The mail brought a marvelous Christmas surprise today. A reader of this blog, whose anonymity I will respect, wrote a long, lovely letter. In it, he talked about the journey he and his wife made to Catholicism. He writes:

Looking back, God used many people to guide us to this place. One of those people was Walker Percy. I loved his quiet, philosophical, moral, Catholic soul long before I even knew what I was drawn to. I wish he were still here with us. I would love to hear his assessment of our present predicament. I look forward to hearing the discussions in June on Saturday morning.

He’s talking about Saturday morning, June 7, 2014, at the Walker Percy Weekend festival we’re having here in St. Francisville.

The reader added that he is grateful for this blog too. So when I mentioned that the Walker Percy Weekend would be grateful for your tax-deductible contribution to putting on the festival, he said he had to give something back.

There was a check for $1,000 in the envelope.

All of us who are organizing the festival are overwhelmed by this gift of love and respect for Percy. And I am, once again, filled with gratitude for my readers; I know of at least one more who has given money to the festival. What a wonderful Christmas gift. I’m about to write to one of the Percy daughters, with whom I’ve struck up a correspondence, and tell her what a perfect stranger has done in honor of her father. It will delight her. It delights us all. Thank you, dear reader! Dear readers! You bless me in unexpected ways.