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!

Adoration on the Kenai

Received some really great news last night!

Someone that knows that I blog, contacted me to let me know that Our Lady of Angels in Kenai had Eucharistic Adoration last night for the first time in many, many years.

Now, being new to the area I can't confirm on how long it has actually been, but it does seem that it has been a while since Adoration was a regular occurrence. I did talk to someone else and learned that occasionally in the past certain periods of Adoration would occur when someone was ill, or for a special intention [I won't get into the theological concept of this now] but aside from that the practice was absent. In  fact, it was even absent on Holy Thursday, much to our surprise when we tried to visit there, as is custom on Holy Thursday. [The tradition of visiting 7 parishes, or in our case, 1 other parish that didn't have Adoration.]

This is great news! From my understanding it was only for an hour, but as they say in the "Reform of the Reform" world: "Brick by brick." This now puts the number of Churches on the Kenai at 2, that have Adoration. Hopefully OLA will continue this practice, as it really does produce many spiritual fruits throughout the parish.

If anyone has more info about how this came about, the future, or their experience please let me know.

The Little Things...

Tonight, at Adoration... I was praying for some inspiration.

A few weeks ago I felt VERY "ON FIRE." I walked around in a seemingly constant state of spiritual inspiration... lately, I feel like I am wandering aimlessly.

So I prayed. Then my wife said something to me, and I said something back. Honestly, I don't even remember what it was about, but she said: "God gives us what we need, not what we want."

That struck me. It snapped me back into an on-fire sort of attitude. I know exactly what is getting at me... and I even have a solution to the "problem." Yet, until tonight, I was so worried that I was alone and was left un-aided. How foolish could I be?

God has prepared for me everything that I need... and it is just up to me whether or not I want to seize that which is mine, or protest because it isn't what "I think is best."I have tried everything I can think of to "right the ship" in my heart and mind about things, to no avail. Finally, my wife said a simple little thing to me... and VOILA! It all became clear to me.

It really is the little things...

Late Night Adoration

I supervised a youth lock-in this past weekend. Here are a few snapshots of our 2:30-3:30 Adoration:

Posted by: Brian