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Friday, March 5, 2010

healing mass


Last evening I attended the healing mass
at St. Genevieve with Alan Ames.
I had been looking forward to it for some time.
Yet after last weeks healing mass that some
of my work friends attended, I was chickening out.
Last week the spoke of Father Mannings'
healing mass and how some "went out"
and others were talking in tongues.
This scared me....
Being raised as a little Catholic girl in Golden Meadow,
people who spoke in "tongues" and "went out"
were for those religions you see on TV.
For those that costed you big bucks to attend.
I had no faith in these types of religions.
Heck, it wasn't until I was an adult with children that
I ever understood what a charismatic group was.
Even then, these groups and this "tongue" stuff scared me.
I stayed away. My momma never taught me this about God.
So after last week I tell my work friends that I am changing
my mind, that I am scared of that stuff.
However at least 5 of them tell me I should go.
Others tell me they are going to be there.
Until the last minute I kept going back and forth with my decision.
Yet I knew if I went I was not really going for myself.
I was going for my friend Gina, who was recently
diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease.
I was going for my friend, John who was even
newly diagnosed with cancer.
I get home and tell HOBL that I am not going.
I sit on my recliner and settle with my trusty old computer
who never scares me with such nonsense as "tongues"
I can not enjoy myself, I am compelled to go to this healing mass.
I get up, get ready and head out.
There are my school friends, there are other friends.
I sit letting some of them know that I am still not comfortable
being there. First though, there will be just a church service.
Well, I am definitely comfortable with this,
I love the Catholic mass.
Just at the end of mass, a packed church where I am
not sitting in my "normal spot"
There is a commotion in the aisle right where I am sitting.
I quickly note a severely handicapped adult and his
parents making their way down the aisle
as this young adult tumbles to the ground right there
in front of where I am sitting.
I rush out into the aisle to help his father assist him.
He doesn't seem to be hurt but the whole mass stops
to watch us. We determine that his walking device,
whether it was a walker or wheelchair has broken and
it is not possible to be used.
I am now faced with a decision that I didn't even think about
for one minute. I will have to assist this father walk
his handicapped son all the way to the front of church
so he can receive the gift of healing.
I feel the eyes of the church watching me.
I get one one side, his father on the other
and we go up the aisle to one of the front pews.
I then turn around and walk back to my place in church.
I get my song book out and just start singing where
everyone else is. Yet my eyes are burning with tears.
My job there is done, I now know why I was there.
It was not just for friends who are suffering medical diagnosis.
It was not for my own healing.
It was because one of God's children needed just a little help
making it to the place he needed to be.
"what you do for the least of your brothers you do for me"
I stay for Ames' talk and I stay for the group healing
but then I leave with a happy heart.
My job there was done.



4 comments:

  1. Sitting here reading the blog, I pretty much got the pattern down based on the few before on this topic. I am tempted to be convinced you are on some path specifically made for you ........ now as you go down this path it includes pain (you're own of course), suffering (that of yours and others as we have read before) joy and perserverance (re-read your marriage license) ... which brings me to this one teeny tiny WHITE ELEPHANT on your path ................. the HOBL !!! Let's review the LilBit of Your Past ... You got in the thunderbird (you also got into your car to go to the mass) you signed the license and made the vow (you parked at the mass and walked into the doors) you weathered the storms of substance abuse and stayed by your love (the walker broke -- you picked the person up and brought him to the pew) .... Now didn't you mention you walked back to your place in the back of the church ...... hmmmmmm what if you stayed in the first pew instead .... what could I put along side the ( ) to correlate? What's with the () now correlates with you walking back to your pew...

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  2. hmmmm, when HOBL is home I spend a lot of time in the back of my house scrapbooking and don't let him in because he drives me crazy....
    does that count...

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  3. I WISH I WOULD HAVE KNOWN YOU WERE GOING, BECAUSE I WANTED TO GO. I EVEN CALLED YOU LAST NIGHT TO SEE IF YOU WERE GOING BUT RONNIE SAID YOU WERE OUT. I AM SORRY THAT I MISSED IT! MY FRIEND, MRS. ANGELIA, LOVES THIS MAN AND WANTED ME TO GO. NEXT TIME CALL ME I WOULD LOVE TO GO!!
    LOVE YOU,
    TIE

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  4. This is a wonderful testimony! Thank you so very much for sharing. I'm blessed by it. Healing services aren't for cures, but rather, for healing in our relationship with God. Based upon your post, that happened. Praise God!

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