The Solitario

There is a Hispanic man, probably a Salvadoran who comes to the Latin Mass at my parish. He's not a boy but not yet middle aged. He works very hard, you can see it. His body is like a steel cable and his hands have callouses on top callouses. I can't quite make it out but I think he speaks more of a dialect than the version of Spanish I learned in school. I've seen him loud and stumbling drunk. I've seen him sober. I've seen him doing penance on his knees from the church door to the altar rail. I've never seen him with anyone else in church or in the neighborhood and guess that he came to the States alone.   A lot of the single males who do this get into trouble. With no family to keep them on the right path or a wife to live for they drift. I suspect that this man is here illegally but that is so common in Northern Virginia it almost seems superfluous to mention it. Financially he's doing much better here than he would've if he'd stayed at home but he's lonely, a little crazy and drunk. All that cheap labor that is so much a part of Northern Virginia;s economy  comes at a nasty price.


Venerable Matt Talbot, pray for him.