It was the feast day of St. Mark the Evangelist last saturday. I popped into St. Patricks Cathedral in Manhattan before heading out to the new Yankee Stadium just to be a praying tourist around 3:00.
Serendipidy would have it that the new Archbishop Dolan was saying a special Mass to celebrate 100 years that the Salesian sisters have been together serving the Lord in the New York/New Jersey area. I made a perfectly obnoxious pilgrim camera flashing all through the Mass.

I then took the "D" train from Rock Center to the Bronx.

It was the feast day of St. Mark the Evangelist, and the biggest Evangelist to hit the airwaves in the 21st Century, Joel Osteen was in the city- in a few hours he would be telling his corny jokes to a cracked up crowd, setting the place singing like rock and roll angelic choirs and introducing his family to the Bronx and everyone with Trinity Broadcasting Cable.

Here's one: A New York cabbie died and went to heaven and St. Peter met him and asked him what he did on earth "I was a New York city cab driver." Well Done! Saint Peter gave him a silk robe and a golden staff. Then a clergyman died. Saint Peter met him at the gate, asked him what he did on earth "I was a fine man of the cloth." Saint Peter gave him a burlap robe and a woden staff. The clergyman protested "Hey! what's the deal!, why did you give the cabbie the gold and silk and I just got wood and burlap?" To which Saint Peter replied- "we go on results here- when you spoke you put folks to sleep, when the cabbie did his job everyone was praying in the back seat!"

The sky was a clear Marian blue. Joel said essentially "well, Lord, you picked the day so we know it will be perfect" and while it rained cats and dogs earlier in the week, this night was crystal clear and acoustically perfect to hear the rousing choir and sermon. I wonder if he even knew it was the Feast Day of Saint Mark the Evangelist. It was perfect.

Joel's mom, a thin women in her 70s told the story of how she prayed the scriptures Ignatian style that had anything to do with healing to cure her of the metastatic liver cancer she contracted when she was 48 after given the doctor's diagnostic death sentence- 26 years ago. She said "God doesn't love me any more than he loves you" and I'm here to tell you there wasn't a dry eye in the place. Joel's brother Paul, who was a practicing surgeon for 17 years before joining the ministry to set up the medical missions told a case study history of one young woman
who because of a botched abortion had punctured her intestines in four places so it was leaking and infecting her distended abdomen in a near fatal condition- he surgically fixed her intestines and watched despondency turn to bright smiling joy- and noted that Jehovah Raffa, God the healer is living and loves all his children- a surgeon can stitch together intestines, but God brings Joy in the morning. His helpmate, the beautiful Victoria told of how important it is to speak words of blessing not cursing over one's family- how important it is to affirm and build up the body. "We do this together" he said with his arm around his sweetheart.

Joel is a living breathing Angel. Capitol "A" Angel. If he is coming to a city near you- Absolutely Go.
Seriously- your life will not be the same.