New Beginnings

Unbelievable. I wrote this whole, long blog and then I accidentally clicked on the wrong tab and totally deleted it! Argh.

OK, to recap (and forgive me if I don't have the patience to make it fascinating again :P)

Wayne and I have been getting to know our new church. We have been seeking what's called "Convalidation," which is bringing your secular marriage into the church, as a sacramental way of receiving God's blessing and grace within the structure of your couple. We want to do this because we had a very quick, spur of the moment, and non-religious wedding, and we want the opportunity to bring God into our marriage in the way HE set it up in the first place... and the blessing of our spiritual authority.
In doing so, we have had to undergo some pretty intensive church counseling. Well, not so much counseling as pushing in the direction of communication. For instance, on Tuesday we filled out what's called a FOCUS questionnaire. We had to separately answer a ton of questions about every aspect of our marriage, which was a WONDERFUL exercise for us because it showed us how much we've overcome (differing socio-economic background, cultural background, relational background, language barriers, differing goals, ideals, values, sexual backgrounds, religious upbringing, etc.)
It also showed us the areas we need to work harder at, and how much God is molding us together as One Flesh already! It was very, very cool and I recommend it to anyone. The Catholic CHurch is great about marriage because it forces people to undergo a six month preparation period to equip them to adequately relate to one another in Christ. AWESOME. I wonder if the percentage of PRACTICING Catholic weddings that stay together is higher than the percentage of PRACTICING protestant weddings?

Anyways, it was good stuff.

Wayne is also beginning the first stages of RCIA, which is the inquiry phase of joining the Catholic Church. He will be going to his first meeting on Thursday night and he is very excited about it. He has MANY doctrinal issues he wants to address, revolving mostly around the Real Presence in the Eucharist and the idea of Purgatory...and the pope. Thanks to Medjugorje, he has TOTALLY made his peace with Mary's role and with the communion of the Saints. Obviously he has also made his peace with infant baptism :P

So, I've been praying that he would come into contact with some knowledgeable Catholics who would really stir up his spirit and not just stagnant old farts for lack of a better term who just go "through the motions." I've been praying that the people we encounter in this parish are really vibrant in their faith! God answered my prayers first through a myspace encounter with a woman who is fascinating in her rich understanding of the deposit of faith, DVora/deb.
And last night, we went to church to eat a 'new members dinner' and get to know our parish. What an incredible night!
We dropped the kids off in the simple, adorable nursery and then went into the social hall, where the lay ministers had set up little boards with the whos and whys of each ministry within the structure of the Parish. There were all sorts of cool things-- scouts, a school, ministry to the homebound, sick, dying, bereaved, young couples, Natural Family Planning, Abstinance awareness, Life issues, feeding the poor, the hungry, etc. Basic elements of a church that works for peace and justice IN THE WORLD, not just "for later." Which I really appreciate-- I think alot of evangelicals have a tendency to say; well, I didn't give him any money, but I gave him a card that tells him about Jesus, so hopefully that made a difference. I think we should give him our SHOES and the card, you know? Anyways, I rejoiced when I saw that this church had a Legion of Mary (which is an organization that empowers lay ministers to go out in pairs and "wash the feet" of the saints by doing the hard and dirty work--service and prayer--- because Mary has promised to guide them to Jesus by imploring them to pray and love God and love others.It's like, Mary's Army. These are the people who C Peter Wagner's intercession team pray against directly-- they are an army of warriors doing battle WITH the Queen of Heaven. It's all very interesting to me.) I was psyched. Since Medjugorje, I've wanted to get involved with the group. The Legion of Mary reps there gave Wayne a miraculous medal, which he wore immediately (I was surprised!) and they promised to come to our house to pray a rosary with us.... wonderful. I've been praying the rosary every day at 5 pm in the winter, 6 pm in the summer, Medjugorje time, along with the church there, in preparation for the apparitions. They also had a table representing the Immaculate Conception Soldality, an organization of Catholic women who promote the Christian faith by (and I quote) "doing whatever Mary tells them to do." I remember a day when this would have made me SHUDDER, and when Wayne and I would have left in a huff.
But instead, we looked at the statue of the Blessed Mother sitting at this display and my eyes filled with tears of gratefulness because she has brought me where she promised she would-- into a deeper, more meaningful relationship with her Son, Jesus, who's grace for us is just astounding.
"Doing what Mary tells them to do," as they outlined on their brochure, involved: worshipping Jesus, going to church and receiving communion, praying daily, reading the scriptures, serving others, and sharing the gospel. Oh nooooez!! The scary Mary people!! :P
To top it off, those women were the ones who cooked us the fabulous dinner. It was very nice.

Anyways, we learned all about the different things involved, and what we liked about it was that it was very much a prayer service... we sang and worshipped the Lord, we prayed (a lot!) and we were lectured to about how the church is made of living stones and that we needed to be a PART of the community for it to work. We also had to get up in front of everyone and introduce ourselves, which took forever but was very good for all of us. And at the end, we received a very Jewish blessing. It was cool, and very different from what we had expected. The only other place we had a "new members evening" was at Manna, where we were catered a DELICIOUS meal by a hot restaurant in town and then the pastors, one by one, introduced themselves on stage. We appreciated so much that this was a prayer service more than just a meet and greet-- and that it asked us IMMEDIATELY to step up to the challenge of WALKING our talk rather than just being spectators who are wined and dined. And I admit, I really liked that it wasn't catered by a fancy restaurant. I liked that I was given a humble meal so that this church could use the funds it would have spent on catering in a different way... to help someone more unfortunate than me.

The other hilarious moment came at the beginning when we were getting drinks. Wayne goes to the table and says: "Oh my gosh. They are serving BEER!!! Is that for us????" He couldn't believe they would serve alcohol at a church event! I laughed, telling him that most Catholics I knew came from Irish, Italian, or Hispanic backgrounds and didn't think of Alcohol in the same way his southern baptist mentors always had. He was pleased and had a Heineken and poured me a glass of Cab, and even pulled out my chair for me!! He has been such a gentleman lately!

Anyways, then came the icing on the cake. We have an appt on Saturday after Confession to speak with Father Tony, the priest who baptized our kids. Wayne has lots of meaty theological stuff he wants to go over. I didn't know him and wasn't sure if he was going to be "Adequate" for Wayne's apologetics-infused mindset.... but I was surprised when he came up to us and sat down. "So are we going to hang out on Saturday?" he said as he stuck out his hand. Wayne and he started to chat and before I knew it I had tears in my eyes. It was totally the Lord.... this man is COMPLETELY in love with SCRIPTURE. He is a master at Catholic apologetics, but at the same time he feels strongly that we are ALL one body and that we need to treat non Catholic christians as brothers in the faith. He feels strongly enough about the sacraments (obviously or he wouldn't be a priest) to be FIRM in his "we need them" stance, but not in a divisive kind of a way. He knew his Bible like the back of his hand, and had an obvious, deep, and lasting passion for the Word of God. He recommended some incredible reading for Wayne to start with, especially a CS Lewis book in which his first sentence reveals that he believes STRONGLY in purgatory! (how did I miss that??) and he really couldn't wait to get to the meat of the conversation. We talked animatedly for so long that we almost missed dinner... and he went out of his way to make a separate appt with me for confession on Saturday to walk me THROUGH the sacrament, which is so helpful to me! He also gave us his personal cell number and told us that we could use it ANY time we needed, day or night, no matter how small the issue, because he really wanted to be available to us! Lastly, he told us how amazed he was that our first time at St Patrick's was the day our kids were baptized. "In a way, I"m relieved," he said, " You looked so happy and I was really feeling terrible because I had no idea who you were. I wanted to know you first!" It was a very welcome change to feel like when we contact our pastors for help with a theological question or what not, we are not bothering a busy business man! I can't tell you how refreshing it was! We left with a renewed sense of awe at God's goodness.

Upon returning home, I had an email in my inbox from Pastor Fletcher, answering my request to explain how he felt about the events at Medjugorje. It was very brief. It said: Barbie, I agree with C Peter Wagner on this one. I am not as passionate about it as he is, but I definitely think he is on track. (meaning that the apparitions of Mary are demonic attemtps to steer people away from Jesus Christ, that the Queen of Heaven is THE most powerful principality, that WW1 memorials are her shrines and that the Sons of Europe were sacrifices to her, etc. etc.)
Upon reading it, Wayne goes: "Well, that settles it." I giggled. We should be able to hash these things out with our pastors. They should take the time to thoroughly explain them to us. Michael is the busy head of a mega church, and can't do that for us, but I would expect to have received an email from our district pastor saying: Michael forwarded me your email and asked me to explain why we think it's dangerous to believe in Medjugorje," or what not. Instead, we had a letter in the mail from our district pastor saying: "Hi! I'm your district pastor. It's very important to me to know how you are doing spritually. Are you involved in a cell group here? Is there anything I can do for you?" As if we didn't consider him a friend and he had no idea who we were. It was so refreshing to know that tonight, God had placed us in the hands of someone whose entire heart was to help us, with no distractions, get the most out of our relationship with God. Someone who wanted "to be available to us at any time! Even if it's two a.m and you are just having an argument."
In the same pile of mail was a present from a "Friend of Medjugorje" addressed to me: in it were two rosaries with medals that had been present at a 2007 apparition during which Mary had blessed all the people and religious articles present. I can't believe what a blessing it is to own a rosary that was blessed by the Mother of Our Lord. It was the perfect end to the perfect night.