Celebrate

About two years ago I was invited to attend a women's retreat with a Methodist Church. There were over two hundred women who attended this reatreat, and as I accepted the invitation, I was numbered among them. On the second day of the retreat we were broken into "small groups" so as to provide a more intimate atmosphere for sharing and relfection. I don't even remember the prompt at this point, but my contribution involved (as it often does) a story about St. Therese and how she loved Jesus.

As I was talking, one woman especially stood out to me. I wish I could say it was because my keen sense of spiritual awareness told me there was something special about her. Truthfully though, it was because she was wearing a volleyball sweatshirt and I wanted to arrange a pick-up game after lunch. So I waited afterwards to talk with her.

To my dissapointment, she told me that the sweater belonged to her daughter and she was no volleyball player. But she did ask me if I was Catholic, and my disapointment disapeared! She asked me how long I had been Catholic, then finally added that she herself had been received into the Church that last Easter Vigil! She went on to explain that she is a teacher, and two years ago got a job at a Catholic School teaching the 2nd grade.

The parents of the second graders were upset, to say the least, that a non-Catholic would be preparing their children to receive their First Holy Communion. Their pastor however thought that perhaps she was placed with them for a reason. She told me she had assured them all that she had "no intention of becoming Catholic," but God had other plans. What changed her heart? A classroom full of 2nd graders celebrating their faith. Every day, she witnessed their joyful anticipation and their pure desire to receive Christ, their Savior; Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Holy Eucharist.

So as we enter into this time of great celebration, It is my prayer that I will live out my gratitude to God and also to Art and David for inviting me to participate in this blog. May it be evident that our duty to defend our beliefs has become our joy to celebrate them. And I praise God for placing the only other Catholic at a Protestant retreat in my Bible study. I praise Him for her journey Home. And I praise Him for the testimony and example of that second grade class that taught me how true converts are won: through the celebration of our faith!
To the Glory of God the Father, Jesus Christ is Lord!