Surprised by the Spirit

 It was an odd day. I woke up feeling very good this morning . I put Michaela on the bus and then had about 40 minutes before I had to be at work. I decided to pray the Mercy Chaplet . After I was done I meditated on God's mercy for a while and then went to work. By the time I got out of work and picked up Michaela I was pretty tired and just wanted to put my feet up for a bit. The Lord had other plans. Michaela has a friend that lives down the hall, they play together quite often. Her friend's grandmother was staying with them and the two of them popped by for a visit. Michaela and her friend went into the other room to play while Susan and I sat at the dining room table. She was holding a bag of a puffed rice mixture in her hand and said, "Would you like some? It was blessed by a holy man from India."  I politely replied, "No thank you, Susan." I should have known what was coming next because the other day on my blog I had said, "What the heck is an ascended master?" and the Lord has a funny sense of humor and I should have known that He would answer this question. So here I am sitting at my table hearing about ascended masters and third eyes and whatnot. In my head I'm saying, "Oh, Lord, what should I do? This is a sweet lady. I don't want to hurt her feelings but I have to say something. I can't just sit here staring at her blankly." I didn't know what to do so I jumped in and said, " Hey Susan! Did I ever tell you what happened to me?"  I told her about the time I cried, " Jesus! I'm fed up with my life!" and ended up in the presence of the Divine Mercy. To my shock, in the midst of my story Susan burst into tears and cried, "Dear God! Dear God, Mary! You were in His presence! I feel it all through my body!"  She was weeping and weeping. I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing. She continued to cry, apologizing in between sobs. "Oh Mary! I'm sorry! I can't stop crying, I have shivers all through my body. "  I'm not sure who was more surprised by all of this - me or Susan. The Holy Spirit loves to make His Presence known when we least expect it. Once Susan calmed down a little, she looked at me and said,  "The minute I met you I could see that there was something different about you. I could see it in your eyes."  I explained to her that I was Catholic, loved Jesus, and had a great fondness for his mother. Come to find out, Susan had become Catholic many years ago but over time a mishmash of spirituality had crept into her life. I was surprised and amazed by how much she knew about Catholicism. I really like Susan, she is a gentle, kind soul. I don't know where the Lord is going with this but it made my heart glad to witness His Spirit at work. It never ceases to amaze me how He can bring something extraordinary out of an ordinary day.
The power of the name of Jesus is phenomenal.