“Th

ough ma

y da

ge

s, toils, a

d s

a

es，”

“I have al

eady come！”

“T’was g

ace has b

ought me safe thus fa

，”

“A

d g

ace will lead me home！”

Under the starry night sky, the white church, the melodious chorus singing and the heavy New Year's bells blend together.

The old woman, with a wrinkled face stepping up the snow-covered steps, walked slowly into the church door.

The interior of the church is spacious and bright, with large stained glass windows and dim lights at all corners, which are full of light and warm and soft.

Stained glass forms the colossal icon of Jesus' crucifixion, and below it is a pulpit filled with white chrysanthemums. On both sides of the podium, the choir sang the classic of Amazing Grace. In front of them, rows of seats, up to the church gates, were almost full. From time to time, sobs came from under the seat, and it was someone who couldn't hold back his tears.

Immersed in the peaceful atmosphere, the old woman felt a little comforted, and after a relieved or sad face, she came to her usual seat, said hello to the old friend who came first on the left and right, and then sat still. In the midst of the song, his eyes gradually lost his mind.

The midnight Mass on Christmas Eve has just begun.

As soon as the choir had finished singing, everyone stood up with the old woman, led by the choir, and sang the hymn of the church. In this chorus, the priest who is the celebrant of the night, in a wheelchair and pushed by the deacons who are acting as deacons, slowly enters the church through the entrance of the church. With a rumble, the door that slowly closed behind them finally closed completely. At the same time, they also took to the podium.

The old woman is absent-minded, the priest is in the church, she is in the church, the priest is in the church, the priest is in the church, the priest is in the sacrament, she is still in the church. The whole time, she just followed the other congregation, mechanically doing mass.

It wasn't until the final ritual that her cloudy eyes regained some of their brilliance.

By this time, the hands on the church bell had moved from midnight to half past one in the morning.

"Mass is complete!" the priest shouted.

"Thank God!" replied the congregation.

The old woman stood up again with the people. During the congregation's sanitation, the chief priest and the auxiliary priest stepped down from the pulpit and into the side room.

When Mass is over, the gates are opened, and the congregation disperses.

However, in the almost empty church, more than a dozen people remained in their seats, looking equally sad.

The door was hidden, except for the two people guarding the door, the other deacons all walked to the front of the stage, faced the more than ten believers, and stretched out their hands to lead the side room.

"The priest has been waiting for a long time, please come in. ”

The old woman stood up, and the others left their seats. Some of them were on crutches, some were in wheelchairs, and these handicapped and immobile people made their way to the side rooms with the help of their families, other able-bodied believers, or deacons.

And the old woman, when she came to the church, was alone, and when she entered the side room, she was also alone. The slow pace made her almost the last person to enter the side room.

However, at this time, there was still a man sitting in the almost empty seat. He looked at the giant icon of Jesus' crucifixion above the pulpit, and his expression was thoughtful.

At this time, if anyone can bring his senses into it, he will be surprised to find that the church at this time is still surrounded by bursts of singing. Countless words of praise poured like the wind towards the icon, but in the middle of it split in two, half soaring into the air and half sinking into the earth.

A deacon came to the man.

"Sir, you're not a Catholic, are you?"

"How do you see that?" the man said with a light smile.

The deacon sat down next to the man: "I just observed that during Midnight Mass, you sat still and did not participate. ”

"If that's not right, then allow me to apologize. The man's tone was sincere.

The deacon smiled: "Please rest assured that we will not force anyone who is not a believer of our religion to attend Mass." Look, aren't we going to let you watch the whole time?"

"Yes, thank you. The man looked sincere.

Smiling, the deacon paused for a moment, and after a little wording, spoke again: "So, may I ask how you feel about this Mass?"

"It's remarkable. ”

From the point of view of cohesion of faith.

The man added in his heart.

The deacon's face was even more joyful: "Would you, then, be willing to participate in this great, sacred cause?"

"Well, it depends. ”

Similar, for me.

The man added another sentence in his heart.

"yes, I see. The deacon retracted the urgency in his eyes and resumed his slow pace of speech, "May God Yahweh work in your heart, so that you may be brought into my religion and blessed soon and enjoy eternal peace." ”

The man smiled and nodded, "Thank you for your blessings." ”

With that, he stood up.

At this time, the deacon seemed to remember something, and when he saw that the man had turned around and was about to leave, he looked anxious and immediately got up.

"Uh, wait, I mean, I'm sorry to listen to me again!"

The man turned around: "Please speak." ”

"There's a Gospel Witness meeting right now, so you can sit on the sidelines if you will. Of course, I have absolutely no intention of forcing you to believe in God's Yahweh, but I just want to ask you to bear witness. I don't know, what do you think?"

After a little groaning, the man nodded: "It's okay." ”

The deacon was overjoyed and immediately took the lead and led the way for the man.

"This way, please. ”

The deacon smiled brightly, and when the man saw this, he shook his head with a smile, sighed and followed behind, and walked into the side room.

Here, there was a slight sob.

The believers who had been brought in sat in a circle with the priest. Some of them still had tears on their faces, but they looked relieved. Some, looking even more mournful than before, were wiping tears from their eyes. Only the old woman, like a wax figure, just sat there quietly, with a wooden expression.

"Great joy shall be upon you when you fall into all kinds of trials, knowing that your faith has been tested and endured. But let patience be successful, so that you may be perfect and lacking nothing!"

Seeing that the deacon brought another person in, the priest smiled and nodded to the man as he continued to speak the comforting words of the Bible. By this time, the deacon had already found an empty chair from the side and placed it between the two believers.

"You may be seated. The priest said.

"Thank you. ”

After the man was seated, the deacon who brought him in stood quietly behind the man, just as the deacon stood beside the other seaters. The priest, on the other hand, continued his sermon.

"Mr. Jones, seeing that you are looking good, would you like to share your good news, let us witness the work of God Yahweh, so that the people who are also suffering here may have faith. ”

"It is my pleasure, Father. ”

The reply was a middle-aged man with both legs amputated and sitting in a wheelchair like the priest, and he had the most family members around him.

"We were all victims of the accident two and a half years ago, and many of my friends are too. Some of them live by the sea and have been flooded. Some, like me, were destroyed by earth and rocks that came from nowhere. I was unlucky, half of my body crushed under the rubble. I was lucky that my family was out there at the time and was not affected by the disaster. ”

As he spoke, the middle-aged man turned his head sideways and smiled at the family members around him.

"Of course, I've said that no less than three times. So this time, I want to share my recent life. Not long ago, with the comfort of my family, the encouragement of my colleagues, and the help of my psychologist, I finally mustered up the courage to step out of the psychological shadow and return to work. So far, with the help of my family and colleagues, my work and life have largely returned to their previous state. I know that this is the blessing of God, Yahweh, who told me through the mouth of others - Jones, you still have a long way to go in your life, you have to go on, you can't stop there. ”

"Praise be to the name of God Yahweh, whose power and mercy have saved a suffering Lamb, who has seen your miracles, who have strengthened our faith and regained the courage to live. The priest drew a cross on his chest and said, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Amen!"

Most of the others followed suit, reciting the prayer to the priest, and among them, even the most distressed, was much soothed.

Only the man and the old woman sat there quietly, and their faces did not change much.

Glancing around, the priest sighed to himself at the sight of the old woman, who was as lifeless as ever, and then fell on the man who had the same reaction as the old woman.

"What do you call this gentleman?" he said softly.

"Just call me Henry. The man smiled.

"Thank you to God Yahweh for his work on Henry and for his willingness to participate in our Gospel Witness. So, Mr. Henry, if anything spiritual has come to you, we'd love to hear from you. Otherwise, you can also tell us how you have felt from the midnight Mass to the current Gospel Witness Meeting. Perhaps, the revelation of God Yahweh is in it?"