Each evening after school, Stephen the newsboy would deliver the newspapers on the streets near where he lived. He had his own regular round and would push the papers through the letter boxes of his regular customers. He was a friendly, polite, likeable lad and always had a cheery word for all the people he met. The old folk on his round would sometimes stand by their gates waiting for his arrival, so they could have a little chat with the boy.

On his paper round was Corpus Christi, the local Catholic Church, which Stephen would pass every evening, but he never passed the church without popping in for five minutes or so before continuing his round. Father Pat, the local priest noticed the lad was a regular visitor each evening and wondered if something was troubling him. One evening as the lad was standing silently in front of the altar, for some reason he never knelt down, Father Pat asked him if he was troubled in any way and would it help to talk about it. The boy smiled and said that everything was fine, he just liked to pop in and see Jesus every evening. “Do you pray to Jesus every evening?” asked Fr Pat. “No” replied the lad, “I don’t pray, I just say, hello Jesus, Stephen is here.”

A year passed, when one day Fr Pat was called to an accident that had occurred near his church. When he got there he found the police and ambulance already in attendance. The police told him that a young cyclist had been fatally injured in a “hit and run” by a speeding car. When he got nearer he could see that lying on the road was the young paper boy. As Fr Pat knelt and administered the last rites, he was sure he heard a voice saying, “Hello Jesus, Stephen is here.”

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.”