In the end the episode stood as one of the many small encounters that shape a life of service. It
required no alteration of the names or the actions. It required only the willingness to follow the thread of the conversation to its natural close and to allow the text itself to speak when the moment for consultation arrived. The priest kept the memory close, returning to it whenever the work of the day brought similar moments of shared speech and quiet reflection. The road between the church and the convent remained the same. The evening light continued to fall in the same gentle way. And the words of Psalm
129 continued to encourage the reader to move forward, looking beyond the immediate, exactly as they had done on the evening the priest first opened the page and understood what the nun had meant.
