Hopeful Hearts Ministry

Last night I received a phone call from my friend and priest, Fr. TJ Dolce, informing me that Msgr. Elmer passed away.  If you have been following my blog for the past year and a half then you might recall many entries that I mention my spiritual adviser, Msgr. Elmer.  For the past eight years this beautiful priest has been my guide on this extremely insane spiritual journey.  We began working together only a few months after I was called into youth ministry at St. Martha’s.  At first I’m certain he thought I was a dramatic spiritual fanatic because of the updating I had to do to inform him of who I was, where I was in my spiritual journey, and what I felt God was calling me to do.  It was Msgr. Elmer that encouraged me to begin writing down my memories before I was ever called to write them into a book.  He was also the priest that worked with me for years after coming home from that fateful WYD trip in Germany and helped me to discern what it was God was asking of me and help me to become more confident and bold in my call.

On the mornings I would visit Msgr. Elmer I would include in my morning prayer what it was I wanted to work on that day in Spiritual direction and as God is my witness Msgr. Elmer would begin the morning with a prayer that called in the Holy Spirit to be our guide and then once the prayer was over he would say, “I think we should work on this today,”  or, “Let’s focus on this…” and it would always be what I prayed about that morning.  This is how I knew he and I were in sync spiritually and that I should trust him unconditionally with his guidance because God was using him as voice to get through to me.

He was my confessor as well.  It is a rare gift to have a priest you can go to on a monthly basis and be able to end the meeting with the Sacrament of Reconciliation…and in that Sacrament he knew all I’d been working on and needed to improve.  It didn’t matter that as the years progressed his hearing failed him and I would literally have to yell my sins. 🙂  I just knew the resident seminarians were standing outside his office door (which was in their residence hall) and listening.  (Not really, but I wouldn’t blame them if they did!  Shoot, it would be like practicing!) 😉

Msgr. Elmer helped me discern this next transition on my journey.  He helped me take that big step and it feels so final to have begun my work at the parish with him as my guide and to end it and have him gone now  as well.  Talk about truly feeling as if I’m starting over.  🙁  Forgive my sappiness but I can barely see the screen because the tears of selfishness are clouding my vision.  I am going to miss Msgr. Elmer and though I know he is in heaven where he has asked to be these past few months, I know he is continuing his prayers for me.  He lived a very good, productive long life but selfishly I wish I could have had one more session.  Just one more to get that last bit of encouragement and know that I’m headed where God needs me to be.

My prayer partner, Dr. Pat, has also moved away to Dallas so it has been a double whammy for me this summer in transitioning.  I do trust God has His plan to lead me to whom I need to confide and confess.  But for now, I allow myself this one day of tears (well, and maybe at the funeral too).  Please pray for the soul of Msgr. Charles Elmer.

One final entry for today, I do want to share how God showed up this weekend and offer up another prayer request.  My family went to a resort for the weekend in Bastrop, Texas and had a much needed relaxing and enjoyable time together.  Yesterday I was sitting in a chair by the pool and a woman sat down in the one right next to me (our arms were touching we were that close).  She was talking to a friend of hers on the opposite side of her and then she turned to me and said, “I feel as if I should include you on our conversation.”  I smiled and said, “Oh, no, you wouldn’t want that.  I can talk.”   We laughed and I went about minding my own business and I even looked at a few chairs that were situated right next to me and thought to myself “I should scoot over,” but something literally kept me from moving over.  When the woman’s friend got up she turned to me and asked what I did for a living.  I told her that I was an inspirational speaker and author and quickly asked her what she did.  But of course the obvious question came when she asked, “What exactly do you speak about?”  and so I briefly told her and what ensued over a 45 minute period was her throwing out a question or statement every now and then (obviously not wanting to ask me full on or maybe she needed to get the encouragement).  After some time I came to realize she was a survivor of abuse (not stated out right but made known in certain things she said).  Once I was about to get up and leave for the day she finally said, “Tell me what your book is about.”  So I gave her the cliff note version.  She kept nodding and at times would say, “Yes, I can relate.”  Then she said, “I just became a Catholic at Easter.  I don’t think us sitting so close was a coincidence.  I think I need to read your book.”  Had I had a copy with me I would have given it to her!  I assured her I didn’t believe it was a coincidence either and told her my name again.  Please pray for this woman who is new to our faith and a survivor of abuse.

The final prayer request is for the FIRES that are engulfing Texas…specifically the Bastrop area. We left just in time Monday morning to get out before they closed all of the highways that would get us home to Houston.  It is a dire situation and in need of a lot of prayer for these 500+ families that have lost their homes.  This was our view on the way out Monday morning: