26 January 2006

PETER'S EPIPHANY - Right Things / Wrong Reasons

1.  SITUATION

Describe yourself - chlidhood, family, education, work / professional focus, religious training, and anything else to frame your experience.

Peter was conceived in San Antonio, Texas and first saw the light of day in Pennsylvania.  His very pregnant mother, father, brother and sister were piled in their automobile with all their earthly possessions tied on the roof and headed from Texas to Washington, D.C. where his father accepted a major promotion within the Federal Bureau of Investigation.   From the dark comfort of his mother’s womb Peter signaled that he could not wait any longer and so Doctor Ada McKee delivered this 7 pound, 5 ½ ounce Texan at 9:26 AM on Friday, the sixth day of October 1944 in the Oil City General Hospital.

                  Peter’s mother, Elizabeth Anne (1904-2004), a fourth generation Texan, was blessed with a deep and abiding Roman Catholic heritage nurtured by her mother, Mary Agnes (1876-1942), and her father, John Robert (1865-1936).  Their marriage in the Old Rock Church in Yoakum, Texas by Reverend Father Just on November 22, 1894 united two Texas pioneer families that settled in southeast Texas in 1823.  To their union were born eleven children, two of whom, Cyrilla Gertrude and Paul Joseph, died as infants.  Mary Agnes traced her Catholic heritage from the Second Lord Baltimore with whom her ancestors, Thomas Beckwith, Esq., Thomas Greene, Esq., Nicholas Hervey, Gent., John Hill, Gent., and Captain John Hill, Gent., founded the Maryland Colony in 1634.

                  Two British ships, the Ark and the Dove, departed from the Isle of Wight with 300 “adventurers” and two Jesuit Priests in October 1632, and set out across the Atlantic and founded the first settlement at St. Mary’s (now county) on March 25, 1634, the first day of Spring as well as the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  They conducted a joyous and solemn celebration and memorial for each “adventurer” who had survived the long voyage of 123 days.  These hearty, Christian souls selected the larger of three islands lying near the shore of the Potomac not too far distant from the mainland to disembark.  They christened the island “St. Clement” after Pope St. Clemens Romanus (Clement I), the fourth Pope and Bishop of Rome and the first Apostolic Father who served from ~88to 98 AD.  Father Andrew White, S.J. (1579-1656) directed several of the men to construct a huge cross from one of the native trees.  It was hewn together and, on that virgin day of Spring in 1634, led by Father White and assisted by Father John Altham, S.J., all the Roman Catholics and most of the Anglicans, gathered for the first sacrifice of the Roman Catholic Mass ever to have been celebrated in one of the Original Thirteen English Colonies.

This brings us to Houston, Texas and the influx of New Orleans refugees fleeing the impact of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

2.  CIRCUMSTANCES

What was going on in your life a few weeks/days before your experience?  What were the circumstances that led up to your experience?

x

3.  ENCOUNTER

Describe your encounter.

x

4.  FEELINGS DURING

How did you feel during this experience?

x

5.  FEELINGS AFTER

How did you feel after the experience?

x

6.  IMPACT

What was the impact on your immediate situation after this experience?

x

7.  CONVERSION

Was there a conversion in your personal outlook or life as a result of  this experience?  Was there a significant change in the way you relate to the spiritual?  To others?  Specifically, what is different in your life now that you have had this experience?

x

8.  FEELINGS NOW

How do you feel now?  Physicially?  Spiritually?  Psychologically?  Socially? 

x

9.  INSIGHT

What insight have you gained from this experience?

x

10.  TAKE AWAY

How do you feel other people  have been impacted by your experience?

x

11.  KEY CONCEPT

Having considered all you have shared, what one key concept would you like to share with us?

x

12.  FINAL THOUGHTS

Do you have anything to add that will help people realize the significance of your encounter that we have not yet discussed?

x

THANK YOU

THE LOVE OF THE FATHER

JESUS - THE TRUE GIFT

John 15: 1-17



"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.  If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. 

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.  By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.  As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.  These things I have spoken to  you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full."

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no man thanthis, that a may lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appoint you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abive; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you.  This I command you, to love one another."

The Fatima Pardon Prayer

Almighty and Loving Father, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You!  I ask pardon of You for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love You.