A Three Day Mission

Monday, March 14, 2016

This morning, after the 9 a.m. mass, we listened to Fr. Greg Cleveland, OMV, who spoke to us on the first day of a three day mission. His talk ended with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Fr. Greg is a good story teller and told us about Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, about the Murphy Twins, visiting prisoners, being judgmental, and how the eyes are windows to the soul. Each topic made me think about my life.

He mentioned that when he was wondering and worrying about whether or not he was worthy to be the rector he pondered over that question numerous times. One day as he took a walk through the neighborhood he happened to see a worker's truck. The truck had the tailgate down holding the man's tools and from the radio a song was blasting. As Father listened to the music he recognized Billy Joel's, I Love You Just the Way You Are. Like lightning hitting him he understood the message of God loving him just as he was and he knew he could be the Rector with no qualms about whether he was good enough, because God loved him just as he was.

I enjoyed his talk on being judgmental and realize it is something I struggle with a lot. Sometimes a thought enters my mind before I know it and the thought is judgmental. Immediately, I try to correct the thought and maybe that is all I can do about those thoughts that aren't very Christian but seem to creep into my mind anyway.

Even though the mission didn't make a fire burst into my soul, I believe there was enough smoldering to make me think and try to be a better person. After the talk, the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament was silent and, in its own way, beautiful.

A good thing to remember is the first line of the prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.  "O Lord, I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection."

2nd Day of Mission

The entrance of the church had two banners about Fr. Craig's order plus religious books for sale. The Oblates of the Virgin Mary is a religious institute of priests and brothers. The founding Father, Bruno Lanteri, began the religious order in 1816. Those in the order work in preaching, the sacrament of confession and love of the Virgin Mary. I have a Facebook friend who is an OMV and his main job is recruiting young men to enter religious life.

Fr. Greg began his talk with a clever joke about a bungee company and a  Piñata and then told a story about a violin. The Violinist was given the chance to play an expensive Stradivarius but on stepping up to the stage he tripped and fell, breaking the violin into many pieces. He was heart broken and performed his concert with a borrowed violin. He took the broken pieces of the Stradivarius to a master repair person and the violin was slowly put back together again. When he played the repaired violin, it was better than before it had been broken and the sound came out better than perfect.

I liked the analogy that we are like the violin, broken in many ways, yet the master repair man (God) can make us better than we were before if we allow him to work on us.

There may have been other points, but I had to leave early and missed the rest of his talk.

"Let me love you truly

and love others for your sake."

Part of the opening prayer.

3rd Day of The Mission

 Fr. Greg told about going to a home to bless it and going from room to room. When he was going to go down to the basement, the owner told him not to go down to the basement because he might not like what he saw. He did not know what was in the basement but he mentioned that people will throw a lot of "stuff" into the basement where no one can see it. He suggested that every once in a while a person should go down and clean it out.   In the same way, our souls need cleaning up and confession is one way to bring order to one's life.  Mother Teresa's idea was that first comes a thought, then a word, followed by action, then it becomes a habit and that becomes our destiny. We need to be careful of that first evil thought!

Fr. Greg mentioned that we all have shadows (a part of us that we do not like) and we try to keep it from showing but every once in a while the shadow pops up and we have to deal with it.  God is like the sun and the further away we stand from the sun, the longer the shadow. But, if we stand directly below the sun there will be no shadow. That's as close as we can get to God!

Some people complain about "why go to confession often when all I do is confess the same sins?"

I liked that he said it is like when you have an illness (sin) you will go to the doctor over and over again until cured.(confession) 

His revelation of Gilligan's Island was new to me. It was as if those on the island were in hell and could never get out. The seven sins are represented in the characters. As many times as I watched Gilligan's Island I never made a connection to the seven deadly sins!

 Captain: Anger

The Professor: Pride

Ginger: Lust

Mary Ann: Envy

Mr. Howell: Greed

Mrs. Howell: Sloth

Gilligan: Gluttony

"Instead of focusing on our sins, we should focus on God's mercy. His mercy outweighs sin." At the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament he led us through an examination of conscience. In a soft, but clear voice, I heard: Think about what good things happened to you yesterday. What happened today? Think about what has happened in your life that made you thankful. Think about how you may have offended God. Picture God standing in front of you and, holding his hand out. Picture yourself grasping his hand. Feel God pull you toward him and embrace you as he tells you he loves you. Hear him say that he forgives you. At this point, a lump formed in my throat.

Thank you Fr. Greg for a  thought provoking mission!

P.S. Look who photo bombed the picture!