A Reflection by Fr. Brian:
Another wildfire story: this time, I was taking my day off from the parish near Palm Springs, CA where I was Pastoral Associate. I drove to our property in Hemet, CA where we had our Novitiate. It was 60 acres like a ranch with a main house and two double-wide mobile homes. It was just me and the caretaker couple. The wife came to me and told me that she was just watching the news and that there was a wildfire on the other side of the hills, but that she didn’t think it would come toward us.
Well, that changed. In the early afternoon, some police drove up the winding dirt road and told us that we would have to evacuate the property and they would have to tape it off as if it were a crime scene because a wildfire was just on the other side of the hill where we had a cross and that it was moving our way.
So, the couple and I got in the car and drove down the road and up a mountain where we parked to look down on our property. We could see the long line of flames as they fast approached the hill with the cross. We watched with open mouths as the wall of flames devoured everything in its path as it moved over and down the hill towards our buildings. Thank God we had a fire break around the buildings to protect them (maybe 100-200 feet of open dirt). We prayed!
(to be continued tomorrow)
Blessings, pono & pule!
Fr. Brian Guerrini, ss.cc.
Priest
Molokai