Jordanian George

Father James Martin, S.J., in his book, “My Life with the Saints,” suggests that maybe we are attracted to a particular saint or fascinated by a particular saint because that saint has been praying for us all along. I took the name “George” as my Confirmation name not for any spiritual or thought-out reason, but only because it was my sponsor’s middle name, and I didn’t like the sound of his first name: Harold. St. George is real big here in the Holy Land among the Christians, which makes him big in my book. St. George is the protector of the Christians in the Holy Land. Many have his image carved in stone outside their house over the front door. Well, there is a little fellow staying here at the same pilgrim house on the Sea of Galilee, visiting with his mother and grandmother. He is Jordanian by birth and by way of his father. His mom is Bolivian. His eyes are beautiful. You see his eyes in the photo above. If you look closely you will see me (taking the photo) and his mother and grandmother reflected in his eyes. Finding out that the family is living in Jordan, I asked mom, as we happened, by accident, to be walking together on the path to the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fish how the “crossing” works on the northern bridge from Israel to Jordan. I am used to crossing by the southern bridge, and have never crossed up north. My last question was about how easy it might be to find transportation from the border to Fuheis, the town where I am going for the ordination. Her response was, “We’ll send a driver from Amman to pick you up and take you the two hours to Fuheis, and if the driver is not available, we will book a taxi for you. Someone will be waiting for you when get across the border. Don’t worry. Here is my cell phone number, here is my husband’s cell phone number. If anything changes in your plans, or if you have difficulty of any kind, call one of us and we will sort things out for you. It will be a pleasure for us to do this for you. And if you get bored in Fuheis, give us a call and we will introduce you to the family. They are quite a bunch! You will have lunch with us.” What a surprise and huge blessing for me! Oh, by the way, the little guy’s name is … George. He is now my Jordanian George. My intercessor. My protector. God is so good to me.