“Have you ever had a moment when you just knew the Holy Spirit was at work right in front of you? When your spine tingles and your eyes grow wide?” So writes our friend, Mike Jordan Laskey.

“I experienced one of those sacred encounters in a Catholic school basement in Cherry Hill last year, and I’ll never forget it.

I was moderating a panel of folks who work for our Catholic Charities’ refugee resettlement program. They welcome individuals and families who are fleeing violence and persecution around the world and help them adjust to their new lives here in South Jersey. Two of the panelists were former refugees themselves who now work for the program, including a lovely man named Francis, who is originally from Burma (now called Myanmar).

At the start of the program, I told the crowd that the refugees who move here are living and working and going to school right alongside us, whether we knew it or not. The panel’s goal was to help raise awareness of the work Catholic Charities is doing and share with attendees how they could get involved. How might we all be good neighbors to these newly arriving members of our community?

We took a short break in the middle of the event, and I made small talk with Francis.

“So, where do you live?” I asked.

He told me.

“Wait, where?” I replied. My spine tingled and my eyes grew wide.

It turned out Francis and his family lived right around the corner from me. They were my literal neighbors. I drive past their place every day. I had no idea.”

Read the rest of this reflection here.