YOU NEVER KNOW, DO YOU?

There are times, as you plug along, when you wonder to yourself, am I making a dent here. As a priest, I have seen so many people who I have grown to love and respect, show their enthusiasm for the church and then they just stop coming. And I find myself alone at the altar wondering : Lord is it something I said or did. And I am never really sure what makes a person show up, stay for a while and then leave, to not see or hear from them again. So its when incidents happen, such as this past week, that I am instilled again with zeal and joy in helping people gather , see God working in their lives and in others lives and coming together as a worshipping community.

Michael (no last name please) grew up Catholic in the mid west and for a long time has not been attending church. We met Michael here in Wilton Manors as he had been working tireless in helping a friend of his get a business venture up and running. It has been indeed a very difficult time
for both of them. Father Larry and myself offered our prayers and blessings. It had been over two months when we ran into Michael at a Coffee Shop, told him of our move to a new location for Sunday Mass and invited him to come. Low and behold he showed up the next day, and with tears in his eyes, he said after Mass that he had been missing it so much.

Two days later Michael came to the rectory for coffee and he confessed his past and received absolution in confession. The change in Michael is like night and day and there is now a radiance about him that not only Father Larry and I see but so do others.

And then there is Jeff, a man who was led to us from the internet and began attending Mass and after his fourth Sunday he asked if he could be baptized and receive confirmation. He never received these sacraments while growing up. He expresses gratitude and joy and he will be baptized and receive confirmation on Sunday, All Saints Day, November 1, 2009. We will all come back , after Mass ,to the Rectory and have a celebration, cake, food and drinks. Father Larry and Deacon Gregory will perform the Baptism and Father John Joseph (Bishop) will officiate at Jeff's confirmation.

To be part of Jeff and Michael's lives and to see the New Catholic Community of Divine Mercy grow, gives me a good feeling and as I write this, I thank God for for the blessings that he has bestowed upon me, Father Larry and Deacon Gregory. More will be revealed.