Retreating

I leave this afternoon for a short Retreat with the Elect from St. Paul who are completing their journey into full communion at Easter. Our theme this year is:

Your Spiritual Garden

My talk is on Saturday at 12:30 and concerns what to do in times of Drought or Spiritual Dryness. I know what the Holy Spirit wants me to speak about, but every time I try to sit down and type up some notes or set out and outline something comes up and I don't get it done. By now I am skilled enough at retreats to know that I simply have to trust that whatever happens will be what was meant to happen for this group at this retreat, but I would feel a bit less queasy if I could at least have a few notes in front of me.

The way things are going I may be sitting up late tonight trying to get something down on paper. To my credit I do have an ending and a beginning and I am fully aware of how much time I have to fill. so I will just trust that the Holy Spirit is capable of adding the middle of the content, so long as I stay out of the way. Maybe there is something that is going to happen during the talks that come previous to mine that will alter what I need to say.

Right now it is time to get dressed and go get in a workout and get my tire checked out because it keeps losing air. Then shopping for retreat essentials, and packing and taking my daughter to her volunteer job and a bit of clean up around home and getting the kids situated so I can be gone overnight, and then I will be off.

If you get a chance, say a quick prayer for my talk tomorrow. I will appreciate the presence.

Pax

Lord Give us Your Words . . .

Mrangelmeg and I are going to give a talk tonight at RCIA on the Sacrament of Matrimony. We put together a short outline over the weekend when we were on our little getaway, so that we would have at least a few talking points down on paper, but I always like to leave room for the Holy Spirit when I give a talk.

Mrangelmeg on the other hand, (being the engineer and a very high J on the Meyers Briggs) would probably much rather have every word we were planning to say written out so that we just had to read it.

We want to start with a short introduction of us; how we met, how important faith hope and love have been to us in our marriage, and that we don't begin to understand why our marriage works we are just happy that it does.

Then we are going to go into the sacrament as we have come to understand it over the last 26 years. Then we will leave time for questions which with God's help we will be able to answer.

Send up a quick prayer for us. I am used to these kinds of talks. Mrangelmeg is more used to presentations to government and military personnel. This is almost uncharted territory for him and he is venturing there at my request. Now that is a true partnership.

Pax

NOTE: Our talk went quite well last night. We were relaxed and got our points across really easily and with humor and grace I believe. The group was very receptive which helped a lot. Thanks for your prayers. There were more than a few young married couples and soon to be married couples in the group, so I hope they can gain a little from hearing the story of our journey.

A Little Help

Tonight I have to give a talk at RCIA:

The Ten Commandments NOT The Ten Suggestions


In the eight years that I have done RCIA ministry this is my least favorite talk and one I would never freely choose to do. Out of those eight years, it has fallen upon my shoulders to give this talk . . .



wait for it . . .



eight times!


I guess, God understands better than I do that I have a perspective on sin and the ten commandments that will help those entering the church to see the freedom that they offer as a guide for living one's life.

If you get a chance I would appreciate a prayer (and we all know how God's time works, so if you are reading this on Thursday or Friday or even December 10th, say a prayer for me, it won't go wasted). that my talk goes well and that the young men and women in this RCIA class will have a much better understanding of the freedom of living a moral life after I break open the commandments with them.

I use a very interactive style, and try to engage them as much as possible in the interpretation process, so the Holy Spirit can guide the direction in which the discussion takes. I would hate to go into the evening knowing exactly what I was going to say based upon my faults and failings and not address any of their specific needs. Heaven knows I have enough faults to go around, but my faults are mine and I don't begin to think they would be the same as for a 19 years old college male.

So, again, please send up a prayer that things go well, and that hearts are opened and touched. I would appreciate the back-up.

Pax

All Retreated Out

I got back from retreat about an hour ago and after a restorative nap I feel compelled to tell you some of the highlights of a wonderful spirit filled time.

We began last evening with a Reconciliation Service which was built around the Parable of the Forgiving Father (or Prodigal Son, depending on your age) . We had a copy of the Rembrandt picture up on the prayer table to remind everyone of the point (conversion being the point, DUH). Then there was a chance for Reconciliation. While the candidates and sponsors went to the sacrament we had a prayer service with the Elect in which they experienced God's forgiveness and conversion in their lives through a sin burning. (cool if you have never seen one done and very powerful as an image of an oblation to the Lord)

This morning I gave a talk on Discipleship in Transition using Mary Magdalene as my example, and talked about my ministry with my mother. It was a very difficult talk for me to give but lots of people came up and thanked me afterwords for sharing, and felt that it was very powerful.

To be honest, the rest of the day is a blur for me of activity. One of the later highlights was the Candidates and Elect were presented cards made for them by the Families Growing in Faith group at the parish and one girl got a beautiful card that told her to be filled with a Happy Spit!!!!! We all laughed so hard we could hardly stand it. She absolutely loves the card and thinks she is going to frame it.

So, my elect, Emily is all ready for her Baptism on Easter Vigil. In fact she can hardly contain her joy at the thought of what is about to happen. She was practically floating as she left the retreat today. Keep her in your prayers this week, her last week before she enters the waters of Baptism and joins us at the Table of the Lord for the very first time.

Pax