistic children had not yet been baptized. The quiet within compared to the

cacophony without was for a moment, welcome. Surprising though was the array of

candles that the missionaries inside the church had managed to get the visitors there to

light, with each candle having its own special story I’d hear about later of a soul brought

back to the Lord through prayer and confession. Many of these had wandered in

through the church’s back door, near our cross station with its large “CONFESSIONS” sign arrow pointing the way. The stories of how our missionaries in the back had then

encountered these souls, gently and lovingly, and brought them home, moved many of

us to tears as we heard them over dinner later that night. In one case, they been helped by a Jewish friend of the soul they were trying to bring home, who’d supported

them in urging him to partake of the sacrament. In another, they’d grabbed a young

woman who literally got sent in with the comment, “Look, our confession line is a lot

shorter than that sausage and pepper line you’re on at the moment!” In a third, a

woman who was barely dressed at all, and seemed on the surface least likely to be interested in prayer, turned out to be Catholic and in need of Love. When asked by one

of the missionaries if she was having a bad day, her reply was telling.

"Every day is a bad day."

That led to a long, quiet chat back in the church. And ultimately to confession, and

grace.

They loved her back in.

The Unexpected Response

Mission HQ, Dinner, 9:00 pm. Late in the evening, the missionaries gathered for a

simple dinner of sausage and pepper sandwiches and some wine. They were

overflowing with stories, and it turned into a pretty late night. I took lots of notes, some

already reflected above. But one theme that stood out was the number of times a

missionary approached someone, urged on perhaps by the Holy Spirit, who on the

surface seemed a highly unlikely “target”: the half-dressed woman in the church, a man

with purple hair and a wild outfit, a pair of well-dressed women out on a shopping spree.

Somehow, in each case, the missionary found the courage within to reach out any way.

And it was in precisely some of these most unlikely encounters that they, and the other,

found love.

A missionary

September 13, 2025