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| photo credit: Catholic Church (England and Wales) via photopin cc |
The world was buzzing this week with the news of the NEW Pope. After weeks of hearing the announcement from former Pope Benedict XVI that he was stepping down, Catholics became concerned. He is the first Pope to resign since 1415. Popes prior had remained in their position until death. While I am thrilled that Pope Francis I has calmed our fears of being leader-less we must not overlook the lesson we just learned.
It’s Soulful Sunday here on My Pocketful Of Thoughts and it is only right to take a moment and give thanks for all the great things going on in our lives right now. Let us also take this moment to recognize all the phenomenal men and women who have served our country. We have much to be thankful for, yes?
Friday night I was reminded of a conference for the RCIA Congress, I had to attend for Saturday morning at 8 am. The event had completely slipped my mind. I had made all these plans for Saturday morning and was thrown off a bit. I am that person who needs to plan everything out in order to feel at peace with day. I can handle changes but it takes a moment or two to adjust.
I woke up on Saturday morning, after a few hours of sleep, reluctant to start the day. I admit that I had to drag myself there. The day started with Mass, which I suggest if you do not do it now, start off your day with God. When the alarm goes off in the morning, take a minute or two to say Thank You for all the things in your life now, that you’re thankful for. Then there was a half hour-ish break to eat a pastry and a cup of coffee. This was my first time attending the RCIA Congress and I haven’t explained what it is yet because at that point of the morning I myself was not sure what it was. Have you ever been told you have to attending something that you’ve never heard of? Do you not have some reluctance? I do not like that about me, but I am human. So at this point I am thinking, Are we starting yet? I looked around the room and saw a little over 100 people in attendance and I began to feel bad for taking up three seats with myself and my stuff. :/
9:15 am we started with prayer and were introduced to the day. RCIA is an acronym that stands for Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. It outlines the steps for the formation for one to receive instruction about the Christian religion. It is the class I am teaching at my church. So, yes, this was a good reason to be at this event.
My reluctance of the event melted away with the first speaker, Father Ian Jeremiah. He captivated the audience with his stories of perspective on life and I could not stop taking notes. He was hilarious in his presentation but more importantly his words stayed with me. It is my wish to share them with you, not today but starting next week, My Pocketful of Thoughts will begin a short series titled Putting Life Into Perspective with Father Ian Jeremiah.
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| photo credit: Fr. Stephen, MSC via photopin cc |
The one thing I will share with you today is that he reminded the group that we should take advantage of the Year of Faith. The Year of Faith, which began on October 11th and will run until November 24, 2013, is a year especially dedicated to the profession of the faith, through readings of the Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. While this is something I have been doing for the past couple of years, it feels a little different this year because I am going to be teaching this to others. So no longer am I just taking it in, I have to also understand it and be able to explain it in a way that it is understood by others.
The more I learn the more I want to share it with you. I ask that you not be reluctant, like I was on Saturday morning, but that you be open and just take it in. For a long time I was having an inner war with myself, I could not understand why I was so unhappy and angry. I had so many things to be thankful for, but I never looked at it that way. I kept thinking to myself, ‘I’m here, doing so much to better myself and I don’t understand why all these bad things happen to me‘. It only seemed to bring more bad things. After a long absence from church, I started to go again. I sat quietly in the back pews and I just took it in. Then one day it clicked. It wasn’t right away. It was over a year of going to Mass every Sunday. When it clicked I decided I was ready to become Confirmed in the Catholic faith. I studied for one year with Sister Alta Gracia. So I want to share that with others, but especially you, that sometimes you have to just take it in. Perhaps you’ll read something that will compel you to do the same and share.
I’ll leave you today with today’s second reading.
Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself, that he might now appear before God on our behalf. Not that he might offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters each year into the sanctuary with blood that is not his own; if that were so, he would have had to suffer repeatedly from the foundation of the world. But now once for all he has appeared at the end of the ages to take away sin by his sacrifice. Just as it is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgement, so also Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.
-The word of the Lord.
–Thanks be to God.
Let it marinate.
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