Firsts

The other day I had the HONOR of helping two young Catholics participate in "Firsts" in their life.

The first was a sister of a friend. She is visiting her sister here in Alaska, and they came and visited us. They said they wanted to go fishing because although our friend lives here, her sister is currently studying Theology in Europe, and grew up in the Midwest. She had never caught a fish.

So we went down to a fellow parishioner-friend's place, that lives on a river, and decided to do a little fishing before Eucharistic Adoration. And what do you know... she caught her first fish, and a Red [Sockeye Salmon] at that. The technique for this type of fishing is a little tricky and awkward at first, but she quickly got a grasp on it, and was able to pull one in. I was geeked. She caught it on my pole, wearing my waders. Shortly there after we had to pack up and head to Adoration and they had to head home... to eat some Salmon.

I was pretty happy, and felt blessed. You could say it was a great way to spend the afternoon with fellow Catholics. (As a side note, the instant I met her, my wife told her to as me a question she had discussed in one of her classes regarding the Tridentine Form of Baptism. Talk about a way to instantly get on my good side).

I thought that my day was pretty good, I could have gone to bed and chalked it up as a good day. But then...

...something even cooler happened!

As we were leaving for Adoration, packing up our fishing stuff, I asked one of the young daughters of our friend, at whose place we were fishing, if she wanted to come to Adoration. (NB: Adoration is fairly new thing in this area.) She said, "Sure, I've never been." It was a pretty loud and resonating YES in my heart.

While we were there, we all prayed and talked a bit. I know that Adoration is about us and Jesus, but I don't think He minded the conversation, since it was about Him. It really was a moving experience for me... and hopefully for our guest as well. I have worked with teens since, well, I was a teen and I am always excited to hear their perspective on life and their faith.

So I was pretty blessed the other day, getting to experience firsts. That is the great thing about really surrounding yourself with people of your same faith and values... you get to experience life together in a deep and meaningful way. When experiences present themselves to you, their relation to the faith is easy, when you and your friends share the same theological and philosophical base. It makes life easier to digest, and it allows simple things like fishing to have a deep spiritual impact. It also allows deep spiritual events like Adoration, to be spread and shared to everyday friends.

Deo Gratias!