Discussion thought for the day:

At lunch yesterday, I was reading a biography of a priest.  He was serving  in Spain during the Civil War that tore apart the country prior to World War II, and as he and many others were escaping across the mountains, the biographer included this…
“The student from Catalonia kept a journal of his experiences on the trip. On November 28 he wrote, “Here the most moving event of the whole trip takes place: Holy Mass. On a rock and kneeling down, almost prostrate on the ground, a priest with us is saying Mass. He doesn’t say it like other priests in churches…. His clear and heartfelt words penetrate the soul. Never have I attended Mass like today’s.  “*

As a Lutheran pastor, such an impact is what I would desire – that no matter the location, a incredible cathedral, a simple chapel, a campground or on a retreat  (this has happened on a few retreats I have been on – where everyone just knew… it was time to drop everything else… and rearrange the day around communion).  It is not the location, by no means, but the miracle of God, dwelling in the midst of His people….

Such words as the student’s…most pastors and priests I know… would love to hear… because it means God is working through us…

To know that God could use, would use our words, much as this priest’s, much as St. Peter’s at Pentecost.  To bring life and hope, to re-create the scene in Ezekiel 37, where life was generated, breathed into being… That the people would realize, not the presence of the pastor/priest, but the presence of God reaching them through the words, through the sacrament…

It brings to mind the words of Peter, as Jesus was abandoned by so many… and Jesus asks if they would desert him as well…

^6:68 ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life, ⁶⁹ and we believe; we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.’
John 6:68-69 (NJB)

May our words, the words of Pastors and Priests in mass/service, and the words of our people so be heard… for they are not ours – but His – words of eternal life, words that are clear, and heartfelt, but that penetrate souls…

* de Prada, Andres Vazquez (2011-04-19). The Founder of Opus Dei: Volume II, God and Daring (The Life of Josemaria Escriva) (Kindle Locations 3453-3456). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.