From Conversion: Spiritual Insights Into an Essential Encounter with God by Fr. Donald Haggerty, pg. 89.
Some years ago the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City held a special exhibition in which all the paintings in the exhibit shared Franciscan themes and inspiration. Father Benedict Groeschel, founder of the C.F.R. community of Franciscans, made a request to the museum to permit his brothers and priests to enter the museum an hour before the usual opening time so that they could meditatively enjoy these paintings without the press of the crowds. The community received the permission. At the end of their visit, as the men in their grey Franciscan robes were leaving the building, a line waiting for the museum to open had formed outside the building. An older woman caught the eye of one friar and called to him. “Sir, please, can you tell me, are you for real, or are you part of the exhibition?” The friar answered “Yes, we are for real.” But the question did not disappear so quickly. He recounted that for a full week that same question kept interrupting his prayer—“are you for real?”—starkly reminding him how easy it is to be part of an external show without giving much and how deeply committed in love we must be to seek with passion a life with God.
Prodigal Catholic 