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Mother Teresa often saw God in the "poorest of the poor." Twice in my life, I was one of these most needy ones. Once it was as a beggar, sitting with an empty coffee cup on the steps of churches, looking for coins from Sunday morning Mass-goers. But before that had come a time of spiritual poverty, when I was among the poorest of the poor without realizing it. It was during this dark season that I received my first alms—not from kindly passersby, but from God himself.
First Encounter. It happened during a vacation in Europe, which I had wanted to visit for a long time. Paris was my first stop, and the morning after I arrived, I headed right for the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
I went there as a tourist, not a pilgrim, for I had lost my faith during my senior year at a Catholic high school. I questioned the truths I had once believed and saw the church as an authority figure to rebel against. Hand in hand with my rebellion had come feelings of loneliness, hurt, and despair. So as I walked into Notre Dame, I was still searching, still carrying around all this baggage.
I was admiring the artwork and the beautiful stained glass windows, when all of a sudden I came upon a Mass in progress in one of…
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