The Parish Mission

So yesterday was the start of the Parish Mission. What is a Parish Mission you ask? A Catholic revival service! Start with some music, go to some prayers, and then about an hour or so of preaching. Finish with prayer and music again. Oh-but no fire and brimstone. :)

Last night's topic was God is love. We even chanted it aloud together. Maybe 200-300 people there. Good sound. And Fr. T is a compelling speaker. So some thoughts he shared that I am now musing on.

"You will never be closer to God than you are right now" --More on this in a minute.

"We all judge other people--but why? That is the important question as it reveals a need in our lives."

"We all have addictions. To live and be human is to be addicted to something. Addictive behavior is the one universal human condition."

"There is a statue of limitations on the blaming of parents for your life's problems." --this said to an 81 year old woman who was blaming her mom for why she was addicted to alcohol.

"The only way to experience God's grace is to keep our addictions in front of us at all times. This keeps us humble and open to God's love, mercy and grace in our lives"

"For most people, before they can allow God's love to truly touch their lives and change them, they must be humbled before others. This maybe very public or just a few close friends and family, but God will get our attention to show us his love."



So the quote at the top--"you will never be closer to God than you are right now." Kind of scared me a bit. As I am not feeling all that close to Him. But Fr. T went on to explain. We say and believe the Holy Spirit (God) lives in us. That God is everywhere. That God is closer to us than the marrow of our bones. So why do we say we need to get closer to God? That is as close as we can get us living breathing human beings. We need to be more aware of God, yes. But God is already as close as He can be.

OK--I get that--kind of..I think that is the topic of tonight--how to be aware of God in our lives. Followed by Reconciliation on Tuesday and Eucharist on Wednesday.

Choir sings again on Wednesday-but I plan to go all week. Some of the topics seem to hit close to where I am calling home these days. Like the judgment quote. I have been doing a fair amount of that with my parents. So why am I so judgmental of them? Still pondering that one. And what need in my life will that reveal?

And the being humbled before others--I get that one way too well. So here I am God--show me your love.

What a Week!

So it has been just over a week since my last post....why? The MOVE of course! All finished now--except the unpacking part--but then--I am not unpacking much. The musical instruments, the oil lamps, maybe the angels. that will be about it. Not a lot of room and honestly--I don't think my parents could handle a lot of the more---esoteric? of my possessions. ;) Thanks to Dave for all his help. Don't think I would have survived the move with you!

More will come now as I get the computer up and running at home (M & D) and hopefully have a bit of time here and there to myself. (although I think I will have to insist a bit on this with Mom--she seems to think if I am awake and at her house we should be together...:( I'll just remind her of Mamma and her desires to be alone sometimes. That will work! Mamma is still helping me out of tight spots even though she hasn't been with us for 4 years now. Which is hard for me to believe--seems like just yesterday I was calling her once or twice a week)

OK that was a bit on the sad side and I hate ending things like that--so a positive! I found the beads for a couple of custom rosaries I am making as well as a couple of new ones either for the store or for Christmas gifts (I am thinking of making one for my Mother-in-Law, a sister-in-law, and maybe a brother in law as well--we'll see.)

More unpacking today and then--maybe the computer?

grace and Sactifying Grace

So I went to visit with Curt yesterday. He has been reading a book on Catholic theology. So far he has 80 pages of notes on a 245 page book--he still has 3 chapters to read! But his latest readings were on the difference between grace (with a small g) and Sanctifying Grace (capital S capital G). Which I was clueless on, so I asked for an explanation.

What it appears to boil down to is grace is the tug of God that we feel as sinful people who know something is missing in our lives. It can occur to people who have not had church experience as an emptiness that they don't know how to fill. It can occur to people who have gone to church all their lives, but never had God touch them in a personal way. But at this point--it is a free gift God has given to every human being conceived in sin. We all, regardless of place, time, nationality or creed will feel this grace.

Sanctifying Grace is also a gift of God, but it requires our input too. This is what occurs after we make a conscious decision to follow God, to turn from sin, to become a believer. It is this SG that allows God to look at us and not see our sin and faults, but see Jesus' sacrifice in our place. Can we lose SG? Yes we can. When we make those decisions to turn away from God and sin against him. (in the big stuff--not the little stuff :) )

But---the small g grace--God will not take away--it is his gift to all mankind--including the sinning Christian--to remind us of where we need to be. And as a sinning Christian--who has already experienced both the original grace of God and knows what it feels like as well as having experienced and knowing how good SG is...we should be that much quicker to respond.

At least--that is what I could get of it. Filtered through Curts understanding. I think I want to read that book.

Faith, risk, trust, and confidence

So I've been reading a bit about a friend's struggle with faith. And remembering a bit of my own both from years ago and a bit more recently. And a lot of what has been said echoes my own experience. That for faith to really grow and expand--it must involve risk. The beginnings of belief are simple and childlike. A simple trust in a loving God. An understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus. Concepts children can get. Things we can have confidence in.

But we should grow from there. Otherwise we are stuck as little children in faith when our understanding of our world has grown. And this produces problems. For me--it produced them early on--my childhood was brief--I grew up fast both in knowledge of the world and in faith. And the simple childlike faith that worked at 7, didn't by the time I was 10. By 18--I was having a crisis of --well not exactly faith, but of the expression of faith.


My faith journey was just that--a journey. I needed a more adult, more mature way to express a faith I had for many years. And I found that in the Catholic church. I found a way to reconcile the need for faith and confidence in God with the feelings I had inside about what history was and is and what spirituality should be.

For Curt--this didn't occur until he was in his late 20s. He is just now finding his way out from going to risk taking as a way of life to make up for his lack of faith and confidence not only in God, but in himself as well. When he experienced his own crisis--he didn't talk about it, didn't find his answers in faith, but instead chose to make risky decisions--decisions about our finances, our lives, our love. Which I am starting to get--but it's hard.


Back to the friend (not Curt) who is also going through a faith journey. He is talking about a change in churches similar to my own. And is coming in different ways to many of the same conclusions I did. :) I hope he can find the same confidence in his decision as I did in mine.

Getting there

is 1/2 the fun? Whoever said that was not speaking of moving! But I actually am, in an odd way, enjoying this. Not the packing, or the physical labor of it, but the realization again of how many friends and family members I have who I can count on to be there for me. I am so blessed and fortunate. I am not sure how to thank them all--but I will work on finding some way. Meanwhile--to those who read this--Thank you!!!!!!

Feeling better about the move

So yesterday I went to visit Curt with my mom. It was a nice visit. Then dropped off mom, went to church to sing with the choir and was not planning on going back out to the parents house, but had a rather huge attack of "homesickness" I guess would be the right word. Just suddenly felt like I needed to be near mom and dad. Have not felt that way since college. But I've been a bit--well--weepy recently and I guess feeling a bit like a little girl helps. No, I don't plan on staying as little girl forever--actually already back to feeling grown up today, but last night--I think it was watching all the couples, kids and parents in church. I just felt a bit--lonely. So that is ok--I can handle being at my parents house and still be an adult most of the time--but when I need it--like last night--I think I will be OK with being their little girl again. Hugs, ice cream, scrabble, and soothing. Yep--didn't take much to make me feel like a new person again! Ready to face the world. At least my small corner of it.

Joining the Church, starting to make new friends

So it feels really strange to me. Tuesday afternoon I went to St. R. to talk with the pastoral care director about joining the church. I didn't want to really get into everything with Curt. So I left the line about martial status blank, filled out the rest of the card, and handed it back. she looked at it for a minute and said--"There is no shame here if you are divorced or separated--We see this often and we want to be here for you." OOF. So I said, "Well, we are separated. Which is the truth as far as it goes. It was just easier than explaining exactly why we are separated. She asked if there was hope of a reconciliation, and I said yes, I was beginning to see hope for that...also true. I would guess at some point later down the road--much later--I may go back and explain more. But for now--Marie gave me a book on separation and the feelings that go with it--WOW do they describe me the past year to a tee! And a prayer shawl. She said " The ladies that make these never know who we will give them to, but they pray while they knit or crochet for spiritual, physical and emotional strength for the recipient of each shawl. And anyone who has been separated from a spouse, needs strength." I like her. Nice.

It felt even a bit odder at choir--we had treats afterward and that was nice. Talk to a few of the ladies and felt good about it. Talked with the director, D, about the reason I haven't sung in so long--too busy as an interpreter! She asked if I might be willing to sign some songs sometimes. And I said "Of course!--I love to sign." Then the dreaded question "why aren't you signing now?" Because arthritis makes the joints wayyyy to stiff and painful to do more than maybe 1/2hr to an hr at a time--not a good thing for an interpreter. But it felt so nice to start meeting a few people and putting some names and faces together.