Last night in mass I was focused on many things that I needed to get done before the week started and in how I have grown in the past year. Lots has happened and I won't bore you with all of it, yet the main thing is my growth with my faith. Many of you know I follow blogs, these families are all grounded by faith and every once an awhile their ground gets shaken but the pieces make it back together.
When Fr. Jerry passed away when I was in SC last May, I felt my ground shaken and broken in many pieces. I never went to mass during the summer except for the one time Cindy and Sarah were visiting, and that was difficult to sit in the gym with many people I have become close with and think that they did not have the privilege to know the one man I had always know that represented the Catholic faith for me. I have mentioned time and again how much Fr. Jerry means to my family, at 5 years old he came and did my Poppa's funeral. (Poppa's birthday is tomorrow. I miss not getting to know him like I should have been able to.) And just like Fr. Jerry, my Poppa's life was taken by the beast of cancer. At 7, Fr. Jerry Baptized me, at 8 he gave me my 1st Communion, at 10 he walked me through Reconciliation and at 16 he was there when my dad became Catholic and when I went through Confirmation.
While my ground was shaken and broken into many pieces I was looking for something to make me continue my beliefs and head back to church. And while I was only not attending mass for 10 weeks or so, I was pulled away from my faith. I had to figure out how to work my pieces back together and make my life one that I wanted with my faith included. St. Luke University Parish did that for me. When Fall semester started back again, I was eager to get back to the church. I saw it as a way to start the year off on the right foot. I was being guided by someone or maybe many.
I can remember one mass in the Fall that I could not stop thinking about Fr. Jerry. I let the pain fall and make my ground uneasy, but after, worked to piece my ground back together.
As I get working on the Relay for Life at GVSU, I am thinking more and more about the loved ones I have lost to the beast of cancer especially Fr. Jerry and Poppa. While I am still piecing my ground back together, I realize I owe a lot to St. Luke University Parish. Without them present in Allendale and on campus I am not so sure where I would be with my faith.
St. John Vianney has almost made it a whole year without Fr. Jerry, it has been a bumpy road but one that our God is leading us each down. For me, it is to become part of this new parish community in Western Michigan. I will always have strong connections to my home parish, but for now St. Luke's is helping me see the light that many others saw. While some others may be waiting for their aa-ah moment I think I have found mine this weekend, to see the light that God does have a plan for each and everyone of us to overcome all the challenges that disrupt our ground and to find it in some way to piece it all back together
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