The next Thursday, he finished cleaning early and sat in the same pew. He read more of Proyecto Felipe . It wasn’t preachy. It told stories of people like him — angry, tired, and certain they were unlovable. Then it pointed to Jesus, not as a judge, but as someone who ate with people who had messed up.

“You can keep that,” Don Ramón said softly. “It was mine when I was young.”

But the booklet said something else on that same page: “El amor de Dios no es un sentimiento. Es una búsqueda.” (The love of God is not a feeling. It is a search.)

He didn’t have an answer. But he didn’t throw the booklet away either.

He didn’t have all the answers. But for the first time, he didn’t need them.

Mateo almost threw it in the trash bag. But page 15 was folded, marked with a pencil sketch of a sheep being carried on someone’s shoulders. Underneath, someone had written in shaky handwriting: “Dios no se va. Nosotros nos escondemos.” (God does not leave. We hide.) He stood there, broom in hand, reading the page. It was a reflection on the parable of the lost sheep. Not the part about the shepherd finding it — but the part before: the sheep wandering away, not because it was angry, but because it was scared of the flock.