I looked at my watch.  It was just after midnight.  She'd now be on her way, I thought.  I wished her a safe journey as she slipped under the Lions Gate bridge, down the Straits of Georgia to the open Pacific.   

The last time I checked on the internet, the M/V Kouju Lily was located just northwest of San Francisco sailing at 12.7 knots on a bearing of 161 degrees.  She had left Vancouver several days before, her hold full of Prairie grain.  Her destination, the Mexican deepwater port of Veracruz on the Atlantic Coast.  Then, on to Europe for the next leg of her journey.

I celebrated the Eucharist on board the Kouju Lily several hours before it departed.  Its crew of 20, all Filipino, had requested Mass the day before.  Since the Catholic port chaplain was not available, I was asked to fill in.  I gladly accepted. 

The mess hall table was adorned with a clean, fresh, linen table cloth.   The small mess hall was transformed into a floating chapel.  The crew's dining table became the altar of sacrifice and the table of communion.

Something amazing about the Eucharist.  Here we were, meeting for the first time, coming from different parts of the world, different cultures, different native tongues, and yet united as members of the one Body of Christ.  We prayed for family, for safety at sea.  The bread and wine became for us all the Body and Blood of Christ.  We ate and drank together.

Their journey would continue to take them across the seas of the world, eight months at a time.  My journey took me back to Point Grey, to St. Mark's College at the University of British Columbia. 

That night, as I lay asleep on the Endowment Lands, the crew of the Kouju Lily would have maneuvered their 58,000 tonne bulk carrier around the waters of Point Grey on their way south to the Panama Canal.   

I remembered their faces, their generosity, their warmth.  I left them some holy cards and other religious objects, blessed during the Mass.  The remaining items were taken for their families back home.  They generously helped me clean up and left me several envelopes stuffed with American bills. 

I may never again meet the captain and crew of the Kouju Lily.  And yet, just minutes ago, I checked their position at sea via the internet.  The Mass created a bond,  I think.  We all professed the one Lord Jesus Christ. We all knew of our need for God – and ultimately for each other. 

I suspect that I will never look at the waiting freighters in the waters off the Spanish Banks in the same way as before.  No longer will they simply be ships waiting to be loaded with grain or coal.  This time, they'll have acquired more of a human face.  Ships peopled by men of the merchant marine.  In particular, I will remember that small crew of the M/V Kouju Lily with whom I shared the Body and Blood of Christ.  We ate of the same bread and shared the same cup.  That makes up brothers, friends in the Lord, I suppose.  God speed – and bon voyage.