When Owen and Jane Phelps arrived at Jeanne Jugan Residence, the Little Sisters of the Poor’s home in Newark, DE, for an Encounter on Nov. 11, they had no inkling of the reunion that awaited them.
But just before the Encounter began, one of the sisters from their St. Martin’s Home in Baltimore told Owen that their chaplain said he had already participated in an Encounter and was, in fact, trained to facilitate the program -- and that he insisted on attending this Encounter as a refresher experience.
We don’t have a lot of priests trained as Facilitators, and we tend to keep in close contact with those who are. So it took Owen a moment to connect all the dots. What priest in the Baltimore area had participated in an Encounter and was trained as a Facilitator?
After a few moments he remembered that a religious order priest who had attended the Yeshua Institute’s first ever Facilitator training in Techny, IL, in 2009, when he had been a pastor in Victoria, TX., had been transferred to his order’s home in Baltimore, where he is serving as vocations director.
“Is your chaplain’s name Fr. Stan DeBoe?” Owen asked. “Yes, that’s him,” the good sister replied with a big smile. “He should be here any minute.”
Owen had just time enough to tell Jane about their unexpected visitor when Fr. Stan, a Trinitarian priest, walked into the room and gave Owen a big hug. “I don’t believe this,” Owen proclaimed as Fr. Stan embraced Jane.
Later Fr. Stan said he enjoyed the day – “even more than the first Encounter” six years ago. And he was bursting with ideas for how to help spread the Catholic Vision for Leading Like Jesus even further in the days ahead.
“It was wonderful surprise to see Fr. Stan again,” Owen said. “But an even better surprise will be where the Spirit leads us to collaborate in the days ahead.”