Sept. 18, 2019 What I needed was community. It was 2016, I had returned to my faith after more than a decade away only a year before. I was convinced of the fullness of truth found in the Catholic Church. I had developed a profound love of Christ in the Eucharist. But I was struggling with a lack of community. I think it’s important for all of us to have people in our lives with whom we can discuss our faith – the moments of inspiration, the times we struggle and the concepts we learn. It’s especially important to me, an extreme extrovert who is energized by social situations, especially those during which big ideas can be discussed. And we all need people to pray for and who will pray for us and with us. When I was a teen/young adult, finding a faith community was easy. There was always a youth group or a college Bible study to be found. Faith groups and Bible studies aren’t always available when you’re an adult. When they do exist, they don’t always fit into the hectic schedule of someone balancing a family and career. Then something happened. There was a series of what other people might call “coincidences” that I believe were signs God was calling me to attend a Cursillo weekend. At first, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. I didn’t know much about what a weekend entailed, and I’m a bit of a control freak (I’m working on that). I knew only one other person attending, and I didn’t know her very well at the time. I was scared, frankly. I was afraid of the unknown – what I’d be doing, and whether or not I’d connect with the people with whom I was doing it. Yet I made my Cursillo weekend at Wadhams Hall that fall. It turns out, God graced me with a lot of blessings that weekend. I was blessed with opportunities for prayer. and the sacraments. I was blessed with opportunities to discuss my faith and how to share it with others. But the biggest blessing was that I found community. Both in the Cursillo weekend and subsequent group gatherings, I found a group of people who love each other and the Lord. I found a group of people who pray for and support each other. I found out why God called me to be there. He knew I needed community. |
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