Today for the first time since being confirmed a couple of weeks ago I had the unique experience of bonding with a stranger around Catholicism and a specific Catholic Church. I had a bulkhead seat on a flight to Honolulu and on takeoff was seated next to a flight attendant in the jump seat. We initially made small stalk about her flight schedule and where she lived, etc. when out of the blue she talked about going to Mass during her overnight stay before her return flight the next day.
What made it special is that once the subject of Catholicism was opened through the mention of mass we both talked with pride about being Catholic, our home parishes and the fact that no matter where one attends mass around the world it is the same and you can follow regardless of the language it is conducted in. As the flight reached cruising attitude and she moved off to attend the passengers we joked that we might see one another at mass at her favorite church on Waikiki Beach. I was left with a special bond of faith with a stranger in this conversation that I have never felt before.
How wonderful it is to be proud of your faith and to know that wherever you travel whether locally or internationally you will run into people who share the same gift of pride. With all the negative press and jokes about Catholics, isn’t it wonderful that through our belief in Jesus Christ and the Eucharist we have strength and trust in God that cannot be shaken.
We need to realize that the same pride and passion for professing our faith can be contagious and will move others to who thirst for what we have and take for granted. Let us encourage others to come to the church by living and professing our faith by just stepping out to connect with a stranger. They might just be hungering for exactly what we have.
I had one day this week that was particularly uplifting and it taught me a huge lesson.
My day started out pretty normal before getting a call mid morning from a potential vendor. Though we had had several discussions and they were always pleasant no business resulted. This man called me this week and upon answering told me who he was and asked if I remembered him. It had been at least a year since we last talked but I not only remembered him but also the name of his company (the memory isn’t going yet). He proceeded to tell me that he was out of work and was having a down day so decided to call ME. He said “you are one of the most positive people I have ever met and I hoped to reach you to be uplifted.” It was one of the most flattering things anyone has ever said to me and I told him I considered it a great compliment.
On my drive home a former running buddy came to mind who I hadn’t talked to in at least a year. I caught him by phone in London, England on business and after much small talk I congratulated him on his recent house purchase. I told him I admired his willingness to not get caught up in the subprime mortgage situation meaning he could now afford a new home. I could feel the gratefulness in his voice. He congratulated me on my Confirmation having heard it through my fiancée Linda. He told me he how proud he was of me and that I had taken such a step. “Of all the people I know, you are the one person who would make such a long-term commitment.”
Later that evening I got a text from one of my faith brothers asking if I had time to talk. He simply needed to vent about what was happening in his life but at the end he said “you are always so positive and I always feel better after talking to you.”
What a glorious day it turned out to be. I felt so wonderful that I was there to touch people’s lives. You know what they say “it is the giver who receives most in the giving” and I received a huge blessing that day. I learned that you should never underestimate what impact you can have on other people, but most of all to BE READY to touch someone every day. You never know when the Holy Spirit will call on you.
It’s done, complete, finis! William Bruyea is officially confirmed Catholic!
After a very busy and hectic week, it all came together at the Saturday evening Easter Vigil. Nearly 80 Baptisms and confirmations were completed along with a beautiful bilingual Mass and some very peaceful and reverent prayers and music in less than 3 hours. For many who attended I’m sure it seemed very long though for the families who had someone who was among the 80 I’m sure it was a momentous night. For me it was the culmination of a segment of My Catholic Journey, the pinnacle moment when I said my final profession of faith and prayers while being blessed by the priest with holy chrism (oil).
I began to feel surprising peaceful about Thursday evening when after the Mass I said an “Our Father” in front of the Eucharist with Linda and her grandson Trenton. After a final confession late Wednesday afternoon, I stepped up my prayers in preparing myself mentally, trying to have a spirit of reverence during the final hours prior to confirmation. Saturday evening I was blessed with the presence of some of Linda’s family and a couple of my faith brothers from my Saturday morning group. It all happened so seamlessly and was over so quickly in contrast to the almost year long journey.
I began the path through RCIA thinking how long and onerous a road it would be. Now I’m almost sad that I will not be sharing regularly Thursday nights with Ron and Rick and Aurora. They made the past months interesting and joyful and helped me see the beauty of the Catholic faith. With many more roads to travel I now have a different attitude and spirit with which to begin any future books or classes andI know with my thirst for knowledge there will be many in my life. Yet the holy mysteries leave me with more questions than answers. Isn’t that what faith is - believing though you never have all the answers?
To my beautiful Linda I can only say that as always I could depend on you to take this walk by my side. As with the rest of our life you share with me, challenge me, and encourage me. Your amazing faith in God and our Lord Jesus Christ is an inspiration to behold. You are a true Christian example that I aspire to be more like. I know nobody else that lives as righteous life as you do without making a big deal about it. In the end your most precious gift was making me realize that our life’s journey in Christ is not about us……….but about him.
As I leave you until my next post on the other side, I share with you this video which touched me and reminds me that it is all about Jesus.
I got an email today from someone indicated that they really enjoy reading my blog. I was flattered and encouraged that people might actually be interested in taking the time to read my testimony. I’m learning a lot about social media and how hard it is to develop a following of people who are interested in what you have to say. Then I was hit with that powerful word - HUMILITY! I was being encouraged to continue proclaiming the word of God humbly and sincerely.
How often do we do things without humility and for our own glory and not for the glory of God? That one little sentence was a wake-up call for me. Was I writing for the glory or God or the glory of William? I fully admit that I wouldn’t be upset if I had a boat load of people who loved to read what I write and wanted to follow what I had to say. But then I wouldn’t be doing it for the glory of God would I?
So I write this article to reaffirm my commitment to my original purpose in writing. If what I have to say brings just one person to God, brings one soul back to the Church who has been lost, or encourages one person to continue their faith journey, then I have fulfilled my reason for beginning this blog. I will continue to write and let people know about my journey and what’s happening in my life regardless of the following. I won’t back off my passion for proclaiming the word or sharing my testimony and so will continue to make myself available to speak to any group who might be interested. That will just give me another venue to continue the work I have started to minister to others through the written word.
There is less than a week to go before the big day of Confirmation at the Easter Vigil this Saturday! This portion of the journey has been a long and fruitful one. Though I know that the journey is never complete, that this is only one baby step along the road to Christ, it is an important one and I look forward to sharing in the sacrament of Communion.
Part of the confirmation ritual is selecting a saint which will be on my name tag during the ceremony. I really haven’t spent much of my life learning or hearing about saints, but one of my instructors is a huge believer in the power of saints and a wealth of knowledge about them. I thought selecting one would be a piece of cake, but the more I read about them the harder I found it to narrow the selection down to just one I could relate to.
I started with the obvious, looking for one with my name. There are many named William and I actually found a couple who were interesting but didn’t quite hit the mark. The reality is that one would have to devote a significant amount of time reading before they might find one that was reasonably close. After much deliberation and knowing I was running out of time, I finally committed to one which I thought had a couple of qualities which struck a chord with me.
I decided that I would solicit feedback from my RCIA team about my selection and got some very sage advice in return. Though they felt I had made an excellent choice, I was told not to worry about finding the “ideal” saint to fit, that one could have a “team” of saints all of which could have a quality one could draw on at the appropriate time as required. What a beautiful thought!
So off I go to be confirmed with St. John Chrysostom at my side. He will be the original, the leader, my team captain, as I add Saints to the team to be my Brothers and Sisters in Christ while I continue my life’s journey in faith.
Linda and I have a preference for taking communion or a blessing from the priest rather than the Eucharistic Ministers. During a visit to another church for mass a few weeks ago I went to the priest for my usual blessing and he touched me on the head as he gave me the blessing. I felt a warmth come over me that I hadn’t felt before, and which I believe was the Holy Spirit pouring over me through the power of the ordained priest.
Immediately the contrast became obvious to me when compared to the giving of the blessing at my home parish. I received the blessing from the priest each Sunday through his words only. The difference may seem small but the reality is that the fulfillment of that small gesture was immense through the power of the priest’s touch. I wanted so much to say something to Father as I greeted him after mass each Sunday but realized that I might not use the right words or would embarrass him. So I prayed about it.
About 6 weeks later, Linda and I were attending a later mass than usual and we sat near the front of the church. At one point during the mass I could see Father look right at me. When I went forward to receive the blessing, this time Father put his hand on my shoulder while he spoke it. Again the warmth of the spirit came over me.
This time while greeting Father after the mass I had an opportunity to thank him for the touch and to let him know how much it meant to me. From that Sunday on he has not given me a blessing without that touch filled with the Holy Spirit. I believe God spoke to him through my prayers and I hope he blesses others in the same way when they come to him for a blessing.
Last week during my RCIA class we read and discussed John 11:1-45 which is the story about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. This story is a great metaphor for the journey we have been taking in coming to the Catholic faith. For many of us we have been raised from our spiritual death into a life of becoming more humility and righteousness through the understanding of the scriptures and then the experience of the sacraments.
This night we were led through an exercise in class - handed a picture of a grave stone and asked to write all the things which had been bothering us about our past.
Those we hadn’t forgiven
Those who hadnt forgiven us
Past sins
Past mistakes
Those who had hurt us
Anything that we needed to let go of was to be included in the list. Once we had completed the list, we exited the class to the outside of the building and performed a ritual burning of these papers.
At first the exercise appeared a little silly but the more I wrote, the more things I thought of . By the time we were going outside I wasn’t really ready as more things came to mind and I wanted to linger on them and make my list longer. The total darkness of the evening added to the holiness of the moment as we surrounded the pot in which the papers were to be burned. I held back from the initial rush of people until there were just a few left. I wanted to linger and watch my paper catch flame, burn completely, then go up in smoke.
I learned we humans are a very ritualistic people as I thought of all the things we repeat the same way day after day. When the burning was over, I felt some relief but realized that it was an exercise I need to repeat, spend more time meditating in prayer over before repeating the burning.
What a great technique for letting go of past hurts and handing them over to God or dealing with forgiveness. I urge anyone reading this to give it a try.
I encountered a test on Thursday which in the past might have had a very bad outcome for me. At a networking event I encountered a previous business coach of mine who due to the nature of our professional relationship also knows quite a lot about my personal life. I never get tired of spending time with him and he has a unique gift of being able to read the true message behind a set of spoken words, often leading to a thought-provoking question or comment.
After our usual warm handshake and initial greetings, there was the inevitable “how are you?” From anyone else this would be categorized as small talk but in this case I know it was meant in all sincerity and interest. I provided the usual status about business but for the first time in a while I felt compelled to share my acceptance into the Catholic Church and the wonderful journey I’ve been on. My former coach showed an honest delight at the excitement for my recent spiritual path, but somehow I knew there was a question or statement coming. When it finally arrived there were no surprises.
He said “you realize of course that not everyone will be as happy FOR you as you are, and many may not want to hear about your spiritual life.” I knew that he was right but at that moment I felt something very strange happening to me. I felt proud to say to him “then I truly will be walking in the path of Jesus Christ for wherever Jesus went he was ostracized, mocked and disbelieved.”
I knew his comments were meant with the kindest of intentions and spirit. I have no idea what his faith is or if he has any. We had never talked about it before. What I do know is that under this set of circumstances I emerged feeling strength and pride I had never felt before in the light of similar comments and questions. After inquiring about Linda, knowing what an important role she plays in my life we shook hands again and moved on to introduce ourselves to others around the room.
It was a very short interaction and didn’t appear to have a large impact on my day. But later I realized how important and event it really was. Today I was truly proud to say I was becoming a Catholic.
Weekly on Wednesday mornings at 7 am I meet with a group of Christian men through an organization called Christians in Commerce. The goal of this group is for these men through the power of the Holy Spirit to bring Christ to the workplace.
The format is very structured and includes a discussion topic to be shared around each table of 4-5 guys. This week as part of the discussion, one of my brothers from my Saturday morning faith group shared a thought about a phone message I left him last week. Albert (not his real name) has been out of work for a few months and has been struggling with the usual issues related to a lost job. I offered to work with him to help break his paradigms with the goal of helping him generate some new ideas related to earning a living. The last couple of weeks we have met to share thoughts and I have presented Albert with some ideas to challenge him. I’ve also given him some takeaways which I asked him to do just to get him moving again and raise his spirit.
To his credit Albert has embraced these meetings and my challenges and his spirit is noticeably improved. Last week I left him a voicemail while driving to work. It was one of those rah rah kind of messages which included some inspirational words about counting our blessings and looking forward to what God has in store for us. At our table on Wednesday Albert got a little choked up when sharing how much he appreciated my phone message, what it meant to him and how he has saved the message to review whenever he felt a little down. Admittedly, I also felt myself a little overcome as he shared this story as it hit me by surprise. It was a small thing on my part yet was great in its effect.
Let us not forget how great an impact we can have on somebody’s day with just a smile, a helping hand, or a simple phone message with a few words of encouragement to a brother or sister who is struggling. Reach out and help someone today!
A few weeks ago there was a sermon at church relating to leprosy in the day of Christ. Lepers were the outcast people of the day’s society and had to keep their distance lest they be stoned by the people. The priest put this in context for today’s world by relating lepers to the homeless. Today we see homeless people frequently at freeway exits and find ourselves ignoring them, driving past them, and even not wanting to make eye contact with them. We keep them at a distance not wanting to acknowledge them and are even often cynical about whether these people are really down on their luck and need our help.
I was embarrassed to say that I was one of those people who frequently drove past them or refused to make eye contact. How often had I convinced myself that taking a handout was just an easy way to make a living rather than getting a job? I held myself up as judge and jury about their circumstances without knowing anything about them and making huge assumptions.
The reality is that Christ asks us to “feed my sheep” and it isn’t up to us to make judgments about people’s circumstances. After some sober thought I realized what a huge act of humility it must take to hold up a sign and take people’s handouts to survive. I’m not sure I could do it! How little it would really take for me to make a difference in one of these people’s lives.
Last week as exiting a freeway I hit the light 3 cars back and in front of me was one such homeless person with shopping cart in tow. This time I rolled down my window and waved him towards me. I greeted him, shook his hand and asked his name. “Bill he said to me” to which I replied “I am a Bill too.” I handed him an unopened package of popcorn as an offering in case he got hungry to which he responded “popcorn works.” In addition I gave him 3 dollars and wished him well to which he said “wow” with a surprised inflection in his voice. I wished him well as the light turned green and I drove off.
I’m not sure what surprised him the most and elicited the “wow.” Was it the fact that I acknowledged him at all? Held out my hand to shake his? Asked his name? Gave him something to eat? Gave him some money? The reality is that it really didn’t matter. I was filled with a warmth inside that I had helped make somebody’s day and at what cost? Almost nothing! What is it they say: that it is the giver who receives the most in the act of giving? I have never had a moment in my life when I felt like I walked in Christ’s shoes more than this day. Praise God!
