Chauffeured on LA Public Bus System

Today I was coming home from the seminary and had an interesting encounter with three people I've seen before on the bus.

First, there's the guy who talks 84 mph and has two friends who all get tgoether great on the bus. But then when this guy gets off the bus, his two friends bag him and ridicule him for talking so much about nothing worthwhile. It's a good lesson on how easy (and harsh) the sin of backbiting is. God protect us from that heinous sin.

Second, there's the FEDEX lady who cussed me out on the bus because I was studying my sermon notes. This was a number of months ago. I finally turned to her and said: You need to wash your mouth and watch what comes out of it! I don't feel unsafe on the LA metro bus ever but that was one of the few times I felt like I could have gotten pounded—and that from a woman (yea verily, a FEDEX woman!). It's another good lesson on the power of the tongue/words.

Third, there's a high school girl named Katherine. We get on the bus at the same stop and she gets off just a few stops before I exit at the seminary. Today, we sat next to each other on the bus and she said: "I always see you reading a book!" (Ha, what a marvelous complement!) We struck up a conversation and I began to ask her questions. I know she goes to St. Genevieve High School (obviously, a Catholic School). She's a junior and as I began to probe about her interests I found out she is an altar server and she is very proud of the fact that she can serve her priest every Sunday morning at the 7:30am service! Then she proceeded to tell me about how she's been going to "confirmation classes" on Tuesday nights and has been memorizing all the prayers. As we were getting off the bus I said: "I bet it's quite easy to just recite those prayers quite heartlessly without even thinking about what you're saying, huh?" She nodded and acknowledged in affirmation. It's a good less on the wickedness of heartless worship.

Did I fail to mention, I love being chauffeured on the LA public bus system?