“The Journey”
March 7 Mt. 5:43-48
It is not always easy to love your enemies, but I am often surrounded by people who really do not like me or more what I represent, and so I have found it rather easy to love and to engage rather than to stand a part. Celebrated Mass in Vallejo today; doing outreach. Jeremy, 19 talked for a while. One of my exercises for my Lenten retreat is today is to reflect on an aspect of my journey, and I think of the journey here, and to the priesthood. It has not been easy. I started out in Missouri, a United Methodist, in the closet, and I fought coming out of the closet, but once I did, I found freedom, and my calling was still present. It has lead me through the years from rejecting the Church to embracing again the Church. I could never have been very whole as a United Methodist. And so from an institutional, established Church I have found myself a bishop in a small, open and affirming one, struggling in ministry, but truly doing what I am called to do. The journey was never meant to be easy or secure, and there is none of that in mine. I know each day I walk a fine line and struggle to survive, but I do so in gladness and in trust in Jesus, and what more can one asked for? Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.