Chance Meetings by Divine Design

Do you ever think about all the connections you’ve made and people you’ve met in your life, and how easy it would have been for you never to have met them at all? You might have been a very different person if you had attended a different school, lived in different places, worked for a different employer, or joined a different club. You may never have met some of the people who are now very important to you.

When I think about many of the important relationships in my life that appear to be the product of chance, I don’t believe that it was really by chance at all. I think God puts people in our lives for a reason. They are meant to teach us something, provide the talents that we may lack, demonstrate for us a new and different way of thinking, or to provide us with another experience of God’s creative genius. Or we are meant to teach them something, provide talents that they may lack, demonstrate for them a new and different way of thinking or an experience of the creativity of our God. We may meet people by chance, but the relationships that follow are never by accident.

This issue of C.PP.S. Today is all about those connections. In our cover story, Fr. Angelo Anthony, C.PP.S., writes movingly about the death of his father, and his own journey through grief to a greater understanding of the eternal nature of God’s love. Fr. Angelo is the director of the Cincinnati Province of the C.PP.S.

Our second story in this issue is about a family in happier times. Deacon Vince Wirtner, C.PP.S., will be ordained a priest in June. For that celebration and his life beyond, his mother, Charlene, is making Vince’s vestments. The design on his chasuble will feature a crazy quilt of fabrics donated by Vince’s family members and friends. Each square of fabric comes with a story of love and support for Vince as he begins this new stage of his life. Vince’s family has been an unwavering source of strength for him on his journey to the priesthood and his vestments will be a concrete symbol of the many connections in his life.

Think of the people who support you in good times and bad. Isn’t it wonderful that God has placed them in our lives? Out of all the billions of souls on earth, God in so many mysterious ways has put us in touch with the friends and family he wants us to have. People are in our lives for a reason. Be sure and tell them today how glad you are that God brought you together in this place and time.