+Spreading the Word

So far, Lent has been VERY good to me.  It’s been a real time of conversion, and therefore a time of happiness, peace, and power.  You’d think a penitential season would be dull and depressing, but it’s just plain not!  I’ve really been working on prayer time, and I’ve been reaping lots of good fruit from it.  You’d think I would take the hint and do it ALL the time (which is what I am going to try hard to do) – what am I, stupid or something? 🙂  (No, just a fallen man.)

Chris (my head in the PoP) told me the other day that I have the heart of an evangelist.  At first I had trouble believing it (that’s true for me of just about all compliments, I’m afraid) but I’m starting to see his point. 🙂  I’ve talked about Christ and the Church with just about any of my students who were remotely willing to listen.  Some of them have become good friends – Juan and Alex, for example.

I took Juan’s nephew Irving with me up to Fr. Gerald’s monastery the day before yesterday.  Juan told me the lad had expressed a possible interest in going to seminary, and there’s one at the monastery.  So I emailed Fr. Gerald and he arranged for a Spanish-speaking student to show Irving around.

Irving and I had several interesting talks going up and down.  He’s a nice, well-bred kid, just turning 17 next week.  His English isn’t very good, and my Spanish is terrible, but we managed to communicate.  We talked about vocation-stuff and life-stuff and God and so on.  He doesn’t attend Mass regularly, but does pray.  Feels very confused about what he wants to do with his life – about par for the course at 16-17, I daresay.  I did my best to share what meager store of wisdom I’ve managed to glean in my 34 years.  *rolls eyes at self*

By the way, it’s funny, but I found myself acting differently that day, more self-consciously.  I always feel self-conscious when driving with a passenger, but this was something more…  like I was trying to prove that I was really truly an adult or something.  Don’t quite know what that was all about.

But despite all that, I had a good time, and I think Irving did too.  Though I think he was a bit bored while Br. Joseph (I think that’s what I call him on here – my old friend Matt who is now a monk) were talking.  When I found out that his birthday was coming up and that he didn’t have a Bible, I bought him one (in Spanish) for his birthday at the gift shop and gave it to him later.  (Along with a little thumbnail book of prayers in Spanish as well.)  He tried to object, but I insisted, so he thanked me sincerely.  I told him with a grin, “The best way to thank me is to READ IT!” and he grinned back and promised he would. 🙂

My visit with Fr. Gerald was very productive.  Golly, but he was “on” this time. 🙂  Several times he said things to me that I took as coming straight from the Lord.  In particular, we decided that it was time to really get aggressive about the constant violent thoughts (and concomitant sins) that I suffer from.  I’ve already discussed with Chris about having the People of Praise do some heavy-duty deliverance prayer over me (this was suggested by the head of the Brotherhood when I met him a few months ago).  Fr. Gerald gave me some instruction of how to prepare for that (“Pray for willingness, and for an expectation of victory!”), and also said, “I want you to commit to going to daily Mass EVERY DAY without fail for the next year.”  (I’d told him what an incredible difference regular daily Mass makes in my life.)

Well, I took that charge seriously.  Some Saturdays it may be very difficult, due to conflicts with important People of Praise stuff (and, sadly, that happened yesterday), but I’m going to see if there’s any churches nearby with different Saturday Mass times.

Irving and I didn’t talk as much on the way home, as he was all tuckered out. 🙂  But when I dropped him off, he thanked me very nicely for taking the trouble to take him up there and spending time with him, and again for the books.  And then he gave me a warm hug that still brings a smile to my face the next day.  Juan had told me that Irving is much more affectionate than he is, and now I see what he means!  It’s a gift.

I’m going to be bugging Irving (in a nice way) about that Bible-reading too, don’t think I won’t. 😉  Just like I do for his uncle.  And if I get a chance, I’ll see about doing something special on his birthday too.

On Saturday, I had a new student named Alfonso.  Reminiscent of Juan, he started asking me questions about philosophy and God in the middle of a session about physics.  (Though the connection was a little clearer this time, as much of the class is about the history of science, and that history is very bound up with religion.)  Turns out he grew up Catholic, but hasn’t gone to Mass in a long time because “I would feel like a hypocrite.”  He likes to drink and party, and feels he’d have to change everything in his life around before he could come back.  I tried to tell him that the Church is FOR sinners. 🙂

But I respect the fact that he sees going to Mass as a serious, hard decision.  He’s got a lot of weird ideas, and didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of praying together, but said he’d be glad to talk about this stuff some more.  I plan on it!

In other news, Alex keeps astonishing me by volunteering out of the blue to come with Mass to me on Wednesday evenings.  (The only day of the week it’s held in the evening.)  He goes to a Baptist church but is, as you can see, quite open-minded. 🙂  He told me the other day that he felt a need to recommit his life completely to the Lord (he went through quite a wild phase for a few years) but that “there’s things I want to accomplish first!”  I tried to tell him that anything God isn’t willing to help him accomplish isn’t worth doing!  We’ll see what comes of that.

My prayer list keeps on getting longer as I get more students. 😉  And I’m inviting a good number to the annual Pentecost Weekend being held next week.  I think it will make a huge difference in the lives of Juan and Alex in particular, if they can muster the courage and arrange their schedules to come.  Please pray for them!  And I’m inviting a few more too.