Do Our Ears Work?:
Going to Catholic Synod listening session tonight! Have been reflecting upon this process since it was first proposed about 3 years ago. For me one of the results of my reflection is I began the Synod process of listening starting back in the late 1980’s.
What triggered my connection to the Synod process was when I was asked to do a ministry that made me “UNCOMFORTABLE”! Yikes! So how did the Good Lord lead me there?
Well my brother called me on the phone and informed me our cousin of my Aunt Jane had HIV and was suffering with AIDS. It hit me in the face! “What can I do to help him”? He lived in Chicago and I lived in the Atlanta area.
So I started searching around for what I could do. I ran across Sister Margaret McAnoy at the Shrine of Immaculate Conception in Atlanta. I called her up and asked, “What can I do”? So began 10 years of traveling to the heart of Atlanta on Tuesday nights to the basement of the Shrine!
When Uncomfortable do we Listen more Intently:?
First night! Got there early! Oh they served a meal to people with HIV on Tuesday nights. I was there to help deliver the meals to the tables of the people who came. Honest!!! I was fearful because at the time no one knew how the HIV virus was passed. I stood there with my back up against the wall watching. My body was pressing hard against the wall! Yes it was! I still remember.
Oh my – Called and Sent:
One of the volunteers that night had eyes that could see my loud communication! He came over to me and asked? “Why are you here”? Heck I didn’t know it at the time – “I was called and sent to learn how to listen”. I told him about my brothers call and my response. He didn’t seem satisfied with my answer!
All I can say is the Holy Spirit was working! Because I then asked asked him if there were any other AIDS / HIV ministries in Atlanta?
Tears – What is Happening to me:?
Well yes he said. After I serve here I am going to the Good Samaritan Project where people gather to support people suffering with HIV / AIDS! Can I follow you I asked?
For the next ten years my training “in earnest” began! I could not have told anyone at the time because I had not figured out just what the Good Lord was doing to me.
How did I discover this truth? On my drive home from downtown Atlanta I would pass by the Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. By the time I was passing the Stadium “Great Bid Crock-a-dial Tears were streaming down my checks”!
My prayer – “Lord what is happening to me”? What are these tears about?
Today I can tell you! I was learning how to listen with my spiritual eyes and see with my spiritual ears!
Some of you may think this story is complete. No no no – No way! the Good Lord just had cut a new pathway into my heart!
But yes – way back in 1990 I entered the spiritual school as a unknowing student being trained to learn how in the use of ones spiritual eyes and ears!
The Journey Continues:
More to the Story: To be continued:!!! Yet this very day I reenter the story again!