Lenten catch-up

Wow, I haven't entered anything new here for a while! Been too busy living, I guess. I haven't had time to ride, either!

Jubilee's season has been going great. What a wonderful Way of the Cross service we're blessed to offer to the parishes in the area. I may get to experience most of it from the congregation's perspective on Friday, as I'm fighting off a cold and doubt my voice will be up to snuff, barring Divine intervention in the next 20 hours. I'll need to be there anyway, to play on the one guitar piece that's part of the program, so I may as well prayerfully immerse myself in these wonderful reflections and prayers from an entirely different perspective.

The weekend before last, we got to share this service with dear friends from our time in Biloxi in the first half of the 80's. Three and a half years ago, when our youngest daughter was in the hospital giving birth to her oldest child, a familiar looking person strode through the door into the hospital lobby. We hadn't seen Carol and Phil in 8 years, only twice in the preceeding 20, and never outside of Mississippi. Their daughter and son-in-law had moved here, and they were also soon welcoming a new grandchild. We've managed to visit together whenever they've been in town in the ensuing years. This dear couple was part of the faith community that was so instrumental in forming my relationship with my Lord. We won't be seeing them locally again, as their daughter and her family are moving away, but we're looking forward to visiting our friends in their home in Colorado, where they now live. These several years of intermittent time with them was such a wonderful gift, and their affirmation of the power of my current ministry is all the more precious because we know they've walked closely with Christ for so long.

Oh, our CD turned out great!

This week has offered another wonderful set of blessings. Our associate pastor, Fr. Satish Joseph, used to travel the length and breadth of India offering parish missions with a close priest friend of his, who now resides and ministers in St. Louis. So this week the two of them were reunited, offering their first parish mission in the U.S. here. Next week they'll do another in Fr. Rajpaul's parish. The churches (of our two partner parishes) were packed with 500-700 people each night. The praise and worship was wonderful, the teaching inspiring, and the Holy Spirit was clearly at work. The theme was "Hakuna Mattata." Sounds unlikely, I know. But it was about looking at Christ through the eyes of St. Paul, a man who was in prison when he wrote about the joys of being a prisoner for Christ. (I'm pretty sure they didn't have cable T.V. or workout areas in first century Roman prisons.) What a great message. Once I encounter Christ, as Saul did on the road to Damascus, the events of my life are never measured the same way, and I can find joy in the midst of whatever else life brings, through Him who strengthens me. Setting aside all of the credentials and credits in which the world puts so much faith, we count them as rubbish (Fr. Rajpaul implied the actual Greek word St. Paul used is more like excrement) compared to what Jesus has done for us.

Also, we had a fabulous Catholic men's conference last Saturday. Cincinnati has had 15 of them; I've been to 12 or 13. This one was maybe the best ever; at least top 2.

Well, that's the biggest part of what I've been up to during this season of grace and reconciliation, besides striving to walk closely with Christ each day. May He continue to bless this Lenten season, that our celebration of our resurrection with Him may be complete!