+Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
There are times when I feel such love for the Church that I don't know why I ever left.
I just spent my Saturday night on clean-up duty for the annual priest appreciation dinner held at the parish I've been attending. Now as a medical student, I have a pretty lame social life - so I wasn't passing up anything besides anatomy reading. But even so, I'd rather spend a Saturday night in the heart of the Church than in a bar or a club, or even in my own house watching old episodes of Frasier on Netflix (the source of so many, many wasted hours in my life...)
I don't know exactly what it is about tonight that made me so happy. Part of it was seeing so many priests from all over the diocese gathered together for a night that was solely to say thank you for their lives of service. Part of it was the joy so evident in the parishioners staffing the kitchen. Part of it, maybe, was the home-cooked Italian food we got to help ourselves to... ;-)
More than anything else, though, I think it's just the feeling of dwelling deep in the heart of the Church - of belonging to a Body that is made up of mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers - of being connected to other people in a way that nothing else in this world can offer.
One of the reasons I am drawn to the RSMs is their great love for the Church. They strive to live as daughters of the Church in every aspect of their lives, and use all of their gifts - personal, professional, and spiritual - to serve her. When I am with them, I feel so deeply rooted in the Body of Christ.
As I was driving over to the dinner tonight, I was thinking about this video clip of Sr. Mara, RSM, speaking with such love for priests:
No comments:
Post a Comment