Last night we had a successful Casino Night fund-raiser for our Catholic school and it went well into the morning which took precedence over writing a blog.
This morning I picked my son and his friend up from a birthday sleep over that was about twenty minutes outside of Kingwood in a rural small town. In this area there is a small Catholic church that I’ve been wanting to visit for some time. Many of its parishioners have come over to St. Martha’s for various programs and I’d heard great things about the priest as well.
The parking lot was a dirt lot where everyone parked where ever they wanted. the inside of the tiny church brought me back to when I was a little girl and we lived in a small town near Waco. The decor was 70’s at its finest and the choir individually miked overpowered the small space with praise and worship Folk style taking me back to so many Masses long ago.
I listened to the priest congratulate a parishioner for having a baby. He pointed them out and called them by name. It is the little privileges of being in a small parish such as this that made me miss it … a little. The homily was enthusiastic and though it jumped around a bit I could see he had both my son and his friend’s attention. He spoke about the gift of life and how often we can recognize that God has a specific purpose for each one of us which is why our life is precious. When he was a little boy coming over from Asia he explained that the pirates raided their boat and many people were shot all around him. He saw them all go down so he fell along with them. When the commotion ceased he had to check himself to see if he’d been shot and there was not one wound. He knew he had been saved for a reason. Seth looked over at me and raised his eyebrows. It was nice to see he listened.
When the time came for the collection plate to go around I was going for my wallet and I saw Seth dig into his jeans. He pulled out some money and even though he had a few one’s he took out a five dollar bill. His friend saw this and reached into his pocket and took out a ten-dollar bill. All I had was a ten and I felt a little guilty that my son and his friend were giving as much as me!
My heart swelled for the fact he gave on his own which is leaps and bounds over how I would have been at his age in Mass or with faith. Maybe Neal and I are doing something right after all?
I’m glad I had the opportunity to take Seth to a parish that isn’t as large or as ‘wealthy’ as ours. And it went along with the scripture this morning as well, “Feed My Sheep”.
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
He then said to Simon Peter a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
Jesus said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was distressed that Jesus had said to him a third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.
And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”[/box]
Blessings
Shannon