Julie is having one of those days

One of those “just keep scrolling because so much of it is great” days at Happy Catholic. I especially like this true story of a reporter in 1991 Moscow, fearing for his life, and finding surprising affirmation and consolation from the Virgin Mary.

When I realized how dangerous the document was, I felt it very likely that I might disappear, or have an “accident.” I even phoned my wife in the States and told her to expect that I might not be on the flight I was supposed to arrive on.

I went down into the Pushkin Square metro station, not seeing anything around me. A Russian friend had told me over the weekend: “Get rid of that document, fast…”

[…] I began to pray. It was a very simple, conversational prayer, addressed to the Blessed Virgin. “Lady, get me out of here,” I kept saying, fervently, over and over again.

I reached Taganskaya and began to ascend on one of those endlessly long Muscovite escalators, which begin from the depths of the earth.

As I rode up, still praying, I began to hear the sound of a flute, playing a familiar melody. I rose nearer to the music. It was Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” performed with great devotion and feeling; or at least it seemed so to me.

Just inside the subway entrance was an ordinary looking fellow with a flute. Our eyes met as I passed.

This powerful sign filled me with peace and in the next days I passed amazed through a remarkable series of events, receiving unexpected help in my departure from Russia from people who had lived within the system but not of it, and had grown to oppose it. They had somehow preserved their souls.

It will be interesting to see how some readers will react, politically, to this story – I’m sure that those on the left will say “this is not-so-far removed from America under evil George W. Bush”, and folks on the right will say, “this is quite similar, in a reverse way, to editorial decisions that permit no good story coming out of Iraq to sully their newspapers and broadcasts.” But they’d be missing the point. It’s not about the politics, or the paper. And it’s really good.

Like I said, keep scrolling. Julie’s batting them out of the part, one after another – great links, great jokes, great insights, great quotes, great everything.