Last Sunday’s Message from Missouri: “Keep the Faith”!

It was the faith of 19-year-old Katie Lentz that brought the mysterious ‘angel’ priest to the scene of last Sunday’s horrific car accident on Missouri’s Highway 19.

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Faith was the main factor in all miracles performed by Christ: ...“While Jesus was speaking an official came forward, knelt down before Him and said, ‘My daughter has just died but come, lay your hands on her and she will live.’ Jesus rose and followed him, and so did his disciples. A woman suffering hemorrages for 12 years came up behind Him and touched the tassel on his cloak. She said to herself ‘If only I can touch His cloak, I shall be cured.’ Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, “Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you.” (Matthew 9:18-26). Trapped between the steering wheel and driver’s seat in a compacted for coming on to an hour, Katie had asked for someone to pray aloud with her.

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A Catholic priest, who seemed to appear from out of nowhere, prayed with her until rescuers could set her free from the mangled wreck and then disappeared. How he got there and departed the scene when the highway was blocked for a quarter of a mile in both directions and emergency responders were not letting anyone past the roadblocks continues to baffle authorities. Ditto about why the priest does not appear in any of the 80 photos from the accident scene. Stepping back into the dramatic scene of last Sunday: “The fire chief, Raymond Reed had stepped back and came up to me and said he was concerned because he was out of options. His tools weren’t working and by that time, it was almost an hour and said I don’t know how we’re going to get her out,” Rails County Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Adair told KHQA.” (Fox News, Aug. 10, 2013). “Then the priest appeared. “He came and he asked to anoint the girl in the car,” Adair said. “My first thought was that it would possibly send the wrong message to Katie that maybe we had called a priest and thought she wasn’t going to make it. So I went back and talked to the priest and told him we were worried she would think we’d given up hope. He said, ‘I just want to anoint her’, and so we just let him come up to the scene. “Witnesses said he anointed Katie and her rescuers with oil, prayed with them and asked them to remain calm. “At that point the Hannibal fire department pulled up with fresh equipment and was able to free Katie. After getting her in the Air Evac helicopter rescue workers said the priest was nowhere to be found. Inquiries were sent out to the nearby Diocese. “The Diocese of Jefferson City says it has not located the priest involved. ‘Out of respect for the privacy of any priest who may have been involved and does not wish to come forward, the Diocese does not plan to further investigate this incident. The Diocese is grateful that a priest was able to exercise his ministry in this manner and requests prayers for healing of the victim, as well as prayers of thanks,” said Deacon Dan Joyce.” August 4th happens to be the Feast Day of St. John Vianney, Patron Saint of Priests. Do angels whom so many of us want to see really exist? From the Gospel, we can read the words of Christ: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.” (Matthew 18:10) It must have been part of the human condition we inherited from our Garden of Eden parents that we keep looking for things we can clearly see when the thing we can’t see are the ones that truly matter. Meanwhile, the search is now on for an ‘angel’ priest they’ll never find. If he’s an angel, angels don’t reappear on human command. And even if he’s a priest who appeared out of nowhere and disappeared down a closed-off highway, he’s an angel anyway, an Angel of Mercy who showed up at the very right time. Keep the story of the Missouri Angel Priest, which has gone viral and is now known in every nook, corner and cranny of the world, in your heart forever, for its message to a weary world is one that could not possibly have come at a better time. The message sent worldwide from Katie and the ‘angel’ priest on Sunday, August 4, 2013: “Keep the Faith!”

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