Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday morning here in the Parish I have the great honor and pleasure of exposing the Blessed Sacrament and sitting for about an hour in prayer as parishioners trickle in for morning Mass. This quiet hour has been and continues to be a real school of prayer for me and a clinic on Catholicism and Catholic identity.
Last week one faithful couple brought their grandchildren in for adoration and Mass and during that hour taught them a very beautiful way to pray: “Do you remember the story of Fatima?” the grandmother asked. “Yes,” one of the girls responded. “Now is the time to think of that story, while your in front of Jesus.” In this very simple exchange, so down to earth, so human, the faith was being powerfully communicated. The grandmother taught her granddaughter so many things, in so few words.
Just picture this: A little girl musing over the compelling story of Our Lady of Fatima while kneeling in front of a candle lit golden monstrance thumbing her Rosary beads. This sounds more like the beginning of a fantasy novel than it does something that actually happened on a random Tuesday morning in Old Town, Maine in 2011. But it happened! That beautiful exchange happened right here in our Parish.
So what do we draw from this fact that happen in our parish? The communication of the faith, evangelization, is first and foremost a simple human act. In this instance, it started by simply recalling a story in front of beautiful art. That is one way we communicate our faith. We recall historical facts (the incarnation, a biblical event, or an apparition of Mary) in the form of stories in the presence of beauty! Do we give our children, or ourselves for that matter, enough time in the presence of beauty, whether in paintings, sculpture or music? Do we learn the stories of our faith? Are we inspired by the stories of the saints? Do we know and ruminate on them?
There are many compelling movies and books about the saints that we can use to draw us in to the grace that God is trying to communicate to the world. There are many beautiful images in our churches. Are we drawn in by them? Do we let ourselves really see what is in front of us? I propose to you that the beginning of vocation is this: To grow in the awareness of this Presence, to sacrifice our time in front of beauty with the events of our faith in our minds. Only in the quiet context of Christian experiences, like the one those little girls experienced, can our vocations grow, can we hear what God is trying to speak to us.
Last week one faithful couple brought their grandchildren in for adoration and Mass and during that hour taught them a very beautiful way to pray: “Do you remember the story of Fatima?” the grandmother asked. “Yes,” one of the girls responded. “Now is the time to think of that story, while your in front of Jesus.” In this very simple exchange, so down to earth, so human, the faith was being powerfully communicated. The grandmother taught her granddaughter so many things, in so few words.
So what do we draw from this fact that happen in our parish? The communication of the faith, evangelization, is first and foremost a simple human act. In this instance, it started by simply recalling a story in front of beautiful art. That is one way we communicate our faith. We recall historical facts (the incarnation, a biblical event, or an apparition of Mary) in the form of stories in the presence of beauty! Do we give our children, or ourselves for that matter, enough time in the presence of beauty, whether in paintings, sculpture or music? Do we learn the stories of our faith? Are we inspired by the stories of the saints? Do we know and ruminate on them?
There are many compelling movies and books about the saints that we can use to draw us in to the grace that God is trying to communicate to the world. There are many beautiful images in our churches. Are we drawn in by them? Do we let ourselves really see what is in front of us? I propose to you that the beginning of vocation is this: To grow in the awareness of this Presence, to sacrifice our time in front of beauty with the events of our faith in our minds. Only in the quiet context of Christian experiences, like the one those little girls experienced, can our vocations grow, can we hear what God is trying to speak to us.
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