Today is Pentecost. To celebrate
this great birthday feast of the Church, Father Matthew Linn was invited to
celebrate the Church of the Holy Spirit’s Triduum and run
a seminar, Fully Alive yesterday. I came away with many gifts and would like to
share them with you.
Father Matthew reminded us that each of us came into the world with special gifts, a unique voice and mission. If we have not found our mission, then we are only half alive. He defined mission as the way we each receive and give love in life.
Until we find that special way to give life and get life back, we ourselves, and the world along with us, are impoverished. Using a series of vignettes taken from CBS News On The Road with Steve Hartman, Father Matthew gave us pointers on how we recognize our special gifts and use them.
He stressed that we need not be as impossibly selfless as Mother Teresa or as crazy talented as Beethoven, but when we identify our gifts and use them, then we will be living out the new commandment to “love your neighbour as yourself”.
The gift may be as small as teaching others to read and singing in a choir, or as big as going back to school to become a doctor and then helping heal those who cannot afford healthcare, paying for their treatment and meds. The first step is to identify your call: What do you do when you don't have to do your job? What gives you energy and life? What brings meaning to your life and gets you out of bed, raring to go each day.
Father Matthew also asked us this: Who do you find that you can really love? Are there special groups of people you feel drawn toward? For Jim O’Connor, a high school math teacher, it is cuddling sick babies at a hospital. For centenarian Agnes Zhelesnik, it is teaching young children to bake, a vocation she took up when she turned 81.
Another way to find your gift is to see where you have been hurt and healed. Your scar will be your strength, your badge of honour. Just as former alcoholics know exactly how to help alcoholics who are trying to quit, or cancer patients like Jon McAlpin who found a way to deal with dying. Jon warmly greets fellow patients and their family members to the hospital, helping them feel better. What got him out of his depression was when his doctor told him the end of your life need not mean the end of the world.
Father Matthew asked: What have you been through that has made you stronger, that you have come out on the other side with a bigger heart, and you want to be there for those who are going through the same ordeal? This can become your gift.
The next two questions help us put our lives into perspective, to maybe act out our mission and to just be grateful for the present moment:
What would you do if you had one year left to live?
What would you do if you have 10 years to live and you have just won the lottery?
We are our worst enemies at times, for we put obstacles in our own path even if we know what we want to do. He encouraged us not to play it small, to come out of the box, and to go far and wide. God always has a bigger plan for each of us. If we are liberated from our fears, then we can help liberate others. If we dare to love more deeply, then we can receive more love and life.
Perhaps the biggest gift I received yesterday was during ministry time. Father Matthew taught us how to pray with each other by laying hands on each other in silence. Before we began, we each blessed the other’s hand, “May this hand be the healing hand of Jesus”, then we asked the other person where they would feel comfortable having someone’s hand on them and what they would like to pray for and we began to pray. Instead of using words, he asked us to breathe in Jesus’ love and breathe it out through our hand.
We do not need words or faith, for to pray like Jesus was to just love with our hearts. Healing comes from Jesus, not how well we pray in words. We can also ask how the other felt, and continue to pray for what the person wants, asking for more healing (if there was some other area that needed healing).
He debunked the need to only ask a priest to pray for us and instead encouraged us to pray for our own family members, in our own homes. The Holy Spirit lives within each of us and the love we have for family and friends widens the channel through which Jesus, the Holy Spirit, will bring healing.
I actually experienced physical healing yesterday. But that was not the best part. The best part was when J opened his eyes after praying, he found that his hand was no longer resting on my shoulder, and yet, he had not lifted his hand off my shoulder and had never lost the feel of my shoulder under his hand. Funnily enough, I never felt him lift his hand off my shoulder either. There is only one conclusion I can draw, we both felt the hand of Jesus, in between J’s hand and my shoulder. It does not get better than that.
Happy Pentecost!
Father Matthew reminded us that each of us came into the world with special gifts, a unique voice and mission. If we have not found our mission, then we are only half alive. He defined mission as the way we each receive and give love in life.
Until we find that special way to give life and get life back, we ourselves, and the world along with us, are impoverished. Using a series of vignettes taken from CBS News On The Road with Steve Hartman, Father Matthew gave us pointers on how we recognize our special gifts and use them.
He stressed that we need not be as impossibly selfless as Mother Teresa or as crazy talented as Beethoven, but when we identify our gifts and use them, then we will be living out the new commandment to “love your neighbour as yourself”.
The gift may be as small as teaching others to read and singing in a choir, or as big as going back to school to become a doctor and then helping heal those who cannot afford healthcare, paying for their treatment and meds. The first step is to identify your call: What do you do when you don't have to do your job? What gives you energy and life? What brings meaning to your life and gets you out of bed, raring to go each day.
Father Matthew also asked us this: Who do you find that you can really love? Are there special groups of people you feel drawn toward? For Jim O’Connor, a high school math teacher, it is cuddling sick babies at a hospital. For centenarian Agnes Zhelesnik, it is teaching young children to bake, a vocation she took up when she turned 81.
Another way to find your gift is to see where you have been hurt and healed. Your scar will be your strength, your badge of honour. Just as former alcoholics know exactly how to help alcoholics who are trying to quit, or cancer patients like Jon McAlpin who found a way to deal with dying. Jon warmly greets fellow patients and their family members to the hospital, helping them feel better. What got him out of his depression was when his doctor told him the end of your life need not mean the end of the world.
Father Matthew asked: What have you been through that has made you stronger, that you have come out on the other side with a bigger heart, and you want to be there for those who are going through the same ordeal? This can become your gift.
The next two questions help us put our lives into perspective, to maybe act out our mission and to just be grateful for the present moment:
What would you do if you had one year left to live?
What would you do if you have 10 years to live and you have just won the lottery?
We are our worst enemies at times, for we put obstacles in our own path even if we know what we want to do. He encouraged us not to play it small, to come out of the box, and to go far and wide. God always has a bigger plan for each of us. If we are liberated from our fears, then we can help liberate others. If we dare to love more deeply, then we can receive more love and life.
Perhaps the biggest gift I received yesterday was during ministry time. Father Matthew taught us how to pray with each other by laying hands on each other in silence. Before we began, we each blessed the other’s hand, “May this hand be the healing hand of Jesus”, then we asked the other person where they would feel comfortable having someone’s hand on them and what they would like to pray for and we began to pray. Instead of using words, he asked us to breathe in Jesus’ love and breathe it out through our hand.
We do not need words or faith, for to pray like Jesus was to just love with our hearts. Healing comes from Jesus, not how well we pray in words. We can also ask how the other felt, and continue to pray for what the person wants, asking for more healing (if there was some other area that needed healing).
He debunked the need to only ask a priest to pray for us and instead encouraged us to pray for our own family members, in our own homes. The Holy Spirit lives within each of us and the love we have for family and friends widens the channel through which Jesus, the Holy Spirit, will bring healing.
I actually experienced physical healing yesterday. But that was not the best part. The best part was when J opened his eyes after praying, he found that his hand was no longer resting on my shoulder, and yet, he had not lifted his hand off my shoulder and had never lost the feel of my shoulder under his hand. Funnily enough, I never felt him lift his hand off my shoulder either. There is only one conclusion I can draw, we both felt the hand of Jesus, in between J’s hand and my shoulder. It does not get better than that.
Happy Pentecost!
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