The beginning of this year's, New York Encounter, our annual three-day cultural event, was marked with the death of Sr. Marilyn Fenton, an 83-year-old Sister of Mercy who met our companionship through Fr. Rich Veras, the priest whom she served when he was pastor of St. Rita’s Church on Staten Island. At Sr. Marilyn’s funeral, Fr. Rich told us how she was born premature, and back in 1932, in order to raise money for her care, she was part of a former sideshow exhibition of incubator babies at Coney Island, “between the bearded lady and the sword swallower.” Needless to say, Sr. Marilyn was a character. To know her, was to know life in all its gusto and humor. Fr. Rich told so many colorful stories about her, and it was colorful stories that she gravitated towards. I remember her telling me that she loved Traces for the stories of people’s lives.

This year, New York Encounter ended with the 1st Anniversary Memorial Mass for my husband, Frank A. Simmonds, who passed away the morning after the Encounter ended last year. At the Memorial Mass, Fr. Rich recounted dramatic stories from Frank’s life, as did the three witnesses at the end of Mass—Maryann, Jonathan and Frank’s 37-year-old son, Marshall. I was full of joy hearing the stories; the relationships that filled my husband’s life!

During the funeral Mass for Sr. Marilyn, my eyes were fixed on the huge cross above the altar, and Our Lord’s look of utter abandonment. I kept remembering the words, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Imagine my surprise when Fr. Rich read the Gospel and uttered those same words! Christ suffered his worst agony when he was forsaken by the Father, when he was cut off from that relationship. Our lives are given meaning and restored through relationships. Thank God for the relationships Frank Simmonds and Sr. Marilyn Fenton built with Christ in the flesh of His Church.

New York Encounter, Crossroads Cultural Center, Communion and Liberation, THE CHURCH! These are all places of the Incarnation, where the relationship with Christ is lived as relationship with each other, full of color, drama, vivacity; where Christ’s cry for companionship is fulfilled.