Monday, February 13, 2012

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

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