Every now and then I get an email message, a note or a phone call from a stranger about a good deed or thoughtful act done by someone at St. Thomas, and I think to myself, “That’s one of the reasons I love working at this university.”
The latest example came out of the blue last week from Jean Stack of St. Cloud, who, with her children, had a chance encounter on Oct. 17 with four St. Thomas students at the China Star Buffet in St. Cloud. She didn’t know who they were, but believed they had been at the St. Thomas-St. John’s football game that afternoon in nearby Collegeville. They were wearing St. Thomas t-shirts.
“Everyone of them bowed their heads and prayed before eating,” she wrote. “I was so impressed by that I had to blink away the tears from my eyes. To see four young men do this on their own, with no prodding from a parent or other adult led me to realize what true Christians these young men were.
“I wanted to go up to them and let them know how impressed I was by them, but I didn’t want to risk embarrassing them. I still can’t help but think about them today and felt it was necessary to somehow let them know what an awesome impression they left on me. Their manners with their waiter also were very polite.”
Stack said she hopes that her own teen-aged sons behave appropriately in such situations, “but you often don’t know what they do when ‘mom’ isn’t around.”
She concluded: “I would like for them and their parents to know what great guys I think they are! Also let them know that they are now included in my prayers.”
Mine, too.
