“What’s wrong?” Peter asked. “I just realized, right now, how much you mean to me,” said Cindy. “No,” Peter replied, “you just realized how much YOU mean to ME.” Did you get that, because it is really important. Translated, Cindy said, “I just realized how much I love you.” No, Peter said, “You just realized how much I love YOU.”
There are few, very few, experiences more profound in life than realizing...
Here we are in the fourth and final Sunday of Advent. So far, we talked about Jesus, and that he is the one who does the igniting; we cannot ignite ourselves. This brings us to the third and final word of our motto, “me.” Today, when I say “you,” or “us,” or “we,” could you think of ME!
Back when we were thinking of a motto that would drive us into the future, for me it simply had to be about a personal relationship. WHY?? ...
A Message from Father Mark:
We have our motto, our theme, “Jesus, Ignite me!” That’s exciting!! From now on with everything we do at OMOS, we must first ask ourselves the question, will it help Jesus, ignite me? Beginning this Sunday, I would like us to concentrate on our motto one word at a time. This week, let’s together take a look at the word “Jesus.”
Once again, let’s go back to when I was 24 years old sitting on the floor of my friend’s living room, and allow me to try to describe a little of what the experience was like. (By the way, the friend’s name is Galen Bickel. Periodically, we still get together and talk.) As I said last week, it was an experience of Jesus (not God) but specifically Jesus. It was He! It was a feeling of joy and of being loved. There was a feeling that my life had meaning. At that moment, He was personal to me. Jesus is a person, and He only relates personally. Not that our faith is ever individualistic, it never is. Our faith is communal but very deeply personal at the same time. (I’ll explain that more deeply later.) No one in the room was aware that anything was happening to me; I shared it with them weeks later.
A Message from Father Mark:
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was 24, sitting on the floor of a friend’s apartment. I had been searching for something - anything - in my life. It was a small group Bible study, when I had this experience of Jesus right there with me. He was very close, and it was deeply personal.
That experience has been the driving force in my life ever since. As a fallen away Catholic, I re-discovered my Faith. Four years later at the age of 28, I was in the seminary. It all happened very fast!! I must tell you in those 4 years, I realized that the Sacraments were meant to be these deep penetrating encounters with the Risen Jesus, and the Church’s teachings was the light that led me to true and authentic faith. Those years validated everything I believed to be true.
We hear in the gospels about Jesus gathering his apostles, how they just up and left their jobs (leaving their nets in their boats at the spur of the moment), leaving their families, taking nothing with them. They just took off and followed Him. What would that look like in today’s world? ...