April 19, 2023 You, the readers of the North Country Catholic, helped God put it on my heart and mind, but I don’t know where to take it. Over the five years I’ve been in this role, I’ve heard from dozens and dozens of you who identify with something I’ve written in this space. It took me a while, but I identified a trend. You tend to write to me when I talk about my struggles, whether it be with praying, surrendering my will, talking to others about faith… It made me think about the fact that we don’t have a lot of opportunities to acknowledge and share our struggles of faith. We don’t often have room to acknowledge and share our imperfections. I know I often look at other people around me in my parish, at the chancery and all over the diocese, and I think “that person is so holy. I’ll never be like that!” Hearing from all of you (many of whom I would place in that “so holy” category), has helped me get to a point where I now follow that thought with, “I bet that person has struggles, too. (He/she) probably has some of the same struggles I have.” All those people who have written to me and told me they identify with something I’ve written make me feel a bit better about where I am on my journey. It makes me feel like I’m not alone. I’m blessed to have a circle of friends with whom I can talk about my struggles of faith. I firmly believe they’re gifts from God. They help me to stay hopeful, and they help me travel this journey to Jesus. But I keep praying to determine what I’m supposed to do with this realization. While I don’t have a path forward yet, I thank you for helping God put it on my mind and heart. |
|||||
|
|||||||||
