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Remembering Jan Brotherman

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Jan Brotherman
February 16, 1938 - June 21, 2016

Janice (Jan) Louise Brotherman was born in San Antonio, TX, on February 16, 1938, to Bernard Brice Brotherman and Louise Mae Hoefgen. She attended Providence High School in San Antonio, graduating in 1956. Jan worked as an Administrative Assistant and Computer Analyst for over 50 years for many companies, including: Acordia of Dallas, Priority Systems Inc., EDS-Dallas, Braniff International Airlines, and the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

Jan had a beautiful voice and was actively involved with the Mission Belles Chorus of San Antonio of the Sweet Adelines. She enjoyed being a member of the Gem Dandies Quartet. Additionally, Jan was an amazing seamstress and embroiderer. More than anything, Jan loved serving the Lord and was very involved with Mary Immaculate and the Christian Community of God's Delight.

Jan loyally cleaned the Sanctuary after every weekend so that the Lord's house would be beautiful and welcoming to all. Jan faithfully spent hours changing out the Missalettes every quarter, paying attention to every detail, and making sure they looked perfect for the celebration of Mass. Jan also found great joy in being with her Rosary group and cherished their friendships immensely.

Jan is preceded by her loving parents and her brother, Ronald. She is survived by her brother Donald and his wife Cherry, her brother Lelan, and six nieces and nephews and their beautiful families. We will miss her traditional Thanksgiving pumpkin and pecan pies, her zest for anything that sparkles, her childlike excitement of falling snow, her squeal when spotting a spider, and the sparkle she had in her eyes when talking about the Lord. We feel blessed that God shared her with us.


Witness: Spiritual Oxygen

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by Gail Farmer

I grew up in a Christian home, but my parents were totally sporadic in their church attendance. We would go for a few weeks, or may a few months, and then we wouldn’t. It was about when I was in the fifth grade I noticed that all of my friends on Mondays would be talking about what they had learned in church or in Sunday school the day before. So I started to ask my Mom, “Why don’t we go to church anymore?” And she explained it because she was Catholic and my dad was Lutheran and that they had decided to leave denomination decision up to us kids when we got older. She asked if I wanted to explore the respective churches and I said yes.

So the next Sunday she took me to her church which was still offering Mass, in Latin, which I could not understand. Then the following Sunday she took me to my Dad’s church. In the Catholic Church all the people seemed to know when to stand, when to sit, when to kneel, but at my Dad’s church the pastor gave visual and auditory commands; stand up; sit down; time to kneel. In my eleven-year-old brain the decision was a no-brainer. I chose to attend a church that was in English and had clear-cut directions. I think I probably disappointed my Mom. But she supported my decision and then the whole family started going to church and Sunday school.

Lutheran parochial schools

I was enrolled in Confirmation class, which met once a week after school, and I started reading Bible stories. After the first year, memorizing Bible passages became part of our homework. The public elementary school that I went to ended at the end of the seventh grade. That year they also decided that they were going to end it at the end of the sixth grade. Both my brother and I were going to be going to junior high and my parents decided to enroll us all in the Lutheran parochial school where Confirmation lessons became part of the curriculum. After Confirmation and graduation from that school I went to a Lutheran high school for four years and I’m really grateful to have graduated from a small school, there were only 130 in my graduating class.

During those years, my mother would periodically give me books she wanted me to read; a book about saints, a book about prayer and something that was usually inspirational in nature. She used to tell me about talking to God and hearing God talk to her. I thought that was the most incredulous think I have ever heard.

After high school I chose to go to the University of Michigan because the boy I was dating was going there. Although it was my first choice, I would have been happy being a commuter student at the Extension Campus closer to home.

First charismatic meeting

I determined that I would find a church where I could worship while I was away at school. The second semester my friend was invited to a charismatic prayer meeting by one of the guys who lived in his dorm. After the first time that he went, he signed up right away for a seminar called “Living a New Life in the Spirit.” Now in high school we had studied the Charismatic Renewal and we were taught it was something you should avoid. He was exuding this new joy that I had never seen in him before so I decided that for the sake of that relationship I should really go to a prayer meeting and explore it for myself.

At the very first prayer meeting that I attended with him which, by the way, I thought was really bazaar, and I started to hear God speaking to my heart: “Go” he said. I said, “What?” “Go!” A little bit more insistently I asked. “What?” “Go!” I started to ask,”Go where?” During the Prayer Meeting my instincts were telling me that I should just get up and leave because this was the strangest thing I had ever experienced.

Altar call

Then the man who was leading the Prayer Meeting that night stood up and he started to say, “We’ve never done this before,” and I immediately knew in my heart that whatever he was going to say was what God wanted me to do. He said, “We’ve never done this before but I believe that God wants us to issue an Altar Call, so if you would like to commit your life to God tonight, come on down to the center of the gym and we will pray with you to receive him into your heart.” My friend practically ran down the bleachers to give his life to the Lord, and coward that I am, I stayed glued to my seat, put my head in my lap and started to cry. I knew this was what God wanted me to do but I was so scared. The boy who lived across the hall from my friend was sitting in the row directly in front of us and he turned around and said, “You ought to go down there don’t you know, but you’re scared aren’t you? I’ll go with you and pray with you.”

I gave my life to the Lord that night. It turned out that most of the guys that lived in my friend’s dorm, on his same floor, were all members of the Word of God Christian Ecumenical Community. I signed up that night for Living a New Life in the Spirit Seminar, during which, even though we were encouraged to pray for tongues, I prayed for three other gifts. I prayed for peace, faith and joy. Now I never told anyone that I was praying for these three gifts; but during the fifth week when we committed our life to God and we were prayed with, I received a prophecy that God was giving me peace, faith and joy. The God of the universe, the God who loves the whole world, heard my prayer.

I eventually left the Word of God Community. I graduated, got engaged and got married within about an eight-month time period. Just before our second anniversary, Don and I moved to Dallas.

God’s Delight

After a couple of years we began to feel that we were spiritually living with less and less oxygen. I likened it to suffocating or drowning, there was no air. About that same time I went home to celebrate my grandmother’s eightieth birthday. That weekend I stayed with two of my former roommates and they reminded me of the Christian Community of God’s Delight. While I was involved in the Word of God, all of the other charismatic communities had similar sounding names and they were all in far-off places that I thought I would never visit, so I never really paid much attention to which one was where.

Don and I began attending mid-week prayer meetings and we went through the Life in the Spirit Seminar together. We took that summer off because Don’s youngest son was staying with us for that summer. Then we started attending both midweek and Sunday afternoon prayer meetings. We went through Foundation courses together and we’ve attended faithfully ever since.

I cannot imagine ever not attending a charismatic prayer meeting. We have found that we need both worship at our liturgical Lutheran church and the prayer and praise of the charismatic prayer meeting. They keep us grounded and they supply the spiritual oxygen that we need. You have all been a life-saver for us.

Community Gathering, May 8, 2016

Teaching: Joy of the Gospel, Chapter 2, part 1

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Amid the Crisis of Communal Commitment

by Brenda Lenzen

Good afternoon everyone. My name is Brenda Lenzen and I’m going to give a ten-minute sharing, continuing where we’ve been for the last three weeks, on the Joy of the Gospel, an encyclical by Pope Francis. There are copies out in the foyer if anyone is interested.

As just a small review, I’m going to tell you where we’ve been so that if you haven’t been here the last three weeks you can catch up. Sharon talked three weeks ago and she introduced the letter, She encouraged us to pray for renewed personal encounter with Jesus, for the grace to respond to our Holy Father’s exhortation to this encyclical, to spread the joy of the Gospel to three principle groups; members of the local church, the baptized who have fallen away, and those who do not know Christ or who have rejected him. Then Larry spent the last two weeks talking about Chapter One and the thrust of his exhortation was a charge to purposely pursue someone in one of those categories.

Today and next week, I will be talking about Chapter Two. I feel like, to some degree, when the assignments were given out, I drew the short straw because in Chapter Two the Pope considers briefly some factors that restrain or weaken Missionary Renewal in the Church. He basically gives a state of the world diagnosis as well as addressing what is wrong in the individual hearts of the evangelizers. And as we can surmise, it’s not a good report. So this week I’m going to focus on the world and next week we’ll explore what the Holy Father says about the state of our hearts.

An economy that kills

The Pope first addresses what part economics play in the world. I will briefly summarize because the chapter is about forty pages long and in ten minutes we have to get surface ??? I encourage you all to read it. He says that we should say “no” to an economy of exclusion and inequality, that such an economy kills. He gives us examples and says, “How can a drop in the Stock Market make the news but the death of an elderly homeless man does not.” He continues,

“Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? . . .Today, everything comes under the law of competition and survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed on the powerless. . . . We are deadened by a culture of prosperity, we are thrilled when the Market offers us something new to purchase, but in the meantime all those lives that are stunted because of lack of opportunity are a mere spectacle and they fail to move us. He says: money is an idol. Man is reduced to one of his needs alone, consumption. We are plagued by in-ordnant consumption and unbridled consumerism. The Market rules at the expense of human rights at the expense of the environment and at the expense of common good. A financial system must serve, not rule.”

He encourages financial experts and political leaders to ponder the words of St. John Chrysostom, who said: “Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our goods which we hold but theirs.”

I’m going to stop here at this point after I talked about what he says about the economics of the world and aside from the theologians and the economists in this room, of which I am neither.

Do any of you have a problem like I do understanding how do we take what the Pope just said, what’s wrong with our global economy at a local level and at a global level? How do we apply it to us? I can honestly ponder it all day, but I still don’t understand what I’m supposed to do. When the Pope talks about this, in someway inside of me I, as a westerner, feel threatened. He talks about all this consumerism and that’s us! So I get confused and I’m almost threatened! But in reading this, I see the Pope is exhorting us to go deeper, to educate ourselves, to get out of the boat and to come up with solutions that work for us.

Do something!

Last week Paul Mora shared that he has been called to have a care package in his car to hand out to the homeless. My son, Matt, has exhorted me to to this: If I give money out my window to the homeless man or woman on the corner, introduce myself and say, “Hi, I’m Brenda.” Ask that person their name and thus give them dignity as another human being; the dignity that they deserve. So I tried that this week. I gave money to this man and said, “Hi, I’m Brenda. What’s your name?” He said, “Mike, Michael, like the Archangel!” So I was able to say, “Michael like the Archangel, have a great day!” And we both smiled as we made that connection.

I think another thing we can do to get out of the boat in this area is to read! Read the summary of the Church’s social teaching. It’s everywhere and if you don’t want to read you can it on a Podcast, Study this encyclical, study Laudate Si (“Be Praised”), which the Pope just came out with. But the bottom line is “do something!” Don’t sit by because the problem is too big to wrestle with, or I’m too old or too young to do anything, or because I’m not an economist or a theologian, I really don’t have anything to say on this subject. Do something, because understanding the problem as apposed to being paralyzed by it is the first step of solving the equation.

Strategic evangelization needed

So next, the Pope talks about the rapid change in the world brought on by mass media and immorality. He says that the influence of mass media, specifically on the southern hemisphere and Asia -- areas previously untouched by western influence -- is having a disastrous effect morally. He speaks about the attacks on religious freedom and the influence of relativism versus truth. He says that alarmingly the Catholic Church is being infiltrated by groups and movements promoting a spirituality without a God.

Next he talks about post-modern culture promoting individualism and devaluing relationships. He also talks about the utter breakdown of the family, which we know only too well. All of this rapid and negative change in the world’s terrain requires, according to Pope Francis, very strategic (and I love this) very strategic evangelization.

So again, just like the economy, we must ask ourselves, where do I fit in? What is the Holy Father saying to me, Brenda Lenzen? It would be easy to take the stand that the internet is just simply uncontrollable. It is a wild beast gone bad. It would be easy to grab a bag of potato chips, sit on our couch and say to ourselves, “This is not my problem. I feel like my family isn’t broken down. My religious freedom isn’t being affected.I have enough friends and I’m tired of working on new relationships.”

God needs us

Yet I wonder if the Pope isn’t encouraging us to look beyond these excuses. Am I going to the Lord in prayer about my role or am I stymied by the negative direction the world is taking? Or, am I excited that the Lord has me living in this time, in this place specifically because he needs me and has a job for me to do? As pro-life people we believe that the Lord has a job for us to do until the day we die. I don’t care if we are five, eighteen, twenty-five, fifty, or eighty, God needs us to reach out to this broken world. In fact the Pope says in Chapter 2 that it is his hope that, whenever we attempt to read the signs of the times, it is helpful to listen to the young people and the elderly. Both represent a source of hope for every people because the elderly bring with them memory and wisdom of experience, which warns us not to foolishly repeat our past mistakes. Young people call us to renewed and expansive hope for they represent new directions for humanity. And if you think about it, we have both groups represented in this building today. We all can be represented as the elderly and down the hall and up in the upstairs Michael Hall we have the youth and I have the privilege of being with them every other week and they are an inspiration, they are excited and they’re our children!

We then look on to the fact that we are rich, and we are rich indeed. So this week I encourage you to read the last verses of the Gospel of Matthew and I’m going to read it really fast because I know we need to go, but in Matthew 28:19-20, and this is so familiar to everyone but listen to it with hope:

 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you and look, I Am with you always. Yes, even to the end of time.”

We need to refuse to give into the apathy, to the fatigue, to the despair or the flight and face the challenges in our culture with strategic purpose led by the Spirit of God to spread the joy of the Gospel.

The Pope ends Chapter Two with this amazing statement: “Challenges exist to be overcome. Let us be realists without losing our joy, our boldness and our hopeful commitment. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of missionary vigor.”

Significant quotes to study:

“Today we are seeing in many pastoral workers, including consecrated men and women, an inordinate concern for their personal freedom and relaxation, which leads them to see their work as a mere appendage to their life, as if it were not part of their very identity.” (78)

“Pastoral workers can thus fall into a relativism which…proves even more dangerous than doctrinal relativism.  …This practical relativism consists in acting as if God did not exist, making decisions as if the poor did not exist, setting goals as if others did not exist, working as if people who have not received the Gospel did not exist.” (80)

“At a time when we most need a missionary dynamism which will bring salt and light to the world, many lay people fear that they may be asked to undertake some apostolic work and they seek to avoid any responsibility that may take away from their free time.” (81)

“The problem (why the pastoral worker is clinging to free time) is not always an excess of activity, but rather activity undertaken badly, without adequate motivation, without a spirituality which would permeate it and make it pleasurable.  As a result work becomes more tiring than necessary…. Far from a content and happy tiredness, this is a tense, burdensome, dissatisfying and, in the end, unbearable fatigue.” (82)

 “And so the biggest threat of all gradually takes shape, ‘the gray pragmatism of the daily life of the Church in which all appears to proceed normally, while in reality faith is wearing down and degenerating into small mindedness.’  A tomb psychology thus develops and slowly transforms Christians into mummies in a museum.” (83)

Community Gathering February 7, 2016

Teaching: Joy of Gospel, Chapter 2, part 2

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Temptations Faced by Pastoral Workers

By Brenda Lenzen

Good afternoon everyone. I really do think that if I would’ve sat here long enough and all of the people that could have shared, would have shared, I wouldn’t have to give this sharing. I promise you that if you look at the word document, it was saved this afternoon at about two o’clock, but everybody that shared had a piece of this talk and just as Bill got up and shared last week and Martha heard and was the person that Bill shared about, God is continuing to affirm in us that he’s here and that he’s working. Just listen and you’ll hear, and Neil, I just can’t believe you said what you said.

For those of you who don’t know, we are in the middle of studying the Joy of the Gospel. It is this letter, the Apostolic Exhortation that the Holy Father wrote. We are doing ten-minute presentations at the end of Prayer Meeting. This is the fifth one. In the first one Sharon shared the Introduction. She exhorted us to pray for renewed personal encounter with Jesus and for the grace to respond to our Holy Father’s exhortation to spread the Joy of the Gospel to three principal groups:

1. Members of our local Church

2. The Baptized who have fallen away,

3. Those who do not know Christ or those who have rejected him.

Then Larry talked about Chapter 1 and he exhorted us to purposely pursue someone in one of those categories.

In Chapter 2 the Holy Father sets up the rest of the document, Chapter 2 is pivotal because he gives kind of a state of the world address in which this Gospel must be spread. He divides the chapter into two parts and last week we talked about the state of the culture of our world, the state of the globe in other words. This week we’re going to talk about the state of the hearts of the individual pastoral worker. We are a part of that group. And think about the heart in the sharings we’ve had tonight about the heart.

First he defines who a pastoral worker is and says it is the ordained or the consecrated as well as the laity. Then he affirms and acknowledges those people. So if the Pope were here he would tell us that he is grateful for what we’ve done for the Church around the world. He said that people in the group that includes us, who are working for Christ, have had an enormous contribution in today’s Church. I just want everybody to know that if the Pope were here he would say that to us. I humbly look out amongst each and every one of you and I realize the affect that each of you have had. Each of you has sacrificed to spread the joy of the Gospel already. And keep in mind then that Pope Francis has not forgotten all that has been accomplished and neither should we. So strap yourselves in, buckle your seatbelts and see if any of this strikes accord with you, because it did with me.

No to selfishness and sloth

So first of all, he said “No to selfishness and spiritual sloth.” So what is that? He says, “Today we are seeing in many pastoral workers, including consecrated men and women, an inordinate concern for their personal freedom and relaxation (which leads them to see their work as a mere appendage to their life, as if it were not part of their very identity).” He says, “At a time when we most need a missionary dynamism that will bring salt and light to the world, many lay people fear that they may be asked to undertake some apostolic work and they seek to avoid any responsibility that may take away from their free time. [As a result, one can observe in many agents of evangelization,] even though they pray (these people, all of us as pastoral workers are praying we or) they have a heightened sense of individualism, a crisis of identity and a cooling of fervor.”

Then he also says, “Around the world the Church’s message is met with a certain skepticism and cynicism and so we need to apologize for that.” And although workers pray -- remember he said we are a praying people -- we develop a sort of inferiority compels which leads to relativism and a tendency to conceal our Christian identity and devotions, and this is a vicious cycle because it weakens our spirit, stifles our joy and drowns it out with the need to be more like everybody else.” So we have to ask ourselves: in what ways do I cling too tightly to my free time and have I developed an inferiority complex giving into the need to fit in and be more like everyone else?

No to sterile pessimism

The next is to say no to sterile pessimism. In paragraph 84 he says not to look to the prophets of doom that the end of the world is at hand. God is still turning water into wine and the Holy Spirit is still in the world working as powerfully as he ever was. Even if our own personal light has grown dim God is still reigning. Refuse to be a defeatist or a sourpuss. Now I don’t know what language the Pope wrote this in, he could have written it in Spanish, Italian or Latin, but whatever he did, the word was translated into “sourpuss” and we can all get an image of what that means and this is what he said: “Nobody can go off to a battle unless he is fully convinced of victory beforehand… The evil spirit of defeatism is brother to the temptation to separate, before its time, the wheat from the weeds; it is the fruit of an anxious and self-centered lack of trust.”

Yes to the new relationships

The third thing is say “yes to the new relationships brought by Christ.” Okay folks, this has CCGD written all over it! Listen to what he said, “This could just be for us” and it is unlike the Lord to just say, “Okay, I’m going to do this for those folks in Dallas.” He said to use communication advances toward the good, use them to reach out in solidarity to others. “To go out of ourselves and to join others is healthy for us. To be self-enclosed is to taste the bitter poison of immanence, and humanity will be the worst for every selfish choice we make.” I looked up the word “immanence” and it means “remaining within.”

In Paragraph 88 he says that encountering others is the only way to resist temptation to stick only to a close circle of friends. In Paragraph 90 he says: “Be with others in devotion; don’t just make all your prayer private.” Paragraph 91: “…find Jesus in the faces of others, in their voices, in their pleas. And learn to suffer in the embrace of the crucified Jesus whenever we are unjustly attacked or met with ingratitude, never tiring of our decision to live in fraternity.” Paragraph 92: “It is a fraternal love capable of seeing the sacred grandeur of our neighbor... Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of community!” Those are Pope Francis’ words – not mine.

No to spiritual worldliness

He then says, “No to spiritual worldliness.” Our pastoral work must be solely for God’s glory not our own. Then he says a very complicated thing, but he says: “This worldliness can be fueled by two deeply interrelated ways. The first is gnosticism …the other is self-absorbed promethean neopelagianism (of those who ultimately trust only in their own powers and feel superior to others.)” And basically the bottom line of that is: “Don’t be a Pharisee or a Sadducees. Don’t think that you know everything or that your way is the best. “A supposed soundness of doctrine or discipline leads instead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism, whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying.”

No to division

The last thing he talks about is “no to division.” He said, “We have too much to do to war against ourselves, either in our churches or within the Christian church or in the world in general. Reconcile with each other and do it today.” So the theme I think of this second chapter can be broken down into this: that evangelists must break free from the grip of selfishness, pessimism, individualism, worldliness and division.

I have just attempted to skim the surface of this second half of Chapter 2. It covers thirty-three paragraphs and one of the goals of these teachings is to encourage all of us to go deeper.  I encourage you all to get this book, which is on sale out in the foyer, or if you don’t want to do that it can be downloaded for free from the Internet. You can download sections. If you don’t know how to do that or if your printer is out of ink or if you don’t have a printer, ask someone who does and I’m sure they would be happy to do it for you.

Because it’s so rich and because I don’t want this particular part to go by the wayside and be caught up without further study, I took five quotes that we didn’t have a lot of time to spend on and a copy of these pages are out on the table (and below.) I have put a line out in front of each of the numbers so that you can challenged yourself to check them off this week as you take them to your prayer time, check off each one of these that you’ve contemplated. I also encourage you to just take the time in the name of fraternity to call a brother or sister and talk about one of these, or schedule a coffee or ask someone over to your house for coffee and talk about one or go for a walk and chat about one or all of these things and just see how the Lord is speaking to us as a body, because I think it is very important.

Stripping off the paint and varnish

I close with this story. As a child my mom and dad used to love to go to antique stores. They would scour sales and they’d put all of us kids in the car and we’d all go to these places and look at really old furniture. They especially loved wood furniture. My dad would always point out solid wood pieces that had superior craftsmanship. He just had an eye to know what was built well. They’d often buy old chairs or tables or dressers and bring them home to restore them. What was involved in that would be stripping off old paint or varnish or finish or stains that had been put on to get down to the original wood. Paint was always the worst because it was so hard to remove without hurting the wood beneath. I remember one time they bought three pieces of furniture and brought them home and found it impossible to get all the layers off. So they took it to a professional place that literally had a vat of chemicals and they dipped the piece of furniture into this vat and all of the paint and all of the layers of varnish were stripped of and they brought it home and they refinished it. I promise I’m going to get to a point. Currently, my dad is helping to restore a train car at a train museum in Frisco and it was the train car of Harry Truman, his state car that he used on his presidential campaign, and because it wasn’t taken care of, there were holes in the roof of this car and it sat outside for years and years and years and was damaged by rain, Originally it was a beautiful car of solid mahogany. My dad showed me last night this door that he had stripped down to the original wood, and stained with mahogany. It was absolutely stunning.

I think that we can use this analogy to exam ourselves as pastoral workers. First, the Lord has made us solid. We are made of superior wood and his craftsmanship is impeccable. All of us have lived a lot of life, and we’ve been covered with color and paint and varnish for years. Each rendition of ourselves, I’m sure, has been beautiful. But sometimes -- and I think Lent is an excellent time -- we are called to take stock. We are called to strip away at the layers that have been built up and get down to the raw wood so that the Lord can begin again, anew.

The Pope closes with challenges and I’m going to close with what I did last week because it’s the end of Chapter 2 he says: “Challenges exist to be overcome! Let us be realists, but without losing our joy, our boldness and our hope-filled commitment. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of our missionary vigor!”

Significant quotes to study:

“Today we are seeing in many pastoral workers, including consecrated men and women, an inordinate concern for their personal freedom and relaxation, which leads them to see their work as a mere appendage to their life, as if it were not part of their very identity.” (78)

“Pastoral workers can thus fall into a relativism which…proves even more dangerous than doctrinal relativism.  …This practical relativism consists in acting as if God did not exist, making decisions as if the poor did not exist, setting goals as if others did not exist, working as if people who have not received the Gospel did not exist.” (80)

“At a time when we most need a missionary dynamism which will bring salt and light to the world, many lay people fear that they may be asked to undertake some apostolic work and they seek to avoid any responsibility that may take away from their free time.” (81)

“The problem (why the pastoral worker is clinging to free time) is not always an excess of activity, but rather activity undertaken badly, without adequate motivation, without a spirituality which would permeate it and make it pleasurable.  As a result work becomes more tiring than necessary…. Far from a content and happy tiredness, this is a tense, burdensome, dissatisfying and, in the end, unbearable fatigue.” (82)

 “And so the biggest threat of all gradually takes shape, ‘the gray pragmatism of the daily life of the Church in which all appears to proceed normally, while in reality faith is wearing down and degenerating into small mindedness.’  A tomb psychology thus develops and slowly transforms Christians into mummies in a museum.” (83)

Community Gathering, February 14, 2016

Witness: How a Presbyterian became a Charismatic Lutheran and our CCGD brother

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by Don Farmer

On the way home last week, after hearing Scott Harmon’s mountain-top or at least auditorium-top testimony, I told Gail that I felt sorry for the next person that had to share. Then I said, “Oh wait, that’s me.”

My name is Don Farmer and I’m a charismatic Lutheran but I didn’t start out that way.

I grew up in a small town in southwest Michigan near the Indiana border, nearly within view of the Golden Dome and Touchdown Jesus, if you’re familiar with Notre Dame. My father, while non-committal about organized religion, was a good and moral man. He did not object to my older brother and me being raised in a church. When it came to actually going to church, he was a CE Christian. Not C&E, that’s Christmas and Easter. He just went on Christmas Eve.

Mother faithfully taught us

My mother, who passed last year at the age of 99, on the other hand, was staunchly Presbyterian and the driving force in faith in our family. As with many aspects of her life, she was all in. She faithfully taught children’s and later adult Sunday school, and served on various boards and committees, often in leadership positions. She also made sure that my older brother and I were in Sunday school each week, sat through church with her, and participated in the various youth activities. Sunday school, choir, youth groups, vacation bible school, church camp -- we did it all.

Even the annual family vacation and marathon driving event wasn’t a vacation from church. We’d faithfully find a Sunday church service in the nearest town, usually but not always Presbyterian, and she’d get a note from the minister or church secretary stating that we had visited so we could keep the string going for another year’s perfect attendance award.

Choices in the 1960s

So what did I do when I went off to the University of Michigan? Well, I might have gone right on with perfect church attendance, but I saw it as an escape from well-meaning but forced religion. Like many of my 1960s cohorts, the trip off to college meant that I could choose when and if I was going to stay engaged in the faith. I didn’t necessarily stop believing but I tried to move farther and farther away from organized religion. Not to the extent of considering atheism but agnosticism was a comfortable alternative to making a commitment.

While others went into the eastern religions, that wasn’t for me. I have to admit that there are some oriental philosophies that can be interesting, but even in the 60s, sporting saffron robes, a shaved head and a begging bowl at the airport didn’t have any appeal for me. My patron saint became St. Luke. Not Luke the Physician but his familiar cousin Luke Warm.

But, looking back now, I can see that this rebellious young man really didn’t move all that far away from his basic Christian upbringing.

Catholic relationship leads to marriage

At any rate, after 4 years of relatively undistinguished academic life, I had my Bachelor’s degree but still didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life. I was dating a young Catholic woman from another college who I had met in my senior year and we were considering marriage. She had also just graduated and had a job. On the urging of one of my major professors, I decided to go to grad school.

It was the beginning of the height of the Viet Nam War and grad school was a path that many of my generation took. The military draft was still in place and exemptions were being taken away, including the one for post-graduate studies. In fact, I was only allowed to start grad school after taking a qualifying test and my student draft exemption was only guaranteed for one year. But one year was one year during that time of forced service in an unpopular war.

I also got a graduate teaching assistantship that had a nice little stipend. More education seemed better than either the military or trying to find a job where I could actually use the education. At the end of that school year, the draft exemption was taken away. My then fiancée and I were married in the Catholic Church but I did not convert. Two weeks later, I received my draft notice and within two months I was in the Army.

I won’t bore you with details of my service. Let’s just say that God must have been watching out for me because I didn’t have to serve in Viet Nam. I had orders to go there at one point, even getting as far as an overseas replacement center on the West Coast before being reassigned stateside and later to Germany. Two years later I was promoted back to civilian life and returned to graduate school.

Casualty of war

While I didn’t have go to war, I believe my marriage was, in part, a war casualty because two years of intermittent separation at the start of a marriage doesn’t help two still-immature people build a solid relationship. Collateral damage, you might say. We were at fault too. We had two children but focused on careers, life’s other distractions and, not least of all, only a nominal commitment to faith contributed to the end of the marriage as well.

We went to Mass occasionally and we saw to it that both the boys were baptized, but there was no real commitment beyond that. Details of those years and the collapse of the marriage aren’t important now but after twelve years of marriage, I was a single father trying to raise two young sons and stuck in a profession that I no longer wanted to do. In an abnormally normal family, I was the first to be divorced. I was the black sheep of the family.

I tried to find solace in long distance running and consuming ample quantities of beer. Despite that, God was still at work in my life.

When I say at work, I mean that literally. Despite the mess that my life had become, I wasn’t looking for religion and I wasn’t looking for love. But somehow, in midst of all my troubles, God had managed to sneak some influential people into my office when I wasn’t looking.

Lutheran influence begins

First, there was a young woman working part-time in our drafting department while she completed her college degree. We became acquaintances, then friends and eventually, she invited me to go to the church that she was attending. That church just happened to be the Lutheran Church in my neighborhood. There were also two co-workers, one of whom I had gone to graduate school with, who lived in my immediate neighborhood and were active members of that same Lutheran Church. I figured that, if these two regular softball playing, beer-drinking guys were members of the church, I might as well give it a shot. We began to attend church services together. It turned out that there were other normal people there too. The pastor and his wife weren’t above doing a little match-making so they saw to it that we began to go to an evening bible study together too.

You’ve probably realized by now that Gail is the young lady and, if you heard her testimony, you know that she was involved with the ecumenical Word of God Community in Ann Arbor. We had an on-again, off-again relationship. Usually it was more off than I wanted and more on than she did but it grew over time and some things happened along the way.

Need to know God

First, during an off period, I decided that I was going to continue going to the church regardless of where our relationship stood. I committed to attending instructional classes and joining the church. Of course, I was very happy when we started seeing each other again.

Second, I mentioned earlier that part of my self-therapy was running and I did that obsessively nearly every day. One beautiful summer evening as I was finishing up a long run along the river near sunset, I decided that I just needed to tell God that I needed some reassurance. I said, “If you’re really there, I need to know it.” Almost immediately, I heard the words, “I never left you.”

You can’t argue with that kind of service.

Even though it had been a long run and most of the rest of the way back to my house was up hill, my feet were as light as they had ever been. I’m not sure if it was the next day or not, but when I told Gail about my experience I found out that she had been looking for a sign too but she was looking for a sign about continuing our relationship. She had given God a deadline to provide it. Being a timeless God, he had waited until the last day. I have to believe He’s got a sense of humor too.

Life in the Spirit

During another one of those off relationship periods, unbeknownst to Gail, a neighbor and Word of God member who had earlier taken me to Men’s Breakfast, asked me to attend a Life in the Spirit series. There were refreshments served after the first session and wouldn’t you know it, Gail was one of the servers. She was more surprised to see me than I was to see her. I went on to complete the course, was baptized in the Spirit and received the gift of tongues, although to this day it remains more a private than public form of prayer for me.

Whether it was God’s timing or mine, I still wasn’t ready for community life. Perhaps not coincidentally, I later found out that the Word of God Community was going through some growing pains of its own at that time and they weren’t ready for me either.

Our relationship continued to grow. Gail graduated from college and we got engaged. Recognizing, among other things, that a marriage with only one partner in community meant being unequally yoked, Gail voluntarily left the Word of God Community with their blessing and we were married shortly after that. About a year later, I took a job with EDS and we moved, first to Des Moines, Iowa, for a little more than a year, then to Dallas.

As Gail noted in her testimonial, we didn’t immediately find, or even look for a charismatic community when we moved to Dallas but I knew that she missed her community life. Personally, I still wasn’t ready for that involvement and commitment. Another new city, a new career and a challenging child in a still young marriage were about all I thought I could handle. Looking back, some Community support could have helped.

God’s Delight

Over time, even I became increasingly aware that our spiritual life was lacking despite the fact that we were actively involved in our church. We eventually learned about this Community through one of Gail’s former Word of God roommates. We started attending Wednesday night gatherings here at Mount St. Michael being run by Community young adults. Somehow, many of those young single adults are now married, parents and, in some cases, grandparents. A number are Community leaders, even Coordinators.

Soon, we moved to the Sunday gatherings. We went through the Life in the Spirit Seminar (second time for both of us), and Foundation teachings (first time for me). I think we’ve been in some sort of small group ever since. After nearly 25 years in Community, we’re still Lutherans but this Community has been, and is, an essential part of our Christian walk. Gail talked about it being oxygen to keep the fire going. I certainly agree with that.

I also need to say that, for me, there is a necessary balance of worship, praise and fellowship that I only find through the combination of Community prayer meetings, our small group and worship at our church. Can I have an Amen?

Community Gathering, July 17, 2016

Witness: How I met Jesus in three episodes

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How I met Jesus in three episodes

By Scott Harmon

Praise the Lord! I want to tell you how I met Jesus. When we talk about how I met Jesus, we talk about the three episodes, but I have to give you a little prequel first.

I was raised as a Methodist and when I met Jimann I knew nothing about the Catholic Church, nothing about Masses. I knew that Catholics had big families. One thing I told her, when we first met, was that if we were going to get married, we were only to have two kids and that was it. A few years into being married we had two little children and we started to strengthen our marriage. We joined the Marriage Encounter movement of the 1970s and in 1975 we were at Bishop Lynch High School in the summer and at a five-state regional conference there. As things were going along we went to meet in one of the classrooms with someone who was going to give us a talk. As he was talking, he started telling about how he and his co-worker were discussing problems they had at work. His co-worker said "let's pray together." And they sat across the table from each other and held hands.

Then the co-worker began to pray in tongues. I assumed Spanish or Russian or something I don't know. But when he said that, something happened to me. It was as though someone had taken the volume knob on the radio and turned it down and I could hear not a sound. This very strong booming voice said, "I have a quest for your life." He told me what it was and I just sat there. He said it a second time, and I said, "How could I possibly do this?" He said it a third time and then the volume was turned back up, I could hear the chairs squeaking and everything else going on. I went outside. I thought I cried a little bit -- Jimann said I was bawling -- because I thought somewhere I had heard that if you see the face of God you go blind and if you hear his voice you go deaf. Well I didn't go deaf, and what he said stayed with me.

In the following summer of 1976, our Marriage Encounter group had turned into a small community. We even had a name for it: The Family of God. We met with other families and it was just a really awesome time. We were calling each other to be stronger Christians – for our children, for each other and our spouses. One of our families started going to something they called a prayer meeting at Bishop Lynch. I knew Jimann wanted to go, but it was on Sunday evening and I didn't want to go.

At the same time I was taking information classes at St. Mark's Church because I decided that I needed to find out more about the Catholic faith. Father Bechard was the mediator of this, his talks. One Tuesday night he began talking about this prayer meeting that he had been going to. If you know Fr. Bechard, he has a beautiful singing voice, but he started talking about how beautiful it was when these people would sing in tongues. And again that word was there. I can't really say that I immediately knew something, but something happened.

The following Sunday we were driving home and I can see it as clearly as I see you there. On Central Expressway, going over Renner Road, I turned to Jimann and I said, "I know you want to go to this prayer meeting thing, If we go tonight do you want to go?" She agreed and I said, "But we are not going to get involved in anything else." So our friends came and picked us up and it wasn't at Bishop Lynch, but it was at McFarlin Auditorium. To the best of my knowledge I had never been inside of McFarlin Auditorium prior to that time.

Episode One

We went and I was just observing things. I would see people raise their hands and all this. Then they started screaming and shouting and they started saying things that I could not understand. The only time I had ever witnessed something like that before in my life was as a kid seeing some kind of devil worship. I thought. “I have got to get out of here and get Jimann with me because God is going to punish us for being here.” About that time I realized something was pulling on me. As I gripped the arms of the seat, I realized that I was no longer in my seat. I was looking down at the man I had seen a little ways in front of me and I realized he had a bald head. I didn't know that. I was taken to the very top of McFarlin Auditorium. The first thing I noticed was all the plaster work up there, very ornate, and then I was seeing these little beings on that plaster work. The only thing I could say they looked like was maybe little babies, but they had wings and they had curly hair and some of them were flying around and they were all excited about something.

Then I saw a cloud in front of me and as that cloud came towards me and opened up. My Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was standing in front of me. He came to me and he asked me, "Why do you deny my place in your life?" I said, "Well, I know who you are, you're Jesus, and you're the Son of God." He said, "Now, why do you deny my place in your life? When you do, you are denying a third of all of God and when you deny the Holy Spirit a place in your life you are denying two-thirds of God."

What I saw in front of me was not like all the pictures I had seen in churches. He was not blond-haired and blue-eyed. He had an olive complexion. He had dark curly hair and a curly beard that had some kind of either oil or water on it. He had eyes that when he looked at me, I knew they went right to the very depths of my soul. He had on this brilliant white linen robe. That robe, to this day, I swear, all I wanted to do was bury my face in that robe and cling to him. He talked to me a little bit and I began to have a fuller understanding of what the Trinity of God was. I realized that I had excluded him and his Holy Spirit, which again I didn't know a whole lot about in my life. I made a choice then. It was as though I could see him in a way that I could have never seen him before. Slowly I went down into my seat. We called that Episode 1. Instead of thinking about going back the next week that is all I could think about. I just wanted to get back there and see what happened again. And we went back and it was Episode 2.

Episode Two

In Episode 2, I again met with Jesus in an out –of-body experience. Again I saw that robe and I so wanted to just go to him and grab that robe, but I was suspended in mid air and he was on the cloud. He began to teach me things about the Bible and things that I don't think humanly I could have ever understood. It cleared up a lot of misunderstandings I had about our relationship with God. I was lowered back into my seat and we talked and decided we wanted to go to this information meeting they were holding. And the gentleman took us. He said we were going to go somewhere quieter and he took us in the elevator up to the second balcony in McFarlin Auditorium. Until I had been taken up there the previous week, I had no idea there was a second balcony up there. But as I sat and looked around, I saw all the ornate plaster work that I had seen and I began to question what was going on. I actually began to wonder if this is what it was like when you lose your mind, because I was having so much trouble separating what I thought was reality and what all was happening to me.

We went home that night with our friends as we had the previous week and we stayed up until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning just talking about everything. Until I was writing this I never really thought about it, but we were saying in so many words, “Wasn't our heart burning within us just like the two men on the way to Emmaus when they met Jesus?” Well, if you think I was excited about the first two weeks I was even more excited to get back the third week, but I really had no idea what was coming.

Episode Three

When we walked into McFarlin Auditorium from the foyer into the seating area I began to hear babies cry, I mean there were just babies everywhere crying and I looked around and I didn't see babies. I said to Jimann, "Do you hear all those babies?" She said she didn't hear any. About halfway through the meeting, by the way, I did kind of raise my hands like this.

Halfway through the meeting the elders up on the stage said that we were going to have a holy prayer session. We went out into the foyer and there were 12 people lined up and you could go to any one of them for prayer. I went to this gentleman and, as much as I wanted a prayer, I wanted to go and see the man I had seen down on the stage. I worked at Southwestern Life and he worked for EDS. They were installing software for our company. There was something different about this man, I knew it from the first moment I met him. I went to see him once and on his desk was this paperweight. I didn't even know what it was at first, but I do know it was a laughing Jesus. I had never seen anything like that before. The man's name was Joe Tinker. I was told that he would probably be down on the stage. So I started down the aisle and as I got closer to the stage on the very front row, the crying was getting louder and louder and louder in my ears.

I looked over and there was a young woman sitting there, maybe late teens or early 20s. I started to go up on the stage and the Lord said, "I want you to go sit by her.” This has never happened to me before, but I was going to try to do what he said so I went over and sat by her. All I could think about was that Jimann was sitting some rows up behind me, what was she going think? Then he said, "I want you to put your arm around her and comfort her." Well I did and she turned and she buried her head in my chest. I mean this woman was weeping! If you know me, you understand the first thing I thought about was how wet my shirt was getting. Then he gave me a first person prophecy for her. Not really knowing what all was going on, I couldn't say it. I had the freedom to, but I wasn't going to say it. I did tell her that Jesus knew all about her sins. As that happened, visions began to flood my mind of what she had done and I saw what she had done. I really wanted to comfort her and I really wanted her to know that those things were okay. I told her that Jesus forgave every sin she had ever committed, that she was freed and she was clean. I told her that she could leave knowing that she could start her life anew and that none of that meant anything, I told her not to do it anymore, but she had been washed clean. Those words weren't mine. And when I said these things to her, she stopped crying. She turned and looked at me. Her face was glowing and I knew then that there was no doubt that she wasn't seeing my face; she was seeing the face that I had seen on that cloud. I started to get up and Jesus spoke to me, and he said, "Would you lead your family for me?" I thought, "Yes, I would." He said, "Would you stand up and walk out of this auditorium right now and never look back at your wife or your two babies?" The words I said I later read in the scriptures, I said, "Lord, I don't know where else to go." He said, "Then your wife and your family are yours and they can never be taken away from you." We left.

We went back, and this time the information area was in a big room with just some chairs and things. As we were going back there I realized that whenever someone would brush up against me I would have these visions about that person -- good things, bad things. One particular teenage girl kept brushing up against me. We went into the room and I actually kind of stood there for a minute and waited until I saw where she was going to sit so I could sit on the other side of the room. Then it was over and he said let's stand up and hold hands in a circle and pray. Well I was on my side and she was on her side and then she dropped the hands of the people she was holding and walked straight across the circle and took my hand and stood by me. Again things were flooding me and when it was over, I turned to her and I told her that her mother was going through a lot of problems and I knew she didn't understand them, but God did and that her mother needed her support. I told her specifics and she was saying, "That's right, how do you know this?" and would say "I don't know," but God wants you to support your mother through this.

As we were walking out, you know of course, now Jimann is questioning me about what is going on. I am trying to explain to her what I don't understand. So we walk out into the foyer and a man was standing in the corner. If you have ever been into the foyer of McFarlin Auditorium you know there is a corner where you have to walk about 20 feet this way to doors and maybe 30 feet this way to doors. The man was standing in that corner and he was not a usual man. He was about 6 foot 8 inches and I'd guess about 300 to 320 pounds -- all muscle. I said, "I have to talk to him." We made our way over to him and I said, "Excuse me, but I think I'm supposed to come talk to you." He said, "I've been waiting for you. God is calling you and Satan is going to try to take you back. When he does, you tell him, 'Satan get thee back to the pits of hell where you belong.'" I have said that so many times over the years. We turned to walk away from him and I thought I need to ask him another question. When we turned back, he wasn't there. I took two steps away and he wasn't there. We both thought "Oh, that's unusual."

We went home and we were talking to our folks on the way home and everything. I was sitting there that night at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning and one of our friends put her hand on my arm. All of a sudden I knew things, and I started talking to her about them. On the ride home, Jimann was very angry with me. She said, "You can talk this stuff to all these strangers, but when you start talking to our friends, that is embarrassing. I don't want you doing this anymore." I said, "Well, I don't know what to do." The next morning I woke up and I had a first-person prophecy for her and I wouldn't say it. I had lunch that afternoon with Joe Tinker and he and I talked about all the things going on. He told me checks and balances to do when I thought it was Jesus speaking to me or when it wasn't. I did all the things he said and it came back – I was supposed to say it. That night at dinner we were eating and I told Jimann what had happened that morning and I told her what the message was: "Woman, again shall thy womb be filled." She grabbed my arm and said, "I have been praying to God that if all this stuff is real then he would use you to tell me whether we can have more children." We have six. So, I thank you.

(Community Gathering, July 10 2016)

Remembering Diane Kollmansberger and her writings

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Margaret Diane Kollmansberger was born May 10, 1941, in Dallas, Texas to Margaret Elizabeth Cox and Charles Joseph Tucek Jr. (brother of Msgr. James Tucek) and died on August 3, 2016, in McKinney, TX. Diane grew up in Oak Cliff and attended St. James Catholic School and Our Lady Of Good Counsel High School. She was a graduate of East Texas State University in Commerce where she pursued her dream of teaching elementary special education children for Garland ISD. She was married to Anthony (Tony) Kollmansberger where she raised 10 children. She loved her church, The Community of God's Delight, family and friends, and her beloved husband Tony. Her children are Dusty Reichert, Dennis Reichert, Kurt Kollmansberger, Douglas Reichert, Keith Kollmansberger (deceased), Chris Kollmansberger, Debora Murray, Kevin Kollmansberger, Joshua Reichert and Benjamin Reichert. She had 23 grandchildren and 41 great-grandchildren to leave a legacy.

Diane taught us many things in our journey in life, spiritually and physically. How our relationship with the Lord and with people were that journey. In her last days, she would remind us that, "God will take you where you've never been to deliver what He wants you to do."

   Here are Diane’s contributions to the PTL and the website:

Gall to Drink by Diane Kollmansberger

(Praise the Lord! August/September 1994)

They gave him a drink of wine with gall, which he tasted but refused to drink. (Matt. 27:34)

Reflecting on this verse from Matthew stirred up thoughts within me. As a matter of fact, gall-flavored wine is offered to me in my thoughts more often than I care to admit. These thoughts will sometimes consume me, keeping me from the light of Jesus and his words. What is this gall, which I have chosen to drink? It is memories from long ago that place me as a victim of someone else. These memories, which I reconstruct, give me power over my "enemy." I will in fact share these memories with others when I need sympathy or want to share a better story. You can be sure, the scenario will place me advantageously with my opponent and, depending on my need at the time, portray me as a wise, loving individual and the other as a gruff ogre.

One amazing fact about gall: It seems to stay with you forever. Why is it I cannot remember tomorrow's dental appointment, or yesterday's dinner menu? I can, however conjure up incidents that occurred as a young child which will portray me as "poor pitiful Pearl." One thing is for sure, all of us are offered wine flavored with gall in our lives, and usually on a daily basis.

Sometimes, the Lord brings these incidents to mind in order to perform his miraculous healing of memories. When this is the case, we can chose to give these memories to him, at which time he will bring us tremendous peace, allowing us to forgive the other and love them with his love. This can be a special time in our relationship with Jesus and with our fellow man. However, the Lord is in control; we are not.

When Jesus was offered this wine flavored with gall, he was in tremendous pain, vulnerable to the offer. He could have received the wine, justifying that it would make him feel better. He did, however, refuse and we must as well. Reveling in pain and hurt will never make us feel better, even when we place ourselves as the winner. The past is the past, and should remain there to be forgiven and healed. Forgiveness and healing allow God to hold us in the hollow of his hand, loving us with a gentle Father's love.

When we are offered a drink of wine flavored with gall we are given two choices. We can taste and accept, keeping the memory frozen in time. Or we can taste and refuse to drink, allowing the Lord to use it for our good. I take comfort in the fact that I am given the choice. With God's strength, I will refuse.

Fear of the Lord

by Diane Kollmansberger
(Praise the Lord! October/November 1994)

Fear of the Lord — The very words would cause me to shiver. How is it that we are asked to fear the one that we are so wont to love? Fear and love would appear to be dichotomous. I am afraid of the dark. I fear heights. I fear the sharp teeth of my neighbor's German Shepherd. Love is not wasted on any of these, at least not by me. I love and cherish my husband. I love and nurture my children. I love my brothers and sisters in the Lord. Yet never once have I had any cause to fear them. The fear/love of God has always perplexed me.

Reading in Proverbs shed a little light on this mystery — very little, I might add. Proverbs 8:13 reads, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil."Likewise, God makes promises galore in his word to those who fear him. His promises alone were enough to entice my fear, if that is what he wanted. We are promised prosperity, land, friendship, wisdom, goodness, kindness, deliverance from death and the list goes on. Promises, however, did not explain the need for fear, nor how to achieve it.

The dichotomy began to close as I read one of the most wonderful, if not the longest love songs ever written. Psalm 119 (all 176 verses) revels in David's love of the law. David's passion for obedience to the law, his delight in meditating on God's law day and night induced the same enthusiasm within my heart. It also revealed a little secret to me, which I will share with you. Is not the hatred of evil and love of the law the same thing? If I love the law with all my heart, if I consider its wonders, if I am consumed with longing for the ordinances of God, I am hating the evil, which is what he requires of me.

God's generosity did not stop there. The Lord continued to answer the longing in my heart and did not leave me wondering. After all, if I love the law, and treasure its promises, how could I help but love the fulfillment of the law. Yes, Jesus, with all my heart, I seek you. You are the theme of my song, for those who love you receive light and great peace.

Fear of the Lord is a joy to me now. Fear of the Lord is nothing more than loving our dear Savior. How could I have been so confused?

Trust in Agony by Diane Kollmansberger
(Praise the Lord! December 1994/January 1995)

What is the purpose of pain? This is a question we ponder when we are in the midst of it. Unlike wisdom, kindness and gentleness, we are not prone to seek her (pain), nor the advantages of say, pain vs. pleasure. And yet, she approaches each one of us, changing us physically, mentally and emotionally. We are affected by her presence within our own person and within our brothers and sisters.

C. S. Lewis states, "God whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain." Sometimes the Lord uses our brothers and sisters to do the shouting, giving us an opportunity to respond and grow through their pain. Such was the case of Bee.

Bee is an eleven-year-old girl who came to me quite unexpectedly. She had moved with her family from Nebraska. Unable to function in a regular academic setting, she was sent to my classroom for children with emotional problems. Bee was an abused child, mentally challenged, and searching for a place where she could be accepted and learn to grow. The first few days were a struggle, as I tried to find a niche for Bee. Her limited academic skills were easy to deal with. Her abused emotions were difficult to address.

One afternoon, as I was attempting to give Bee directions, she began to swing at me and shouted, "You don't know nothin' about my life!" It became necessary to restrain Bee, and it was awhile before she was calm enough to resume activity. However, her words kept shouting at me. For it was true, "I didn't know nothin" about Bee's life, for her life was too painful. There were too many variables to sort through. Finding a niche for her was too difficult.

What was the purpose of Bee's pain? maybe, it was only to awaken me to the actuality of her distress. However, I suspect it was more than that. Besides awakening me to the pain of a young girl, I was motivated to question its purpose. Sheldon Vanauken expresses in one of his books that, like Jesus, we can "trust in agony," giving pain meaning and power. It begins by my trusting that God is changing Bee into the young woman he wants her to become. Likewise, I know that trusting the God of Bee's pain opened a door of love for her, allowing her to say, "I love you." If I allow pain to be master, I become its slave. But believing and choosing to trust, I place myself at the service of the God of pain, and as Master, he transforms the facade into that which "can be considered genuine," genuine love for him.

Spring is here! by Diane Kollmansberger
(Praise the Lord! February/March 1995)

Spring is here with its obvious and beautiful changes. Blossoms burst forth, the earth turns green and a sense of wellness and loveliness is within us. Spring is a time when young men and women take breathless looks at one another. Likewise, graduates are making decisions, which will likely affect them the rest of their lives. However, those of us who have decided to marry (or not to marry) and have graduated and made our career choices are no less reflective.

Opportunities for change approach God's people creatively and realistically, much like spring bursts forth from God's earth. Change can be detrimental or life-giving, frightening or wonderful. We can reach out for change or run from the moment. As Christians, we should pray for change. We can pray that we will become world travelers (fantasy) or that we might be more loving persons (reality). Traveling is adventurous, exciting and mind broadening. Loving gives birth to passion, serenity, delight, foresight, compassion and affection. Fantasy opens our minds to creative ideas, dreams, desires. Reality opens our souls to painful and pleasant beginnings. Both are wonderful and life-giving, much like spring.

Momentous decisions for Jesus are empowering and powerful. Once our resolution has been completed, expect energetic and potent transformations to blossom within. Some things arrive with certainty. Spring appears each year, with its splendor and new life. Christ's life penetrates our hearts and souls, preparing us for life-giving change.

An Enriching Experience by Diane Kohlmansberger
(GodsDelight.org 2-17-13 40th Anniversary of CCGD)

A very meaningful event provided by CCGD was the Marriage Enrichment Program. It was a three-weekend study of ourselves, our spouse and the tools that would enrich our marriage. One particular weekend the weather became inclement. John and Mimi Sherwin kept in touch with the meteorology reports in order to make a decision as to whether we should stay and finish the retreat or leave early and arrive home before the snow turned to ice. The Sherwins decided we should be real troopers and continue to enrich our marriage no matter what.

As we left for home we drove the careful 20mph and arrived home safely. Tony and I quickly turned on the news to keep track of the weather. Much to our surprise we saw Phil Ward, on the highway, putting chains on his tires. The media approached him to inquire as to his mission on the highway in the storm. He explained that he had just come from a Marriage Enrichment retreat, and he found putting on tire chains "very enriching indeed."

That picture will be emblazoned on my memory forever.

Witness: Forty years at home in Community

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By Jim Weisman

I was born in Kingsville, TX, in August of 1938. I am the oldest child. Both my parents were Catholic and of German descendants. I have two sisters.

I didn't go to Catholic school because there was no Catholic school in Kingsville, at that time, but I did attend catechism weekly starting in first grade. My mother had a sister who was a nun who lived in Arkansas. Every summer she would come and visit us, until my mother became sick with a brain tumor and went into a coma. I was starting in the 6th grade when she became ill. My father took her to Houston for treatment and my sisters and I lived with my paternal grandparents. When Dad brought mother home at about six months, she was still in a coma. The tumor was inoperable.

I lived with my father. My sisters stayed at our grandparents. My father and I prayed every day that my mother would be healed. She died when I was in the 7th grade. After this experience my belief was that God was only a bookkeeper, keeping track of what we did that was either right or wrong and he didn't have any love for us. I was confirmed when I was in the 7th grade and I had no religious training after confirmation.

Big changes bring big blessings

My father remarried in 1951 and I didn’t get along with my stepmother, and that's putting it mildly. I started drinking in high school. I was getting drunk often by the time I was a senior. I went to college in Kingsville, at Texas A & I, and I continued drinking. I met Jeannine when I was a sophomore and we got married in 1960.

The best thing that I have ever done was marrying Jeannine. After graduation, we went in Army for 2 years. I was a 2nd Lieutenant. We were stationed in Ft. Gordon, GA, Ft. Monmouth, NJ, and White Sands Missile Range, NM. I continued drinking heavily, but went to Mass.

I started working with Phillips Petroleum Company in 1963 in Odessa, TX. We were transferred to Hobbs in 1965, where my son, Bobby, was born. We went back to Odessa in 1967. On the weekends we often visited with Jeannine’s aunt and uncle, Agnes and Dick Blake, in San Angelo who were charismatic. Dick used to talk to me about Jesus’ love for us and also introduced me to the Bible. We also knew a dear woman in Odessa who was very close to Jeannine, named Francis Paynter.  She was also charismatic, a stalwart Catholic and filled with the love of Jesus.

I was transferred to Borger, TX, in 1969, still drinking, but not as much. I joined the Knights of Columbus and started doing various parish ministries. I was transferred to El Dorado, AK, in 1974 and became the Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus Council there. I became dissatisfied with Phillips and my life, and I started looking for another company.

First charismatic conference

I promised Jeannine that I would take her to the charismatic conference that the CCGD had at Moody Coliseum, October of 1976, while I was still looking for a job. I got a job with Enserch Exploration here in Dallas, and we did a lot of praying before I got that job that God would direct us to the place that was best for us spiritually.

We moved to Dallas the day before the conference started. Jeannine has two sisters who are nuns, who attended the conference, and also Dick and Agnes Blake and Francis Paynter. I didn’t know until later that these people were praying for me. The first night, Friday, I thought all this crowd was crazy and if I hadn’t know some of the people who were there, I would have gotten up and left. I loved the singing and the talks, but I didn’t like the praising, the shouting and raising hands. I went to the Life in the Spirit that Saturday morning and I was touched with the Lord with the gift of tears. I cried for an hour at noon and really felt, for the first time in my life, the love of Jesus. I never will forget that conference. Some of the people that gave that Life in the Spirit were Jack Wagner, Sam and Elaine Hagley, and the Coxons. By the end of the conference, on Sunday, I was able to raise my hands a little. I started reading the Bible, stopped getting drunk. That conference totally changed my life.

A full community life

We started going to prayer meeting at Bishop Lynch; we went to another Life in the Spirit, then Formation I and II. Bill Alexander led that Formation I class. We made an Underway Covenant in November of 1977. We were in Danny Muzyka’s household. Jeannine and I started teaching the 7th grade after the prayer meetings. Paul Dorsey was in that class. I attended a training class and when the Districts were formed, I headed up a share group in District 7. After a couple of years we went into District 6, which was headed up by Jack Wagner.

Jeannine and I had always wanted to have more children and we were able to adopt our son, Craig, in 1981. We really felt that the Community was family when, after Craig’s baptism, we had a reception in our home that 81 Community men and women attended. Jack Wagner was a great influence on me. All the share group leaders attended a breakfast meeting every week with Jack in addition to our own weekly share group meeting. We also had district meetings and the share group leaders and wives, with Jack and Pat, went on trips together. We all went to Eureka Springs one year and it was a wonderful great time.

This Community has been our home for 40 years, coming this October. I have no doubt that had not the people before that conference been praying for me, I would never have attended that conference in October of 1976. I would probably have completely lost my faith and become a full-blown alcoholic.

My years in CCGD have not all been wine and roses. I was laid off five times during my time in CCGD, but I’ve always known the Lord wanted me in this Community and never considered moving, even for employment opportunities. The prayer meetings, Jeannine, and my brothers and sister in the Lord have enabled me to not become despondent or lose my love for the Lord. I pray that the Lord will bless this Community and keep it going for another 40 years. Thank you.

Community Gathering, July 31, 2016


Witness: My conversion story in three steps

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By Nancy Ward

First of all, I want to thank all of you that prayed for our Sharing Your Faith Story Evangelization Workshop, which we had yesterday at St. Michael's parish in Garland. We had a really good turnout with people from six different parishes. Thank you for that. I want to let you know the next one will be at Mary Immaculate on September 24. The flyers are outside, if you know people in that part of town that would like to come to the Sharing Your Faith Story Evangelization Workshop. I will give my witness and Larry Lenzen, the younger, will give his witness also.

Most of you know that at these seminars we give our story in three steps:

1. Who were you before your conversion or renewal or healing happened?

2. What God-moment happened to change you?

3. Who are you now? How have you changed?

Since I was asked to give my conversion story today, I am going to emphasize these three steps. That is the basic way that works the best.

Step 1 – Who was I?

I was baptized when I was one year old in my grandmother's Protestant church. I grew up going to Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Youth Group, all the things that children do when their parents are involved in the church. At 15, I quietly committed my life to the Lord at a mountaintop youth retreat. Does that sound familiar? But I didn't tell anyone about it, not the youth director, not even my mother. It was a secret between Jesus and me. I thought if I said anything about it, it would just spoil it.

Three years later, when my father suddenly died, Jesus was the one who could comfort me. I knew that he would always be there for me.

Just before my opportunity for conversion to Catholicism, I was 19, living at home and attending the university across town. I was very close to my pastor and the staff at my Protestant church because, although I had volunteered quite a bit there, I had also worked there in the office for quite a few months. They would always call me in when they needed someone to help out.

Step 2 – The God-moment

The second phase: What God-moment happened to change me? For me, it was a thunderbolt of love followed by a gradual awareness of what God wanted for me. I loved Phil before he knew that I was the one for him. We were dating in college and we tried not to get serious, but we fell deeply in love. I wanted a man with a strong faith and I knew that Phil had that strong faith. The trouble was, he was Catholic. Before he even proposed I had to ask myself, "Can I marry in his church or should I just move on? Can I live without Phil or without my church family that I love so much?"

One turning point came when I thought, “how do I tell my mother that the beautiful wedding that she had planned for me in our Protestant church, just wasn't going to happen?  (My older sister had eloped, so mom had this elaborate wedding planned for me.) That's when I realized I had made my choice.

Love quickly changed everything in my life, everything except my relationship with God. You see, how I worshipped had to be between God and me, and I couldn't change the way I worshipped him that quickly or that easily. Even though I wanted Phil and I to be united in one faith, I couldn't change the way I worshipped God that easily. Perhaps if we raised our children as Catholic I would become Catholic later. Perhaps, like my father-in-law, I would remain a Protestant married to a Catholic and that was the way it might be. My full commitment to the Catholic Church would have to come later, or not at all.

That settled, Phil and I became engaged. Our wedding plans surprised almost everyone and disappointed many. My mother urged Phil and I to go and meet with our pastor that had been so good to our family, to let him know that we were getting married in the Catholic Cathedral down the street and not our church. I remember the exaspération in that pastor's eyes when we told him our wedding plans; I will just never forget that.

So we moved on together. Phil's pastor, Fr. Andrew Burke, gave Phil and I a talk on marriage preparation and he gave me six weeks of instructions. This was before Vatican II so there was no Marriage Enrichment, marriage retreats, and no RCIA. Fr. Burke married us. It was in the Cathedral, but without Mass, under the golden wings of the Holy Spirit. It was beautiful. Somehow both families were thrilled. I was 20 and Phil was 22.

Another turning point came three years later as we were preparing to return home from the service. In those days you had to do mandatory military service for at least two years. We were making plans to come back home to Texas with a toddler and an infant. Now I had spent those almost 3 years in the service trying out the disciplines of the Catholic Church, which at that time no meat on Fridays, and trying to follow the Latin Mass. In the three cities in which we lived I marveled at the universality of the Church, the consistency of the liturgy and the instructions from three different priests. The last priest said to me "Nancy you know enough to become a Catholic. When you get home you have that priest that married you baptize you into the Catholic Church. That was the moment that I realized that I was ready, and I realized this by the peace that was in my heart. Our two sons were Catholic, it was time for me. When we got home a couple of months later, Fr. Burke conditionally baptized me, heard my first confession and gave me my First Eucharist under the golden wings of the Holy Spirit in that beautiful Cathedral. What an afternoon! I must say that my family did not attend.

Step 3 - Who am I now?

Now, I am one of those devout Catholics that I saw in Phil so many decades ago. I have never looked back, except to thank God and my mother for the strong Christian upbringing which I had. The tenets of faith that I learned and practiced as a child and growing up enabled me to leave that denomination, but not my relationship with God. I'm sure that falling in love with Phil is the only way that God the Father could ever get me into the Catholic Church. He goes to any extreme to bring up to the joy that he has for us, and I find great joy in belonging to the Catholic Church. He gives us what we need and he wraps it in what we want. I wanted a strong Christian marriage; God wanted that for me -- in the Catholic Church, so he wrapped it in an irrésistible package. I might have been happy as a Protestant married to a Catholic, but oh what joy it is to enjoy the Mass and many, many ministries with my children, and now some of my grandchildren.

How the Lord changed my life

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By Joe Walshe

My name is Joe Walshe and I have been asked to give a ten-minute testimony about my life with the Lord. In preparing for this I thought, "Well Lord, you've been so involved in my life in so many ways," so I just kind of did an outline and thought I would just touch on the highlights.

I was born in 1953, in Denison, Texas. I was baptized at St. Patrick's there. I never lived there, it was mother's hometown. I have lived in Texas pretty much all my life except for 15 months that I lived in Oklahoma City. I was raised Catholic. I attended St. Augustine School in Houston for eight years and in the eighth grade my parents were going through a divorce. At the end of the school year, my mom took me and my four siblings and moved us back to north Texas where her roots were. We moved to Irving, and that would be 1967. I was 14 and shortly after we moved to north Texas I quit going to Mass and I quit going to Mass for the next ten years.

While in high school the rock music and the hippie culture had an appeal for me and I kind of went down that path, not kind of, but I did go down that path. In my world there were two kinds of people; there were people like you that we called "straights, rednecks and goat ropers" and then there were people that I hung with. We were "hippies" or as we affectionately called each other "freaks" because that is the term society had given us, and so we were "freaks." In my senior year in high school, at age 17, I became involved in the drug scene and I did so for about the next seven years. More and more I became like the prodigal son in the parable that Jesus gave us.

What changed my life?

What changed my life? Why am I here today? It started in 1974 for that little brief period of time that I was living in Oklahoma City. One night I couldn't sleep and I needed something to read. I went across the street to a little convenience store that had a rounder full of paperback novels. I looked at every title and I narrowed it down to two, I don't remember what the title was that I didn't pick, but the book that I did pick I took back to my apartment and read it from cover to cover that night. At the end of reading that book I got down on my knees and I prayed for the forgiveness of Jesus and I asked him back into my life. The book that I read that night, I don't know if many of you ever heard of it or read it, but it was called "The Late Great Planet Earth" by Hal Lindsay. It changed my life.

I began to read the scriptures. I didn't yet go to Church because I was maintaining ties with my friends who were still "freaks" and still into the drug scene, but I knew something had changed. My faith was growing. I was being bolder about my faith and talking about the scriptures and Jesus to my friends and they thought I had flipped out and become a "Jesus freak" and I had!

In late 1976 I just sensed that God was calling me to a deeper relationship with him. I knew the only way that was going to happen was if I got away from my friends. I still love them and I still see them from time to time, but back then they were like an anchor in my life and I knew I had to break free.

Charismatic Baptists

An opportunity came for me to move to Stephenville, Texas. There I met, of all things, a group of charismatic Baptists who invited me to their little church. They called it Western Hills Baptist Church because they had helped get started by Howard Conatser and Beverly Hills Baptist Church here in Oak Cliff.  I was there every time the doors opened -- Wednesday night, Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon -- and I still looked like a hippie in this church full of rednecks, but they loved me just the same. They discipled me and helped me to grow in faith.

The next big event in my life came along. They asked me, "Do you want to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?" I said, "Yeah!" I remember that night they prayed for me and I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. The scriptures came alive like never before. Also my Catholic roots were awakened and I saw Catholicism in a whole new light. I heard the Lord saying, "You know, what you have found here, you need to return to the Catholic Church because there are people who don't know about it and you need to share what you've experienced and learned.”

The path to Life in the Spirit

In 1977 I returned to the Catholic Church. It's a good thing, too, because that's where I met Kathy at St. John the Apostle in Fort Worth. That's another big event in my life --meeting her and getting married and starting a family. That was in 1978. In 1980, we moved into Good Shepherd Parish in Garland and then came the next big event. It must have been around 1984. A couple of CCGD men were having a Men's Prayer Breakfast once a month on Saturday and I decided to go. That's where I met Mark Hennes and Ralph Jones and they latched onto me big time. They loved me, explained to me that there was more than going to Sunday Mass. Mark and Barbara Hennes invited Kathy and me to come here and we started coming and our lives have never been the same.

We started going through Life in the Spirit. Kathy was pregnant with Rachel at the time. We didn't know if we were going to make it all the way through Life in the Spirit because of the due date and getting prayed for were pretty close, but we did. That was a big event again, both of us being prayed over for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

I think later that year, later in 1985, we joined the Community and we became active almost from the get-go. We were mainly active with youth activities -- Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, JCDA, Youth Ministry -- and then later Community Life Team. But in every one of those activities we developed relationships with friends who well, they just weren't friends anymore, they were brothers and sisters in the Lord. In many ways my brothers and sisters here are closer to me than the brothers and sisters I grew up with.

Dust of the Rabbi leads us to Iraq

The next big event happened in the spring of 2012. I met a friend that I had worked with for lunch and she gave me a DVD. I probably had it for two or three months and I thought, "You know, she is going to call me up wanting this back and she is going to want to talk about it and I haven't looked at it." I decided one night to look at it and it changed my life. The name of that DVD was "In the Dust of the Rabbi." I saw the terms "disciple and discipleship" in a whole new light. I don't know how to tell you brothers and sisters how that affected us, It affected Kathy and me to the point that it laid the foundation in our lives for future decisions.

Later that year when an opportunity came to go to Iraq, we said "yes." We quit our jobs and went to Iraq. We didn't know what was going to happen, we just knew God was leading us. We were there for 7 seven weeks and then we came back. I still get teary-eyed talking about that experience, I think I left part of my heart in Ankawa. But we simplified our lives. We simplified the things that we need. We cleared out a lot of things that we owned. That was four years ago.

Holy Ghost documentaries

As I mentioned earlier tonight, I became a Kindergarten teacher and that's a lot of work, not just for me, but for Kathy also because, well, she was my best aide ever. And so we have been kind of plodding along. Then one Friday night this spring, Kathy and I didn't have anything to do, and we were browsing Netflix and a title caught my eye and I didn't even ask, her I just started playing it. She says, "What's this?" I said, "Well, it's called "Holy Ghost." Let's watch it." We watched it. It dramatically changed our lives. It's a documentary produced by a fellow by the name of Darren Wilson. Then we discovered that this isn't the only thing he did, that he has produced five of these documentaries about the faith of people all over the world and how the hand of God is moving all over the world.

We watched them all in the order that he produced them. We didn't just watch them once, we watched them two times, three times because every time we watched them it was like the Spirit of the Lord was in this, just grasping us and saying, "This is how I want you to live your life.” So what is the message of these documentaries we've been watching? It might sound a little bit like the messages here on Sunday gatherings: “Trust God. Do not be afraid to act. Trust God; have expectant faith. Love everyone. Trust God, Forgive everyone! Passionately, Passionately love the person in front of you at any moment in time. Be humble. Trust God, love God, love everyone, have expectant faith”. The people in these documentaries have a Reckless, Raging Fury of God's Love and that's what I want in my life.

In preparing for this talk I was reminded of one of my heroes, Rich Mullins. He wrote a song. I'd sing it, but I think I'd start crying and wouldn't be able to sing it. So I am just going to read to you the last couple of lyrics because in these documentaries I am telling you about or sharing with you there are a host of people who trust in God and love God. They love everyone around them in such a way that you just say, "Okay. These are models for me. If they can do it, I can do it!”

Here's a couple of verses from Rich's song: "Boy Like Me, Man Like You"

You was a boy like I was once, but was you a boy like me?
Well I grew up around Indiana, You grew up around Galilee.
And if I ever really do grow up, Lord I want to grow up and be just like you.
Well did you wrestle with a dog and lick his nose?
Did you play beneath the spray of a water hose?
Did you ever make angels in the winter snow?
 
And did they tell you stories 'bout the saints of old?
Stories about their faith?
They say stories like that make a boy grow bold.
Stories like that make a man walk straight.
 
Did you ever get scared playing hide and seek?
Did you try not to cry when you scraped your knee?
Did you ever skip a rock across a quiet creek?
 
And did they tell you stories about the saints of old?
Stories about their faith?
They say stories like that make a boy grow bold.
Stories like that make a man walk straight.
 
And I really may just grow up and be like you someday.

Brothers and sisters I recommend that you try to view these videos to see how people all over the world are responding to the promptings and guidance of the Holy Spirit.  I have no doubt that you will be challenged!  Are you up for a challenge to grow deeper in your faith?  The world waits for your response! Find them at Darren Wilson Documentaries.

(Shared at Community Gathering, August 21, 2016}

Jesus at the Post Office

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By Kathy Walshe

I would like to tell you about an experience I had a couple of weeks ago. My husband Joe and I had been watching some documentaries, and one lady on there said, "Just love the person in front of you; love the one in front of you." I thought, "Okay, Lord I'm going out, and you just put someone in front of me to meet. I'm going to minister to this person." Joe had an envelope that he needed to be sent by certified mail, so I took it and went to the Post Office.

When I got there, a gentleman, one of the homeless people, was sitting in the shade by the Post Office. He had a guitar case there, and I thought, "Oh, well that's pretty neat. He is just not asking for money; he is going to play songs for people." So as I went by I said hello to him and he said to me, "Would you like a song?" I said, "Well, I have business in the Post Office, but I will catch you on the way out." I went in, and there was this long line of people, and I had to wait. When I got to the counter the envelope that I had could not go certified mail so I knew I'd have to go home and redo the envelope. I thought, “Okay.”

When I left, I didn't know if the gentleman would be there or not, and sure enough, he was. I told him, “Well, I'm ready for my song now.” So he gave me a selection of songs that he knew, and I said. “I'll take the spiritual one." He said, "I know two." One of them was about the crucifixion, and I said, “I'll listen to that one.” There was a little ledge, and I sat down and he played this song and it just brought tears to my eyes. I was just really moved by him singing this song about Jesus crucified. When it was over he said he had a Bible there and would I like to read the scripture verses he had told me to read. And I said, "I'll go home and read them."

So he talked some more, and we chitchatted, and he said to me, "Can I ask you a question?"  I said "Okay." He said, "Who would Jesus look like to you?" I looked him in the eye -- I squatted down to look right in his eyes – he had pretty blue eyes – and I said, "You know, no one's ever asked me that question before, 'Who would Jesus look like to me.’" I looked him straight in the eye, and I said, "Jesus would look like you." He was just -- well, you could see the tears in his eyes -- just that someone would see Jesus in him. He said, “I’d like to play you another song." I said "Okay." and it was Jim Croce’s song, "I'll Have to Tell You I Love You in a Song." I thought, "He's telling me he doesn't have the words to tell me how much that means to him and how he loves me as a sister in the Lord," and so he sang that song. I thought "Lord, that is so neat, you know, that he is telling me he loves me."

We spoke a little bit more, and I put some money in his hat, and he thanked me for it, but in the end I said, "You know, well, I have go," and then I asked him, "What's your name?" He said, "My name is Jack." I told him my name and said, "Well, if I don't see you anymore down here, I'll certainly see you up in heaven."

When I got up to leave he stood up and he said, "Here, let me pray for you." He put his hand on my shoulder, and we prayed. I thought, "Thank you, Lord, not only did I ask for you to put someone in my path who I thought I would minister to, but you put someone in there who sang to me, who said they loved me, who I could see you, Jesus, looking just like this person, and he ministered to me and prayed for me."

We never know who the Lord is going to put in our path, but each day we need to be open to see, "Lord, who do you have there for me this day? How can I touch them or how will they touch me?" So thank you, Lord, for blessing me with such a wonderful experience and loving me.

(Community Gathering, 8-28-16)

Friar's Corner: This Week's Scriptures and Saints

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Friar’s Corner #798: 23rd of Ordinary Time, 9/4/16: 3rd week of Christian Prayer.

Sunday, Sep 4: Twenty-third of Ordinary Time: Wisdom 9:13-18b (Who can conceive what the Lord intends?); Ps 90:3-6, 12-17 (In every age, O lord, You have been our refuge.); Philemon 8-10, 12-17 (Receive him no longer as a slave but as a beloved brother.); Alleluia, alleluia! Let Your face shine upon Your servant; and teach me Your laws. Alleluia, alleluia! Lk 14:25-33 (Anyone of you who does not renounce all possessions cannot be My disciple.)

Have a happy and safe Labor Day weekend. Please don’t stop praying daily a Chaplet of Divine Mercy for the conversion of all terrorists. We can also pray another chaplet for our country. We certainly need God’s help. Thank you in the holy Name of Jesus. Thank you for your prayers for my missionary Ghana trip.

Theme: Is there joy in God’s wisdom?

Sorry that I have missed you in the last few weeks. I was on a mission trip to the Diocese of WA in northwestern Africa. It has certainly been an eye-opening and life-changing experience for me. I can’t get over the level of extreme poverty for so many of the people of Ghana. Yet I am told it is one of the three best countries of the 57 in Africa. In the US it would be almost destitution and just a level above sleeping in the streets or under bridges. I am still in shock. I thought this was only in the movies from the Middle Ages.

The theme this week is about wisdom that is basically about living life successfully. Worldly wisdom looks at our values and hopes for our life on earth. There are political views in cultures and countries. For instance what is politically correct. Most of us have our own physical life goals. Where do we want to live? What kind of job to make a good living? Do we want to marry and have children to be happy? And at the end of life here, is there something after this life? What and where?

Spiritual wisdom is very different. What is the revealed purpose our creator had in making us? All of these questions at some point enter our minds as we move through life. We didn’t ask to be alive and come to earth. God and our parents created us. Yet we must figure out or be told why we are here and what we are gifted to do here.

I have been talking to you about creating a little room or space in your house, away from the TV. A place where you can say a little prayer to the Holy Spirit and read little stories about Jesus from the New Testament gospels. You will learn who Jesus is and why He came to earth to show us in person that He loves us and has a wise plan for our lives. His plan will not always be easy. His plan is not where much of our country and the world are. But there will be a joy in knowing and following Jesus’ plan.

In the gospel story this weekend, Luke 14:25-33, great crowds were following Jesus on His way to Jerusalem. Many wanted to be close to Jesus as do many of us. Yet the Jews like much of the Middle East were very family oriented. Success flowed from family ties. Jesus talked about following Him, giving up those family ties and joining His "new family." Not being able to predict your future was uncertain and a little scary. It was a new adventure into the unknown. Jesus tells us that like Himself, we all will have a cross to carry behind Jesus. Our cross is just the right size for us. Yet Jesus is always there to help us.

Natural life has us leave the things from our childhood and past life to move into adulthood. We leave our parental home and begin a new life in other places. As we establish new patterns of life, we are also to deepen our daily prayer life with Jesus. We are also to share with others, who don’t know Jesus and His way, a new and joyful life to live. This call to share Jesus with others was part of our baptismal anointing. How will others know about Jesus if someone does not tell them and show them how to love Him?

In the last many months, Jesus has been preparing me to take some of what I have learned about being a teaching priest out to a broader world. He sent me to Ghana to tell many others about living a deeper life in Jesus Christ. I met new brothers and sisters in God’s family. Everyone in the world is related since there is only one creator. Last Saturday five of us priests participated in a baptism service at St. Joseph Parish,. The staff had spent three years preparing mostly young people for baptism. We baptized 390 young people for Christ. I baptized about 95. There were many other thrilling experiences that I had no idea about before I went to Ghana. I only knew the one priest, Fr. Dwight Merrick from Trinidad, who went with me. We were two disciples sent out. Praise God. Let us not be afraid to go tell others about the wonders of Christ’s love for us. Have a safe and blessed Labor Day weekend. Blessings, + Fr. Bob Hilz.

Monday, Sept 5: (Even though it is Labor Day in the U. S. and Canada, it is now the optional memorial of St. Teresa of Calcutta, who is being canonized in Rome, Sept 4, 2016, this Sunday. She was born in 1910, Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu in Albania, now Skopje, Macedonia. She showed a strong interest in foreign missions as a young women at Sodality meetings. When eighteen she entered the Loreto Sisters in Dublin where she learned English. Agnes was then sent to Darjeeling, India, for her novitiate, choosing the name Teresa. She was then sent to teach history and geography in high school to wealthy girls in Calcutta. Ten years later while riding a train to a retreat Sr. Teresa felt a call to leave the Loreto Sisters, follow Jesus and form a new community, the Missionaries of Charity, to care for the "poorest of the poor" living in the slums of Calcutta.

Sr. Teresa felt the call of Jesus on the cross, "I thirst," John 19:28. So God’s love for humanity penetrated her soul and found fertile soil in her heart. She spent seventy years serving the poor and outcast yet fifty of those years she felt an absence of consolation, the dark night of the soul, a deeper level of prayer. She found joy, like Jesus, looking for the blind, crippled, lame, broken, lepers, outcast and the dying.

One day a newsperson was watching Mother clean the maggots from a dying man brought in from the streets. He said he could never do that for all the money in the world. Mother said, neither could I. "This is the dying body of Jesus." Remember Jesus said, "What you do to the least of Mine you do for me." Mother died in 1997 and was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in 2003 and now canonized by Pope Francis, September 4, 2016 in Rome.) 1 Cor 5:1-8 (Clean out the old yeast; for our Paschal Lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.), Ps 5:5-7, 12 (Lead me in your justice, Lord.), Luke 6:6-11 (The scribes and the Pharisees watched Him closely to see if He would cure on the Sabbath.)

Tuesday, Sept 6: 1 Cor 6:1-11 (A believer goes to court against a believer, and before unbelievers.), Ps 149:1b-2, 3-4, 9b (The Lord takes delight in His people.), Lk 6:12-19 (He spent the night in prayer. He chose Twelve, when He also named apostles.)

Wednesday, Sept 7: 1 Cor 7:25-31 (Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek a separation. Are you free of a wife? Then do not look for a wife.), Ps 45:11-12, 14-17 (Listen to me, daughter; see and bend your ear.), Lk 6:20-26 (Blessed are you who are poor. Woe to you who are rich.)

Thursday, Sept 8: The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Since the beginning of the 6th century, the place where the Blessed Virgin Mary was born has been venerated in Jerusalem, near the Pool of Bethsaida. In the 12th century, this became the Church of Saint Ann, which still stands today. The feast spread throughout the East in the 6th century and was introduced at Rome by Pope Sergius I in 701. The Church celebrates this feast as the dawning of the day of our Redemption; the moment when Mary was to be the Mother of our Savior. Mary occupies a unique place in the story of salvation. Jesus reserved to His earthly mother the highest mission ever entrusted an any human creature.) Micah 5:1-4a (The time when she who is to give birth has born.); Ps 13:6abc (With delight I rejoice in the Lord.); Alleluia, alleluia! Blessed are you, holy Virgin Mary, deserving of all praise; from you rose the sun of justice, Christ our God. Alleluia, alleluia! Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23 (For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.)

Friday, Sep 9: (In the United States and Canada, St. Peter Claver, Priest and Religious, 1580-1654. Peter was born in Catalonia, Spain. He studied arts and letters at the University of Barcelona and entered the Jesuits at 20. He was sent to their missions in Columbia where he was ordained a priest in 1616. In Cartagena he cared for the African slaves when they arrived. Enduring the derision of the slave traders, he fed the hungry, cared for the sick and the dying, preached the Gospel and baptized many for nearly forty years until his death.) 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22b-27 (I have become all things to all to save at least some.), Ps 84:3-6, 12 (How lovely is Your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!), Lk 6:39-42 (Can a blind person guide a blind person?)

Saturday, Sept 10: 1 Cor 10:14-22 (We, though many, are one Body, for we all partake of the one bead.), Ps 116:12-13, 17-18 (To You, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.), Lk 6:43-49 (Why do You call Me, "Lord, Lord," but do not do what I command?)

Sunday, Sept 11:Twenty-forth of OT: Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14 (The Lord relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on His people.); Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19 (I will rise and go to My Father.); 1 Timothy 1:12-17 (Christ came to save sinners.); Alleluia, alleluia! God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Alleluia, alleluia! Lk 15:1-10 (There will be great joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.)

See also Nancy Ward: http://JoyAlive.net/

Little acts of mercy

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by Paul Mora

Since this is the Year of Mercy, I prayed about what I can do individually. I thought maybe I could help expand the food pantry, or maybe take a food truck and give away food. I was trying to think of a way to feed the hungry, as one of the corporal works of mercy.

But the Lord reminded me that at one time I used to carry these little plastic grocery bags. In them, I would put two or three packages of crackers, breakfast bars and a bottle of water. I’d and keep them in the backseat and when I’d come to a corner, and someone was asking for money; rather than give them money because I wasn’t sure where it would go, I would just offer them a bag of food.

I thought I’d get rejected but as it turned out, last week I was on my way to pick up my wife at work and stopped by a convenience store. A man was right next to the door, sitting on the garbage can. I went in and got myself something to drink and came back out and walked up to him and said, “Hi, how are you?”

He said, “Well, I’m better now that somebody acknowledges me.”

I said, “Really? What’s your name?”

He said, “My name is Charlie.”

I said, “Charlie, I’ve got something for you. Can you hold on for just a second?” I went to the car and got a bag of food and gave it to him. He gave me the biggest smile. It was one of those smiles of great happiness for just a small bag.

I drove off and thought, “That wasn’t too hard. That was pretty easy! I didn’t have to get involved in his life but just give him a little something.”

It’s a small thing to do. I’m saying that we don’t have to wait until we come up with some big ideas, just take the opportunities that the Lord presents to us. If we’re prepared and open hearted, they will come to us. We will see those opportunities without looking for them.

Here’s a Scripture to encourage you, Matthew 25:34–40,

Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Community Gathering January, 31, 2016

Witness: Who are these people?

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By Delane Jacquin

I was born and raised Catholic in a small one-stoplight town in Missouri. I grew up in a good home with amazing, loving parents who took us to Mass every Sunday and we lived our lives as good people the rest of the week. But no one there had ever heard of the charismatic renewal, and your faith just wasn’t something you talked about. Even within my immediate family, we would say prayers together before meals and before bedtime when my siblings and I were younger, but God took a backseat to the rest of our lives. But the thing was, we didn’t really know any better. The church there didn’t have any ministries to teach us any differently, and the priest at our parish was in charge of multiple other small parishes in the surrounding area as well, and therefore didn’t have a lot of time, energy, or financial resources to focus on building those ministries.

My siblings and I went to public schools, as there wasn’t a Catholic school near us, so my formal religious education was PSR classes on Sundays until I was in the 8th grade. I received all my sacraments, and, therefore I believed I was a good Catholic with a strong faith.

I went to college at a public university in Missouri, and my freshman year I made a few attempts to get involved in the Catholic Church, however, between the lack of an active youth ministry and the lack of parents telling me to get my butt out of bed and go to Church, by the end of my freshman year, I had only gone to Mass a handful of times and almost never the other two and a half years I was there. I moved back to my hometown after graduation and got a job working for the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office.

“Good choices”

I was going to church regularly again with my family, but my personal prayer life was still pretty much non-existent. When I did pray, it tended to go something like this, “God, please find a way to make what I want to happen - happen, and to happen when I want it to happen and how I want it to happen. Amen.” I never asked the Lord for him to come into my life and let his will be done there, and I certainly never asked for his opinions on the choices I was making. I just assumed that because I was making “good choices,” that those choices would be blessed. Life was pretty good at this point. I was back in my hometown with my family and friends, my sister and her husband had just blessed my family with my first niece, and I was enjoying my job.

Then I met a boy, we dated a few months, he moved to Texas, we got married shortly after, and I followed him down here. My new husband had no real interest in going to church and so I became complacent in my faith as well and stopped attending Mass also. It wasn’t long before my marriage became unhealthy and I suddenly found myself going through a very messy divorce, figuring out how to live on my own in a city and state I didn’t know well, and with no one to lean on.

ACTS retreat

I started going to Mass a little more frequently again desperate for direction in my life, and while attending Mass at Holy Spirit Parish one Sunday a young woman got up and gave a quick testimony at the end of Mast encourage other women to sign up for that fall’s ACTS retreat. As I listened to her heartfelt story, I felt a stirring in my own heart. The healing she claimed to have received on this retreat was appealing to me in my current situation. But let me tell you, this kind of retreat was not something I would have normally ever done. But I went over to their table after Mass anyway and picked up a pamphlet.

When I got home I almost threw it away, but instead set it on my countertop and spent the next two weeks staring at it every day. If the tug on my heart from the Holy Spirit that I felt during those two weeks to go to that retreat had been any more obvious, I imagine it would have entailed him showing up, hog-tying me, throwing me in the trunk of a vehicle, and dropping me off at the front door of the retreat center.

But I went, and it was only after realizing all my opportunities for the exit strategies I had been devising had passed, that I finally, and slightly begrudgingly, decided I might as well try to make the most of the weekend, so I gave in to his will and prayed that he give me whatever it was that he brought me there for. From that moment on, for the entire weekend, I encountered the Lord in a way I had never known him before. I experienced his grace, his divine mercy, and the kind of healing of wounds that can only be done by his hands. I knew that I wanted more than anything a real relationship with the Lord. No more asking him to take a backseat. No more only praying to him when I needed or wanted something. I’d tried it my way and had failed. I knew it was time to let him take over.

CCGD Young Adults

Now, Charlotte Ward, who grew up in CCGD, was on this retreat with me, and she and I, being the two youngest retretants naturally gravitated toward each other and we became quick friends. At the end of the weekend she invited me to the Young Adults group she attended. Absolutely on fire for the Lord after the retreat and ready to dive head first into this newfound way of life, I accepted her invitation. I attended my first meeting that following week and loved it. The passion that these young people had for the Lord and their openness in sharing it with others was absolutely beautiful, but also very intimidating.

Remember, I came from a community where it was almost taboo to talk about your faith openly with strangers. So to hear these young people talk about Jesus like he was their best friend, took some getting used to, but I could feel that same love of Christ I had felt on my ACTS retreat at these meetings, and so I kept attending. After a few weeks of going to Young Adult meetings, Charlotte invited me to a prayer meeting.

And this is where the story gets interesting. Again, I am a small-town girl who had never heard of the charismatic renewal before and never heard of anyone exercising the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The only definition I’d ever known for charismatic was the first one listed in the Merriam-Webster dictionary that says: “exercising a compelling charm that inspires devotion in others.” So when people would talk about CCGD as being a charismatic community, I just assumed that meant that you all were very “charming.”

First prayer meeting

I walked into my first prayer meeting about 10 minutes early and quickly found a familiar face in one of my ACTS sisters. I sat down next to her and we started catching up. She asked if I knew what to expect from prayer meeting, and I’m sure I looked quite puzzled, so she went on to explain a little about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and how the community exercises those gifts. When she said that I might hear people speaking in tongues, I’m sure I started thinking of ways to casually excuse myself to go to the bathroom and then make a run for it.

Right about that time, the music ministers start playing and there is a lot of exuberate praise and dancing from everyone else while I stood awkwardly with my arms folded. And then, sure enough, in between two songs, someone prophesied in tongues. And then wouldn’t you know it, during the sharings, someone else prophesied in tongues again. By the time the meeting was wrapping up, I was way out of my element and quickly made my exit.

I just remember thinking the entire way home: “What the heck was that? Who are these people?” But at the same time that all these questions and disbelief were going through my mind, my heart felt this peace that I had just witnessed something really beautiful. I spent the next few weeks researching and asking questions, and praying, and the more I learned about the charismatic renewal, the deeper that feeling of peace seemed to go.

About a month later I attended my second prayer meeting, and have been attending as often as possible since. And now I even find myself joining in with that exuberate praise! I just recently completed the Born in the Spirit seminar, I’ve taken on more of a leadership role with our Young Adults group, and I am very excited to see what the Holy Spirit continues to do in my life and in this community.

Community Gathering, 9-18-16

Men's Forum October 29

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Saturday, October 29th, 2016

Mount St Michael Gym

Breakfast at 9:00 am

Workshop: “Loving the Person in Front of you”

Presented by Joe Walshe and Friends…

Begins at 9:30 am goes until 11:50 am

Come early while the food is HOT and PLENTIFUL!!

Discussions and share time throughout the morning

This promises to be a great time of spending Quality Time with Christian Brothers.

All CCGD & MSMCS Men (including high school age) are invited.

Bring a friend!

$5 donation requested to cover the cost of breakfast

Sponsored by The Christian Community of God’s Delight

 


Witness: The three-tragedy miracle

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By Phil Ward

I was a cradle Catholic born on my father’s birthday, June 10, 1935, in Warren, Arkansas. My mother, Violet Skees Ward, was a devout Catholic married to a non-Catholic, Jake Ward. My parents intended to be farmers the first year of their marriage in DeQueen, Arkansas, but a flood wiped them out. That was the first tragedy.

We moved to Warren where my father became superintendent of an ice plant, a cotton gin and a fertilizer plant, all close together. We lived in a small company-owned home behind the ice plant. Warren was a small but booming lumber mill town located about 88 miles due south of Little Rock, Arkansas, the state capital. The population was about 2500 then and about 6000 now. So, it was a very small town. It was mostly a Protestant community with maybe five Catholic families.  I remember Mom serving delicious meals to our visiting priest after Sunday Mass that was held only once every two or three weeks in a very small church building.

Tragedy struck the second time in 1945 near the end of World War II when my father’s job died of obsolescence.  We moved from Warren to Little Rock where my Dad worked intermittently for the railroad. Veterans were returning to work at the railroad, and my father did not have their priority. He was constantly “bumped” on his work shift. The good news was that I attended my first Catholic parochial school, Our Lady of Good Council, where I received my first Sacraments of Confession, Holy Communion and Confirmation. For the first, time we attended Mass regularly on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation.

This lack of permanent income led to my parents’ third tragedy. In 1947, Mom and I moved in with my Grandmother Skees and Mom’s younger sister, my Aunt Myrtle Skees in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Here I attended my second parochial school, St. Boniface, a wonderful school where I thought I might have a vocation as a priest. Dad moved to El Paso at the invitation of Mom’s younger brother, my Uncle Bill Skees, to find permanent work there. Dad’s previous experience with the cotton gin business in Warren landed him a blue-collar job at the Anderson Clayton Cotton Seed Oil plant in El Paso. We joined him there in 1948, where I entered the 7th grade at St. Patrick Catholic School. My only sibling was my brother who was eight years older and a WWII Navy Veteran then attending college on the G.I. Bill. He soon joined us after transferring from Arkansas A&M University to then named Texas Western College of the University of Texas and now the University of Texas at El Paso. 

I describe this detail of my early life to show that from the three tragedies that befell my parents came the miracles that led me to El Paso where I received a good education and attended college where I met my lovely wife, Nancy. That relationship started out as just a “fun date” for me, but there was a noticeable difference in my mother’s response to Nancy after she met her.  It was as though she had met the daughter she never had. That response opened my eyes to Nancy’s inner beauty, and the rest is history.

What led to my renewal?

I would describe myself as a “card-carrying Catholic.” I never lost my faith, but there were definitely ups and downs along the way. I now realize that the world around me easily influenced me. I wasn’t firmly anchored by a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If someone had advised me to have that in those days, I would have said, “That sounds Protestant to me.” My parochial training was strong on not being presumptuous about God’s will. I was more focused on advancing my education in engineering and being a good provider for my family than seeking a deeper understanding of the truths of the Roman Catholic Church.

The turning point began with a St. Patrick Men’s Retreat at Montserrat in 1973. It was a typical Jesuit “silent” retreat, but some of the men did not obey that rule. I did not feel like I was breaking it when I listened in on a conversation that was going on in the hall. I was very scrupulous. I remember it as if it were yesterday when Charles Paternostro was talking to Bill Burke and a couple of other men about this group of Catholics that met on Sundays at Bishop Lynch. Charles said, “they really take their faith seriously and loudly express their praise and worship. Their music is very different from what we hear in church.”

I decided to pay this a visit and invited Nancy to go with me. She suggested that I should go and let her know if I liked it. So I did. You can see that this was not the usual pattern of being led to the Community. By the third time going alone, I began to doubt that this was something I should pursue, but suddenly Nancy was interested, and we began going together. Eventually we bribed our children into going with offers to go out for pizza afterward.

I was traveling a lot in those days, so I started Life In The Spirit three times before finally graduating to being prayed over for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  I usually describe this transforming event as “Nothing much happened. It just changed the rest of my life.” And it also changed the lives of all my family.

Who am I now?

Now I am a Charismatic Catholic, fully committed to Jesus Christ my Savior, his Holy Catholic Church and my covenant Community, the Christian Community of God’s Delight. It would be impossible to describe in how many positive ways this change has been manifested. As a wise man once said, “To make a long story short, don’t tell it!”  Thank you.

Community Gathering, 9-25-16

 

Witness: Nothing is impossible for God

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By Peg Weisbruch

I recall some of my musings and questions to my mother when I was a little girl. I think I wore my mother out answering some of my questions. They were always "what if." What if the Japanese or Germans won the war? (This really dates me, okay.) What if a robber came to steal all our stuff? She used to tell me that we don't have anything anybody wants to steal. What if she had another baby? What if we moved again? Not necessarily in that order. I honestly think my worrying kept me close to God in prayer and dependent on him like a child depends on his or her parents. Seems I was a bit anxious. Staying close to God, I guess you could say, was insurance or protection against life's "what ifs." Staying on the straight and narrow was in my DNA. Everything I ever learned about God was loving, good, wise, etc., just like my parents, and the safest way to live my life.

My growing up was typical for the times, two parents, both committed Catholics, both willing to sacrifice to send their six kids to Catholic school. My dad was an aircraft engineer and in those days they moved him around a lot. We got transferred to numerous locations. I lived in eight different states, a new school, all Catholic, almost every year, and ultimately we landed in Texas. I went to Catholic high school and Catholic college, so you know I ended up knowing nothing but Catholics.

I married a similar type cradle Catholic and we struggled at times to agree on how to raise our six children. All our children attended Catholic colleges and we saw signs of waning interest in the faith of some. I think this is a period of time where friends of other faiths, interfaith Bible studies and people we knew in the growing Pro-Life Movement influenced us.

Then came an incredibly charismatic Mass one night at Holy Family in Irving. It was in Lent and I went. Afterwards there was a prayer meeting. It was a 7 o'clock Mass. I went by myself; got home around midnight and I had one upset husband. He thought I was going to leave him with all the kids (no he didn't really). I remember during that Mass crying throughout the whole Mass because it was so holy and touching with these Catholic spirit-filled people. We got to know a lot of them, especially at that prayer meeting and afterward we met Fr. Hopkins. Anybody remember him? Later we met Fr. Hinnebusch. Through our Protestant friends, we got invited and attended the Bill Gothard Institute of Basic Youth Conflicts with all our big kids. It had an enormous impact on all of us. There was, of course, a lot of emphasis on the Bible.

So how Catholic were we? We were very attracted to others in other churches. We learned many basic scriptural principals that were so exciting. One principal that rang my bell was to be certain that the Lord's leading was coming through my husband rather than my old way of running the spiritual show. Now I had been alerted to watch for God to direct our family through the father of the family. That was a biblical teaching. I had heard about Community. It sounded authentically Christian to me, but I was waiting for God's direction coming through the right way, through the father of the family.

It seems God was working on Doug too. Doug had met Peter Darby when they were both members of the Dallas Diocesan School Board. Doug had asked Peter about his "underground church." That was what he would say in those days. Peter had shared about CCGD and then Peter picked up on that because he was a good friend, of course, of Dick Williams. He called Dick Williams who worked at the same company with Doug and made a suggestion to Dick. One afternoon Doug called me from work. His co-worker at Lone Star Gas, Dick Williams, had invited him to a Life in the Spirit Seminar that was just starting at Mount St. Michael. Doug asked me if I wanted to go. How was that for clear direction from the Lord? I mean, he never initiated anything like that before, so I knew it was not me, it was the Lord.

We started going to the Wednesday prayer meeting at Mount St. Michael, then the Life in the Spirit afterwards. I was kind of testing the Lord, expecting the teachings to be like a catechism lesson. We were blessed that Joe Tinker was the leader of Life in the Spirit. He taught us all about Jesus and our relationship with him. We were hearing the truth. That was very clear to me as I had given my life to Christ before, and I knew that I had made that commitment. I even wrote the date of my commitment to Christ on the inside cover of my little Bible Study book so I could readily share with my sweet Protestant friends that "yes I had done that" and I even knew the date and time. I took care of that.

So now here we are hearing the truth in a Catholic situation. I didn't have to change religions. I was being taught by the Holy Spirit in my own beloved Catholic Church.

Lots of coincidences, that we don't call coincidences anymore. The evening of our Baptism in the Holy Spirit our college kids came home on Thanksgiving break. They were so excited because they told us about some small prayer meeting they had been having down at St. Mary's where they had been led to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. So they are ahead of us! We found out that they had been praying for us, of all things, to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is impossible with God.

Of course the Lord has led us closer to himself through all the love and friendships and teachings in the Community. It was as if Jesus said that he didn't want us to leave his true Church. He led us to deeper truths in the happiest of ways, our life in the Community. No more agonizing about the possibilities of changing churches. God opened our eyes to the depths of his truth in our own beloved Catholic Church.

That is basically my testimony, but Doug and I were talking about this also – how all these years we have been in Community – the support, the prayerful support that we have received through some difficult times. Like when our son Jeff died more than 11 years ago and when our little grandbaby Mae died last year we had so much prayer support. Now we are grateful for the wonderful prayer support for Marcella, our daughter-in-law and their whole family. We are surrounded in this Community and submerged in prayer. Thank you.

Community Gathering, 9-11-16

All Saints Party, October 31

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All SAINTS PARTY

Monday, October 31, 2016

6:30 - 8:30 pm MSM Gym

All ages come dressed as your favorite Saint, Angel or Biblical Character!

(We are here to celebrate 'All Saints Day' instead of Halloween. We will not be able to admit children to

the event if dressed in traditional scary Halloween attire.)

Children should bring a sack to hold candy                 

This celebration is not just for the little children. Kids" of all ages are welcome to come and celebrate

with us. Bring your grandchildren, nephews, nieces or invite a neighbor or classmate. This is a

Community sponsored event and all are encouraged to participate.

High School Ministry Fundraising Dinner

Pizza, Chips & Drinks sold beginning at 6:00 pm and during the party!

The proceeds from the sales will go to support the High School Ministry’s mission trip this

coming summer to New Mexico.

ITEMS NEEDED  

  • Bags of individually wrapped name brand candy. Bring to any Sunday Prayer Meeting in Oct. (place in boxes in foyer) or bring to school and put in the work room.
  • Cakes for the cake walk.

MANY VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

  • Booth Set-up and decorating on Sunday, Oct. 30 after the Prayer Meeting at 6:00 and/or clean-up after the party is over.
  • Individuals or families needed to run booths for 30-45 minute shifts throughout the night. Ministries and school families, this would be a great time to work together as a group. Sign up or let the Dorsey’s know that you are willing to help.
  • Prayer Warriors: We need your prayers before, during, and even after the All Saints Party. Let us come together as a body to give honor and glory to God. Keep that hedge of protection strong.

 

"Let Your Light Shine" Pumpkin Decorating RULES:

  • RELIGIOUS THEME. (No JACK-O-LANTERNS OR SCARY FACES WILL BE ALLOWED TO ENTER THE CONTEST.)
  • SIZE WILL NOT BE A CRITERION FOR JUDGING
  • Hollow out and carve your pumpkin or leave it whole. You may use paints, markers, MAKE-UP, WIGS, FAKE
  • MUSTACHES OR BEARDS, HATS, COLLARS OR ANY OTHER ARTICLE OF CLOTHING YOU DESIRE TO GIVE YOUR PUMPKIN THE CHARACTER YOU WANT
  • PLEASE USE BATTERY OPERATED CANDLES
  • A panel of unbiased judges will pick one winning entry. The person that decorates the winning pumpkin will be awarded THE GREAT PUMPKIN GRAND PRIZE.

WE NEED EVERYONE'S HELP TO MAKE THIS A SUCCESS!!!

Please CALL Christy & Charlie Dorsey 972-488-9450

email dorsey7@tx.rr.com TO VOLUNTEER

Book Study: Time for God, part 1 of 5

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by David Peterman, Jr.

For the next five weeks we will be reading and discussing together Time for God written by Jacques Philippe. Mental Prayer is the subject of the book.  Mental Prayer is facing God in solitude and silence for a time, in order to enter into intimate, loving communication with Him.

Why a talk on Prayer?

You might ask, “Doesn’t everyone in the Charismatic Renewal have a great prayer life?” At the end of page 25 (and I am stealing a point from Mike who will share next week on the second half of Chapter 1), the author specifically addresses those in the Charismatic Renewal. He notes that some who experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit might, at some point, stop making progress or lose their spiritual vitality.  He states that this can happen if they do not learn to remain permanently open to his grace by making the experience of the Renewal bear fruit n a life of prayer.

When I first read this paragraph I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to consider reading this book together as a Community.  Despite our rich history and many ongoing efforts to worship and serve God and his church, it is all for nothing if it does not flow from his direction gained through our loving communication with him.

I further illustrate this point with a meditation that Fr. Stephen offered me during our last Spiritual Direction session: “What good is it to offer God one thing when he has asked of us another?

Further pondering Why the topic of Prayer?  We might also ask. “Doesn’t everyone in Community have a great prayer life? I do not think God wants us to compare our prayer life with anyone else, not even the saints. We can be inspired by the holiness or prayer life of others but comparisons are not of God.  The only thing God asks of us relative to prayer is to never give up, to continuously come before him in silence, to be open to his initiation.  

The importance of silence and prayer are clear in this quote from Saint Teresa of Calcutta, “The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.

So the coordinators discussed it and we agreed to read and study this book together.  But our objective is not to just study the book but to use it to take another step in our relationship with God.

An applicable Saint Padre Pio quote is "By studying books, one seeks God; by praying, one finds Him."

So, regardless of how many talks and books on prayer we have each engaged, we have discerned to take up the topic of prayer again because it is so important.  I can’t think of anything more critical to our future than our continuous seeking of God in solitude and silence in order to deepen our intimate, loving communication with Him.

Throughout my sharing I want to leverage your relationship with your best friend.  So pause just a minute and picture that person.  Maybe a spouse or prayer partner. Someone that you talk to regularly, who knows you well, whom you know well. Someone you really enjoy being with, and with whom you can really be yourself. 

1. Mental prayer is not a kind of Christian Yoga

An early point the author makes is that our life of prayer is not the result of technique but a gift we receive, in fact, quoting St Jane Frances de Chantal she states, “The best method of prayer is not to have one.

So, thinking about your best friend, when you decide to have a great time together you don’t follow a formula to guarantee a good time, it just happens naturally.  We can set up having a good time (picking a favorite place, one that is quite enough to talk, choosing a favorite drink).  We also avoid settings that might distract or interfere with us having a good time.

In the same way we cannot follow a script or specific technique and guarantee a great prayer time.  We can do things that facilitate having a good prayer time and avoid things that prevent a good prayer time.  Like I am sure most of you, I have patterns that I follow in prayer (a favorite chair, a way to select what scriptures to reflect on, choosing a spiritual book to read) but we must not focus too much on our patterns.  Having no technique might be the best.

2. Some immediate consequences

Prayer is a free gift, a grace from God, and he is continuously reaching out to us.  So, if prayer is not about mastering a technique, we should not focus on techniques but on the conditions necessary for receiving this free gift of prayer.

3. Faith and trust as the basis for mental prayer

The author explains the first condition is an attitude of faith, believing and acting based on God’s Word.

Think about your best friend again.  What is a fundamental quality that makes your relationship so special?  There may be several but trust is key.  You must have trust, faith, and confidence in your best friend.  If you lose trust or faith, the relationship would change instantly. 

So it is with God.  We must believe with all our heart that God is present regardless of our feelings, never letting ourselves doubt his love and presence. This is true in front of the Blessed Sacrament or just sitting in our favorite chair to pray.  Faith in God and his Word is an essential first condition of prayer. 

4. Fidelity and Perseverance

The author states that the first priority of prayer is fidelity. Think of it as persevering and faithfulness.

I have to confess, my prayer seems mostly one sided -- endless quite.  And then I start to judge the quality of my prayer time.  Then the distractions come, and then more judgement.  But what I have learned is that I do not need to judge my prayer time, just like I do not have to judge each encounter with my best friend.  Laurie and I just enjoy being together. It doesn’t matter what we are doing or not doing.  I have taken the same approach with God in my prayer.  “You know what God, I am just going to sit here in silence and be with you. I don’t have any place to be for the next 20 minutes, nothing to accomplish, so I am just going to sit here and be with you.”

The author points out that quality will come from our faithfulness.  “Time spent faithfully persevering every day, even if poor quality-distracted prayer … will be infinitely more fruitful than the occasional long spells of prayer.”

Mental prayer is an exercise in loving God. But there cannot be true love without fidelity. How can we claim to love God if we fail to keep appointments we make with him for mental prayer?

5. Purity of intention

The author points out that the next indispensable condition for prayer is purity of intention, an attitude where we are inspired to forget ourselves in order to please God.

This is interesting.  Back to our picture of our best friend.  One of the likely characteristics of our relationship with our best friend is the focus on the other person.  We care for the other person, wanting to know what is going on in his or her life; we want to help them if we can.  In the same way we do not pray to find some self-fulfillment, but to please God.  Genuine love is a pure love that does not seek its own interests but has its single goal of giving joy to the other person. We should pray to please God, to get to know Him better, because He asks us to.

When Laurie and I went thought the Community Marriage Enrichment program we learned about Love Languages, the need to understand how the other person wants to be loved and adjust to that.  When I thought about it this way I realized that Laurie and I can express love just by being together, sitting, quiet, not having to accomplish anything.  So my prayer time isn’t about me, and my formula, and reading or accomplishing anything specific.  It is first and foremost about turning my focus away from myself on to God and just being OK doing nothing, being in his presence and being attentive.

6. Humility of poverty of heart

That last condition I will cover for receiving the gift of prayer is humility.  The author quotes St. Theresa of Avila “the whole edifice of prayer is based on humility.” Any self-aware Christian knows that of ourselves we can do nothing, it is God alone who can produce good in our souls.  This sober humility is essential if we are to persevere in prayer.

Humility lies in peacefully accepting our own poverty.  If we do not, it might explain why we might avoid silence.  Silence can lead us to ponder our own sinfulness, fears, faults, failures, or just be distracted by memories, imaginations, or the endless list of things we need to do.  Yet it is joyful acceptance of our weakness that is the source of all spiritual riches, Matt 5:3,  “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

Humble people persevere in prayer because they place all their hope in God and are certain that they will obtain his mercy and are powerless to do for themselves.

When we lived in Houston, I served on a parish spirituality team.  I noticed in serving on this team that people were still focused on themselves and their ideas.  God needs us to develop selflessness, humility, so that we see our service as what it should be, serving him.  This attitude enables us to hear him in prayer.  The condition of humility, offering everything we do and say each day to him, reminds us who we serve.  Our humble focus on him in prayer is essential if we are to know whom we serve and be able to serve, as he desires.

We will finish chapter one next week.  In the meantime, in our prayer times this week, let us ponder that God desires an even deeper, intimate, loving communication with us, even more real than we have with our best friend.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Is there a habit or technique of prayer that I need to give up to revitalize my prayer time?
  2. What can I do during my time of prayer to remain attentive and open to God’s initiation?
  3. Since faith is so important to prayer, what ideas do I have for building faith in God’s presence when I come to Him in prayer?
  4. Praying regularly is obviously very important to spiritual growth, what ideas do I have for not judging the quality of my prayer time but just taking another step in being faithful?
  5. What ways have worked in the past of turning my focus away from myself in prayer?
  6. Since humility is so important to persevering in prayer, what can I do to become more aware of my own poverty so I can place all my hope I God?

(Community Gathering, September 2, 2016)

Book Study: A Time for God, Chapter 1b, part 2 of 5

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By Mike Wagner

We are in the second teaching on Time for God, the same book that Terry talked about in her sharing today. David gave the first teaching last week. We're in Chapter 1, and he covered sections 1-6, which dealt with the different aspects of mental prayer. That's what this book is about. Is everybody is reading the book? You can read the book and kind of get out of it what the author is saying, but I'm interested in what the Lord is saying to us through this book. I'm kind of excited about it because I feel like this is a book for this time in our Community's life. It’s about what the Lord is asking us to do, and that is to draw into that quiet place of mental prayer with him. Now that the Lord has gotten things rolling in the gathering today and he has already shared his word with us, I'm going to fold in some of the things the Lord has talked about today in relationship to this.

Robert and Susie gave a prophecy in tongues about “Behold my beloved I am here always to be with you, to guide you, to protect you. Always seek me.” Robert had the image of Mary bringing Jesus into the gathering tonight in the form of the Sacred Heart. I just want to give testimony that a few months ago, at the beginning of this year, I had an experience here at the gathering where I felt like Jesus and Mary were giving the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart to us. I interpreted it in my prayer as a replacement for my heart.

The Lord is giving us a calling right now to unite ourselves to him in a particular way. I think this book is part of that call to learn how to live in a relationship with the Lord through daily mental prayer, through being with him in contemplative prayer each day. We bring ourselves into his presence not to just tell him what is going on, but allowing him to work a transformation in us. This book is outstanding in how it describes what the Lord is trying to do and dispelling some of the myths and excuses that I had in my fidelity to mental prayer and contemplative prayer as well. This is what the first six sections of Chapter 1 covered, which David talked a little bit about last week. This week we are going to cover the rest of Chapter 1, section 7 and 8.

In section 7 the author, Fr. Jacques Philippe, spends a lot of time talking about the determination to persevere in mental prayer. He writes that perseverance is the most important aspect of mental prayer -- doing it, not thinking about it, not wrestling with doing it, not wishing you could do it or wishing you did it, but actually doing it. Perseverance. He writes about different kinds of circumstances where we talk ourselves out of, or we let Satan talk us out of, coming into that place where we are personally in the presence of Jesus. We allow him to speak to us and to heal us and to make us into the men and women of God that he called us to be. Satan will do anything to keep us from that.

In this section, Fr. Philippe talks about two traps, three false arguments and two temptations.

Two traps

I think most of us pretty much have a grip on the two traps. The first one is that mental prayer is optional. We all pretty much agree that mental prayer or contemplative prayer is not optional. It is something that the Lord is calling us to, and particularly calling us to as a Community at this time. The author even goes on to use an example specific to us. "Even the experience of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit can lose its vitality if we do not learn to remain permanently open to the grace of the Holy Spirit which desires us to bear fruit in the life of prayer" (mental prayer, contemplative prayer). He makes the link between the outward manifestations of our life that are the result of our inward prayer and not the driver of our inward prayer.

The second trap is that sacraments are not enough. My experience with this was that my sacraments were like a substitute prayer time. If I went to Church, I didn't have to have a prayer time. I got all that taken care of by going to Church. Fr. Philippe says something I had never thought of before, but we know it is true and makes perfect sense. The sacraments are a gift of grace given to help us enter into a loving personal relationship with our heavenly Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, but they are the means to the relationship, they are not the relationship.

When I was praying, the image came of a teenager and his dad. The sacraments are kind of like when you would go to your dad and you'd say,  "Dad I need some money. Dad, I'd like the keys to the car." He'd give it to you, and you would spend it, and you would do your thing with it. Or you were getting hungry and you needed a meal so you would go to him and get a meal, or you needed him to get you out of a jam. Well, that's what all the sacraments are -- what we go get from God.

When we don't connect that with the life of prayer, it’s like a Lap Band constricts us. A Lap Band is a medical procedure to help you lose weight by putting a band around your stomach so you can't eat as much as you want. Having the sacraments without the prayer behind it, without allowing the Lord to have time to allow the graces of those sacraments to ferment and to bear fruit in us, is like going to a banquet with a Lap Band on. The food is all there; the grace is all there, but we can't partake of it. We can eat some of it, we can enjoy some of the taste, but we can't get the full benefit of the banquet.

Fr. Philippe says that mental prayer is where the graces of the sacraments are unpackaged and nurtured under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The graces contained in the sacraments will remain limited and likely unfruitful because if we are not connecting them with mental prayer. Mental prayer provides the good soil for the seeds of grace sown by the sacraments. For example, he said we could just look at our parishes. Our parishes are full of people that are receiving the sacraments but are not experiencing the fullness of the grace of those sacraments.

Those are the two traps he talked about: Thinking that it's optional and thinking that I don't need to pray. I can just go to Mass or just receive the sacraments and that's good enough. Why is it not good enough? Because the Lord wants us into personal relationship with him. He doesn't just want us to go do that, do this, do this, do that. We don't rack up points by the number of rosaries we pray and things like that. Those are all given to draw us into a personal relationship with him.

Three false arguments

Once you get through those two traps, then the false arguments start to show up. They all surround time:

  1. “I don't have enough time.” This is probably the most predominant argument, especially in our hyperactive world. It's a trick of Satan, something Satan brings up before us because he will do absolutely anything to keep us out of the presence of God, absolutely anything. We must persevere and be determined to spend that time with God. Any arguments that come up related to "time" are lies of Satan. Don't fall for it; these are false arguments.
  2. “If I give time to God, I won't be able to take care of the others that I am responsible for.”
  3. “I don't have time to pray to the Lord and spend time with him because I pray at work. Because I don't have time I just take care of it at work,” so there is my substitute.

Two temptations

Once we get over the false arguments of time, and once we get the faith that we need to spend the time with the Lord, and then we are, in fact, spending time with the Lord, two temptations come up that we deal with frequently.

One temptation is the trap of false sincerity. He is talking about how we will say, "You know I don't really need to spend time with God on a daily basis because it's not really authentic. I don't always feel like spending time with God." Okay, so "It's really not authentic and I feel like I am just making it up, and it's insincere, and it makes me feel like a hypocrite." What a lie that is because the precedent of the lie is that we are relying on our own emotions to feel like we ought to spend time with the Lord. That is really a bondage. The Lord wants us to live in freedom and freedom has to do with choice and so we choose to spend time with the Lord.

The second temptation is the trap of false humility. For this one, Fr. Philippe uses Teresa of Avila as an example. She was trying to persevere in contemplative prayer and mental prayer. She just kept recognizing all of her inadequacies, all of her faults, all of the reasons why, and she became discouraged. She stopped her mental prayer for a year. This was a trap.

When we begin to spend time with the Lord, he begins to work! What a concept! He raises up our sins before our eyes so that we can bring those into his presence and let him heal us. But when he brings those sins up, Satan is whispering in our ear, "You're no good. This is a waste of time. You could never experience what the saints experienced." But that is false. The Lord uses that time in a most precious way to heal us; so don't become discouraged.

Discouragement is a false humility. We think we are being humbled by acknowledging our sinfulness. Yes, we are sinful and just like the Lord said through Terry in the gathering today, we cannot do this. The Lord has to do it in us, but we have to give the time for the Lord to do it in us.

That is another falsehood, “Well the Lord is going to do it whether I pray or not because he loves me.” Okay, well he is going to do what he can through the circumstances of our life, but by uniting ourselves with him we enter in and become fully part of the life that he has for us. All of this is a preparation for section 8, which is an introduction to the rest of the book.

Total self-giving to God

Section 8 talks about totally giving ourselves to God. How can we totally give ourselves to God if we don't have this fundamental life of daily connection with the Lord? Not just in the sacraments, not just praying our rosary while we are on the way to work, but sitting down and quieting ourselves in the presence of the Lord. The Lord is calling us to obedience to invite his Holy Spirit to come and to work in us whether we feel like it or not, whether we experience the consolations of the Lord or not.

You know, if we want to enter into what the Lord is doing with us right now, the Lord is telling us. “Spend time in my presence. You have to let me transform you. You cannot transform yourself; you have to let me do it and I will only do it one on one. I'm not going to do it through forcing myself upon you, but if you come, I promise I will be there.” And that is what the Lord told us in the gathering all night tonight. “If you come, I promise I will be there.” The Lord is asking us to come to him in faith and to understand.

Never, ever give up

One thing that the book does that was outstanding for me -- and this is going to make you laugh, but it will seal in your mind an image that will help you retain the rest of this. This is my favorite picture, “Never Ever Give Up.”

We are not the bird trying to swallow the frog; we are the frog. The frog is not going to let that bird swallow him.

That is how the Lord wants us to be with our prayer time, with our time with him. Never let Satan swallow up our time with him. Never let Satan swallow up the time that the Lord wants to have with us.

Symptoms of lack of mental prayer

For me, the greatest thing about this book, and the thing that just killed all of my excuses and all of my falsehoods that I would allow to come into my life was that he gives examples throughout these two sections of each of the things that he is talking about. I just kind of aggregated some things because he talked about what it looks like if you don't have mental prayer. I had more things on this list than I was comfortable having. What convicted me about his list of some of the symptoms of not having mental prayer was that more of them showed up on the list than what I was comfortable with. So I am going to read a few to you, just to see if you recognize any of these in your own life.

  1. People who have time issues with mental prayer will likely struggle with chronic fatigue, procrastination and a strong desire or need for their own down time.
  2. They may suffer from Mary and Martha Syndrome where they are frustrated with others not as busy as they are.
  3. They suffer from FOMO. Fear Of Missing Out. This was not in the book -- this one is free. It comes from a podcast that I heard. Fear of missing out. Some of us are so busy because we are afraid of missing out on something and we suffer from FOMO. So pray about that.
  4. They have a desire for acquiring and doing things instead of developing relationships. We consistently succumb to gratifying our passions, appetites and desires and suffer from an inability to set and accomplish goals to achieve things that truly matter to us.
  5. We will be attached to our will. One of the things that he is talking about is that even if we are receiving the sacraments frequently, if we are trying to live an aggressive Christian life without mental prayer, there will always be something carnal about everything that we do. There will always be something in it that is not purely God.
  6. We do things that we don't want to do, as St. Paul talks about. That is a symptom of needing to spend more time in mental prayer. We will see traces of vanity, self-seeking and ambition. We will suffer from narrow-mindedness and a critical spirit. We will be easily offended and carry grudges. These are symptoms of that carnality. These are things that the Lord deals with when we are living in a relationship with him in mental prayer.
  7. The gifts and the fruits of the Spirit will remain on a human plane. We suffer from lack of inner peace. Subject to anxiety, fear and uncertainty, we are easily discouraged. We are uncertain if we are really and truly following God's path for our lives and attaining the purposes for which we were created. We are limited in our ability to witness.

So those are some of the symptoms Fr. Philippe talks about of a lack of mental prayer or a lack of contemplative prayer in the way that he is talking about in the book, in a way that unites us. We can spend time with the Lord, but not allow the Lord also to work on us. Or we can spend time learning, understanding that the Lord loves us as he talked about tonight.

Fullness of blessing

You know, not living in that love we remain like chickens walking around pecking at the ground. The Lord desires us to be eagles to fly with him on the wings of the winds. We become frustrated, and we become discouraged, but the Lord told us tonight in so many beautiful ways "Behold my beloved, I am here always to love, to guide, and to protect you. Always seek me; always unite yourself with me that I may bring you into the fullness of our love with you. Rejoice and know the presence of our love. Reach out to my love. I care for you and will always be here for you.”

We started the gathering talking about Naaman. I mentioned at that time the Lord gave him something simple to do to receive the fullness of blessing. That is what the Lord, in my opinion, my pea-brain discernment, is what the Lord is talking to us about as a Community. “Spend that little quality time with me and receive the fullness of my blessing, receive the fullness of my blessing.”

The Lord does not want to withhold anything from us and doesn’t withhold anything from us. If we don't have what the Lord has for us it is because we are not receiving it. That doesn't mean we get everything we want, but if we understand the Lord and we sincerely want everything that he wants for us, if that is truly the desire of our hearts, he says,  "Come to me I am always there." If we spend the time, he will be there. Amen.

Time for God – Discussion Questions

Chapter 1 MENTAL PRAYER IS A GRACE NOT A TECHNIQUE

Section 7 DETERMINATION TO PERSEVERE IN MENTAL PRAYER

  1. The book talks about many obstacles that demand our perseverance in mental prayer. What are obstacles that you have experienced in maintaining and growing consistence? and how have you overcome them?

 

  1. How have you dealt with the time issues associated with consistently fitting mental prayer into your daily routine?

 

  1. Read and meditate on the quote from St. John of the Cross on pages 28 and 29 and write or discuss what you receive in prayer.

 

Section 8 TOTAL SELF-GIVING TO GOD

  1. What is the connection between our physical life and our prayer life?

 

  1. How can we order our lives and surroundings to support our desire to give ourselves to God?

 

  1. How do you react/respond to the good/bad circumstances that come your way in life? Does it align with your desire to give yourself totally to God?

 

(Community Gathering, October 9, 2016)

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