Holy Thursday Thoughts

It's almost Good Friday. In fact, it basically is. But first, I want to say a few things.
It's been a rough week and well, a rough Lent. I drove home Nicole and Jaci to Nicole's parents' house today and then went home to get ready for Holy Thursday Mass at Christ the King. Over the past few days, I've been hearing the Lord tell me that I needed to go to CTK tonight. Okay, I can handle that.
As I drove to the church, I prayed for the evening and asked the Lord to provide me with someone with whom I could sit-a friend. I hate sitting alone at Mass.
So I arrived at the church just before Mass began (around 7:25 or so) and immediately found Frank and Amy Whiting. I hadn't seen them since summer, so it really was a double blessing-getting to see them again AND having someone to sit with during Mass.
Mass was absolutely wonderful. During Mass, I realized that I wanted to be prayed over before going home, so I planned on finding Jaci, Nicole, and Annie and asking them to pray with me. However, I couldn't find Nicole and Jaci and Annie had to go home with family. And then I found Mary Zahm, Jenny Fleming, and Lindsey Kappler. So I decided to ask them to pray with me and then we also prayed with Mary. Very powerful, this was a great decision. In short, I'm glad I went to CTK tonight.

Further blessings of the Lord were manifested throughout the evening however. After Mass, I ran into a good brother in the Lord, Mark. Mark and I used to be pretty close back in high school but don't see each other very much anymore and aren't very close anymore. Now back when I was younger, I used to frequently ask the Lord to give me unexpected hugs-surprises. These hugs just had to come from an unexpected source. And then I ran into Mark along with another mutual friend. Mark didn't hug her and she went off to talk to someone else and then I got the classic Mark "Heeey!" followed by a hug and a quick "how's it going?" We didn't have much time to chat as we were both looking for people and the narthex was crowded. But it doesn't matter; I got an unexpected hug and a reminder that God is there even where we're not looking for Him.

Blessed be God.