Daily Readings 10/22/2014 or I Was Coming Down the Mountain; Filled With the Holy Spirit! (all apologies to Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction)

"Of this I became a minister by the gift of God’s grace
that was granted me in accord with the exercise of his power.
To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given,
to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ,
and to bring to light for all what is the plan of the mystery
hidden from ages past in God who created all things," -Eph. 3:7-9

Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

This past weekend I went on a Catholic men's retreat in beautiful northern New Hampshire. We asked that the Holy Spirit guide our conversations and inspire our ideas, and, just like the incredible scenery and food, we were not disappointed.

The theme of the weekend was becoming fishers of men and we had some great talks around evangelizing. I know what you're thinking, "Did he just say they talked about EVANGELIZING on a CATHOLIC men's retreat?"

Yup, that's right buddy! We're putting on our shirts and ties and knocking on doors. We're taking confessions and handing out the Eucharist! We're going to tell you about the saints and transubstantiation!
Just kidding. But it's interesting that this is the reading when I return to the blog after our retreat. Here is St. Paul telling how even though he is imperfect, indeed as he says, 'the very least of all the holy ones', he was given the grace to preach and evangelize.

I've written many times about how God doesn't always choose the perfect to deliver the good news, but it's not often that I mention how they do it. Paul nails it here when he talks about the grace he was given to be able to do so. It's the same for those of us who were on retreat. The Holy Spirit and God's grace will give us the strength, the courage (and hopefully the words) to stand up and witness for our faith when the time comes. It will help us to initiate that conversation with someone who is in need of Christ's compassion and mercy. It will give us the right questions to ask when we need to dig deeper to get to the root of someone's issues with God or his church.

In all, there were ten of us in the mountains and not one of us is under any illusion of his perfection. Yet we all trust that when God decides to use us to spread his message, he will also send the Holy Spirit to give us the grace to be the best PR men he could have.

Thanks to all the guys who went and to the people at the Shiloh retreat center in Jefferson. It was another faith filled weekend of rejuvenation. With a nod to our stop at The Basin on the ride up, we truly were able to;

"draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation" -Is. 12:3

God Bless,

P.D.O.