Third Event: A curious parishioner named John receives the answer to his pastor's prayer. The answer is: To make sense of why the altar was overturned, ask Him, who orchestrated it, why it happened.
 Written by Daniel John (parishioner from 2003 to 2007)

 

One of us read the local newspaper articles very carefully, because he was very curious about why our altar was overturned. Let's call him "Curious John" to keep him anonymous. He must have truly BELIEVED that one of us would RECEIVE the answer to our pastor's prayer, because he ended up receiving it (Mark 11:24).

The table below shows how the overturning of our altar at the Annunication of the Lord church parallels the Annunciation of the Lord.

Ten Parallels Between the Annunciation of the Lord and the Overturning of the Altar
1. Mary is a betrothed virgin not yet living with her husband Joseph
Marie is a divorced woman living with her boyfriend Joseph
2. Mary sees and hears an audible vision in reality [1]
Marie sees a vandalous vision in a dream [5]
3. Mary goes to live with Elizabeth and her eugenes husband [1]
Marie and Joseph are living with Beth and her husband Eugene [3,5]
4. It's likely that Mary does not tell Joseph about her vision [1,2]
Marie does not tell Joseph about her dream [5]
5. Joseph sees and hears an audible vision in a dream [2]
Joseph sees a vandalous vision in reality [4,5]
6. Joseph's vision was the same as Mary's [1,2]
Joseph's vision was the same as Marie's [5]
7. Joseph and Mary tell each other about their vision
Joseph and Marie tell each other about their vision [5]
8. They act on their vision by raising the Son of God together [2]
They act on their vision by overturning our altar during Mass [1,2]
9. They heard the Annunciation of the Lord in their vision [6]
They saw the Annunciation of the Lord church in their vision [2,3]
10. The Annunciation of the Lord was brought to them by angels [1,2]
The altar was overturned on the Feast of the Guardian Angels [7]

When Curious John began to see these parallels, he began to realize that the same One who orchestrated the Annunciation of the Lord also orchestrated the overturning of our altar at the Annunciation of the Lord church. That One is specifically God the Father. That's how Curious John arrived at the answer to our pastor's prayer. The answer, which would have come specifically from the Lord Jesus, was this: To make sense of why the altar was overturned, ask Him, who orchestrated it, why it happened.

Just in case someone thinks that the ten parallels above are coincidences, I did a math exercise. I estimated that the odds of the two vandals having the middle names, Mary or Marie and Joe or Joseph, and their friend having the middle name Beth or Elizabeth, and our church being named after the Annunication of the Lord are about 40 million to 1. Seeing those parallels make it exceedingly difficult for us to believe that God had nothing to do with the overturning of our altar. His fingerprints are all over it!

Footnotes
[1] Luke chapter 1
[2] Matthew chapter 1
[3] "Church-service assault", Decatur Daily, 10/3/2005
[4] "'Vision' spurred church assault", Decatur Daily, 10/4/2005
[5] "Suspects in church attack were quiet in Hartselle library", Decatur Daily, 10/5/2005
[6] The angel's announcement to Mary became known as "The Annunciation of the Lord" [1]
[7] Octover 2 is the Feast of the Guardian Angels