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In
June 2006 a woman we call Jenny came to a weekend at Holy Cross for
leaders and coordinators of Family Groups.
She came with others from her country parish and during the weekend
she shared a remarkable story with those of us who were there.
We have recently met Jenny again on one of our parish visits and she
shared another chapter of that story with us.
Jenny was born profoundly deaf, but she had learned to speak and lip
read and completed her education.
She grew up, married and had a family. Twenty years ago Jenny went to
a charismatic prayer group weekend, staying overnight in a caravan
with some friends. On the Sunday morning when she woke she heard a
sound for the first time in her life. It was the unique bush sound of
magpies carolling in the trees. Jenny looked out and saw birds and
then asked her friends if they could hear anything. They confirmed
that the magpies outside were making quite a racket. Jenny then began
to focus on other sounds around her and slowly realised that her
hearing had been restored.
Fr Peter McGrath was leading us through the weekend and, like the rest
of us, he was deeply moved by Jenny's story. Fr Peter later spoke to
her
privately and she told him that the priest who led the weekend 20
years ago was a Fr Leo Fitzpatrick.
Until then Jenny was unaware that Fr Leo and Fr Peter
were
both Passionists. Fr Peter encouraged Jenny to write to Fr Leo and
share her story with him.
So,
twenty years on, the latest chapter of the story unfolded in July 2006
when Jenny went back home and wrote her letter to Fr Leo.
She was delighted to get a reply from him. He told her that he was
thrilled to hear her story and honoured to have been God's instrument
in her life.
After Fr Leo died just a few months later in November 2006, Jenny
received a card letting her know of his death and she now treasures
this card and his letter. The opportunity to re-connect with Fr Leo
has given her great pleasure, and she is most grateful to Fr Tiernan
for writing to her after Fr Leo died.
We were delighted to meet her again and honoured to listen to the rest
of her story and experience her joy as she told us about re-connecting
with Fr Leo, who had been so important in her life-changing
experience.
We are sharing this story with Jenny's permission and passing on her
thanks to the three Passionists - Leo, Peter and Tiernan - who reached
out to her and supported her.
Jenny is now a leader of a Family Group in her parish, and that
connection made it possible for her to find and contact Fr Leo again
and to share her story with him in the last months of his long life.
Maree
and Bernard Metcalfe
Passionist Family Group Movement
25 Jul 2007
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