The keyring


As the Superior General of the “Mantellate Sisters” was visiting Swaziland I planned to go to Our Lady of Sorrows (Hluthi) on Sunday morning to celebrate Mass and meet her. The Sisters invited me to arrive the evening before and join the teachers of the school. They wanted to thank the Superior General for the way she welcomed them when they went to Italy a couple of years' ago. As one of them said: “Had it not been for the way you prepared a place for us, some would have slept on the streets as it was unaffordable to us”.
Before going to bed, one of the Sisters gave me a couple of keys to go to my room. Only in the morning I realised that the keyring had a familiar image... Our Lady Consolata. There was a big smile in my face.
It was probably 1976 when I met the Consolata Missionaries for the first time. We were looking for a priest who would guide our youth group. I joined them as a seminarian in 1979. We've walked together for ...nearly 40 years!
It was a very special moment since there are no Consolata Missionaries in Swaziland and the Sister herself later told me she had not picked up on the detail of the keyring when she gave it to me. God's special touches...