The Lord's sense of humor, a mute man, and the sports section

This blog posting was submitted by the same man who wrote the Jan. 24, 2012 posting, “Feed My Sheep”.

I'm offering this experience because it has given me a personal insight into the Lord's sense of humor.

The Lord and I have had a love affair since I was a child because I have always felt the Lord's touch in my life. I have been blessed to have very holy parents but I have also known many truly spiritual people who entered my life briefly and positively influenced many of my life choices. I have always asked questions. Homilies, class lessons and reading assignments answered my questions while I was a student.

In the early 1970's I had just resolved a crisis of faith which led me to accept a role I had previously relegated to ordained people. Although I was certain that I loved God, I had lots of insecurities concerning my worthiness to become an active Catholic Christian lay person. (This was a time when we were losing lots of religious people and suddenly, there were much fewer ordained individuals to teach religion, visit the sick, and distribute the Eucharist.) Although I had theology and religion classes in high school and college I was very uncomfortable abandoning the passive lay person role I had accepted before I began sharing my religious beliefs as a CCD instructor (Christian Doctrine for school aged kids), bringing the Eucharist to the sick and volunteering to visit the sick. I was one conflicted, uptight person when I started.

"Friendly Visitor" was the title given at St Mark's parish in Catonsville, MD to volunteers who ministered to the aged and sick patients at local nursing homes. My first patient was a very ill paralyzed gentleman who was in obvious pain and who was attached to monitoring, IV tubes and breathing devices. He was dying, suffering, and unable to communicate besides. Fortunately, we were taught how to engage patients in discussion and to elicit responses from patients who were unable to speak by using eye blinks: one for no and two for yes...

(Read the rest at Wtness.org)