The Veritas & Caritas Group

After getting Andy’s email Monday I realized it’s been several weeks since I last logged on to this great website Andy created and noticed we’ve been letting Andy have all the fun writing in it so I thought I put in a few thoughts. Everyone should check out Andy’s blog and Polycarp Ministries site. We especially enjoyed the ‘Redneck 4th of July’ Youtube clip. I’m not nearly as talented as Andy at writing but thankfully that’s not a prerequisite.

Father Denis in his homily Saturday mentioned the book “The Road Less Traveled” by M. Scott Peck. I read this book about 15 years ago and started rereading today. It made a big impression on me 15 yrs ago and even though it’s not a Catholic book I highly recommend it. I mentioned in the meeting a couple of weeks ago that I got a book from the library called ‘Trusting God’ by Jerry (not Jeff) Bridges. Again, he’s not a Catholic author but he helped me have a better understanding of the sovereignty of God. I had always had trouble understanding how God works in a world that is so full of evil and suffering. I wrote it all off to the effects of free will and sin but that still didn’t explain natural disasters, disease, etc, etc…. This book helped me see that everything, no matter how evil we perceive it to be at the time, can be used for the further glory of God and our own good and that God is always in control. Our own good is not always what we think it is but is God’s will for us to become more like His son. We don’t always understand because we can’t see the big picture but we have to have faith and trust in God’s infinite love and wisdom. Trust is easy when life is good but can be very hard in the painful times when God tests our faith.

If anyone has read any books that have had an impact on their life (I already know about the bible) I’d like to hear about them. There are so many books out there but it’s hard to sort the wheat and the chaff. Rebecca mentioned to me the ‘Interior Castel’ by St. Teresa of Avila. I’m looking forward to reading it.

I feel really fortunate to be in this group and definitely feel like it’s an answer to prayers. I pray for those in the group and especially about concerns that members bring up in our meetings. I pray that there will be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the group that will bless our lives, our families, and community.

God bless,
Tony

Hey, has everybody fallen off the face of the earth?  NO posts since May 20th!!!!  Sorry I missed what sounds like a great discussion Sunday before Father's Day Sunday but I felt like my face was going to explode off of my skull from sinus pressure!  What's on the agenda for this weekend?

I just wanted to take a minute to tell everyone, "Thank You!" for all your love and prayers.   I speak for not just my little clan, but for the Walkers as well.  It is such a blessing to have friends who care and who rally around when troubles come.  That is a beautiful picture of what community looks like.  The love we see lived out is a HUGE help, especially in a time of great pain.

We who trust in Christ have a hope that goes beyond all pain and all the unknowns of this life, but we still hurt.  We still miss.  We still struggle.  Being part of a family of believers is a great aid and reminder of that hope in Christ that we share together.  I can't comprehend how those without this hope are able to survive in this messed up world we call our pilgrim home.

We love and appreciate you all.  Thank you very much. 

About 15 months ago, we went through one of those big life change things — ours, at that point, was a 'move'.  With a 7 year stint in a small Texas town, we really didn't realize till the move date came around just how deep our roots had been put down.  And, it was job related — good pay, new adventure, all that, but something we tried to consider prayerfully.  We had/have dear friends there, and a small but active church life, and we weren't far from family.  We had long discussions (my wife and I, and again with the kids) over the course of several weeks about what may or may not happen, and why we should or shouldn't move.  We prayed to make the right decision.  Well, I was reading C.S. Lewis in the months leading up to the move and found consolation in several things, but there's a quote that stuck with me through all the uncertainty and long after settling down after the move…to paraphrase: God invites us down to the water, and we ultimately splash and play and dip our toes in the surf, only to eventually return to the margins of dry land.  What God really wants is for us to cast off for deeper water: to swim, to immerse ourselves totally in him and trust him.  (Mere Christianity, I think? Do copyright laws warrant confessions?)

 So, this little analogy kept sticking with me and keep surfacing in my head over some weeks (it's an attention disorder, I'm sure), and all the parts of the analogy were fairly plain — God, me, surf, yadda yadda yadda…until I thought: how did any of us learn to swim?  It dawned on me that God doesn't really 'teach' us per se, although he wrote the manual.  Just like our kids, there's usually somebody there, even if it's just watching good swimmers and trying to look like they look in the water.  The piece I took the longest to recognize, the piece that was right in front of me was everyone else: my little west Texas church.  They-my church- taught me how to swim.  Priest, parishioners, everybody.  There were people to watch that I knew were good swimmers.  There were people to help, and encourage (including you-know-who), that weren't going to be very good unless they made a bigger effort, or got some help along the way.  Just by allowing me to experience the highs and lows of their spiritual journey,  lots of people inspired and encouraged me.  And along the way, I got a little bit better (and yes, still have a long way to go).

Fast forward 15 months:  the events of a month have revived a string of thoughts I had back before we moved.  Yep, 1 month since we started The Group (save the tea chest, boss…).  Some highs, some lows, but called to share them among fellow swimmers.  Here's a group of parents with their children sharing the highs and lows of their journeys…sound familiar?  I mean, okay, it's a little cozier and a little more encouraged than when I realized what I had back in Texas, but it's very, very much the same.  What's better?  Well, before, it was like the whole elementary was at the pool; now, it's kind of like just the 3rd grade has the deep end all to themselves.  We have a few more things in common — so it helps us understand each other.

So, if you're waiting for God to reach up with an arm of water and pull you in, you might have a longer wait than you like…it just hasn't happened for me.  My suggestion:  Look around.  Find your swimmin' buddy.  Heck, find your group of buddies.  Count to 3.  Jump in!  The water's great.

Fine!  I'll write something!  Happy?!  I am sooooo impressed at how quickly this group has coalesced.  You people are NOT normal (Thank God!).  Most groups have to meet together for much longer before they feel comfortable talking about the important stuff, like feelings and personal relationships with family and God and insecurities and, well, y'all were there to hear it too.  I have to say that I feel just a smidge guilty at having a group of people who are all obviously capable of leading their own communities gathered together into one group instead of spreading everyone out to help form other groups! (Is that sinful pride?  Or just an honest realization of what a wonderful bunch of Catholics y'all are?)  Do y'all realize how many people want to form SCC's and how few people there are willing to lead them?  There are several people "double-grouping" to help new SCC's get going!  Not that I feel guilty enough to break up our group, you understand!

Well, now it's someone elses turn to post.  It really is very easy!  Meanwhile, let's all keep the Walker family in our prayers and stay alert for any indication of how we can help them.

In His love and mercy,

Susan

Just kidding.  Meeting 3 went off without a hitch.  Great great time.  I know I say it every time, but I really enjoy getting to know everybody in these meetings.  I will also have to say that I am way impressed that all the kids (big age range) are getting along so well.  No injuries to report and no damages to property that I know of.    

What I am waiting for now are for the other group members, many of whom have already signed up for the blog, to start writing their own posts.  I'd like to read their thoughts.  This, after all, is a page for the entire group.  

And anybody can write on anything they want.  Wanna write about Iron Man?  Go ahead.  Want to talk about the weather?  Sure thing.  Wanna share the latest dish on Paris Hilton?  Nah.  Remember, if you need help, just ask me or ask the webmaster at the Catholic Social Network. 

It’s always been hard for me to imagine the call to close, personal contact with other people about my faith: witnessing…especially on a regular basis. For that reason, I still had a few lingering doubts about how well I would fit into our SCC. I mean it isn’t just about my own journey, but am I really adding to the others in the group? Will I step on anyone’s toes? Will they step on mine? Bad analogy — there were a LOT of toes there last night.

Anyway, our second group meeting put all that to rest, even with a few more couples AND kids. Some of us have just met through this process, and, contrary to any worries I had, we had a great time. Open, sincere dialogue about things that are usually hard to be open about.

It’s one thing to let the circle of adults grow. It’s an additional thing to grow the group of kids. That’s right — no head trauma, no fights, no bruised feelings…the biggest complaint of the night from 15 pre-teens was that we had to go home! Great time had by all. If that’s not another clear sign of God at work in our group…you get the drift.

Every day’s an adventure — it’s really cool to share it with some other adventurers. God’s got all kinds of stuff to show us, but you can’t take the trip alone.

Tonight was our second time together and already our merry little band has grown. Apparently, this was God’s perfect timing for a group of our sort.

While I obviously cannot divulge the content of our discussions, I can say that our conversation was productive and that I am having a wonderful time getting to know everyone better. Oh, and our children are behaving and getting along swimmingly. Do we call that “actual grace” or a miracle or what? Maybe everybody just has good kids. Did you ever think of that, smarty pants?

This is a lot of fun. If your parish isn’t doing something like this, I recommend you talk to your priest about having Small Church Communities as an extension of his ministry to the parish. When done right, SCCs are a great help to your pastor and the parish in general.

Had our first meeting tonight.  Someone remarked that it would be nice to have a central location to keep up with our activities, especially should someone miss one of our little get togethers.  Therefore we have this nice little blog.  I hope to add more nice add-ons as we go along.  For now, this will be functional.  I hope all our members will take the time to post from time to time.

Because it's fun, that's why.

So there's our first post.  Had a lot of fun tonight.  Looking forward to the next time together.