Parish Advent Retreat

Our parish has been blessed this week to have a speaker giving talks to the parish at the morning Masses and in the evenings. Fr. Cedric Pisegna is the speaker. He is a priest from the Passionist order. He joked during Mass on Sunday that unlike our parish pastor he was actually religious. At St. Anthony we are blessed with two good priests. With 5000 families in our parish they are very very busy but they are good priests.

So the time is here to prepare our hearts for Christs second coming as we prepare for the celebration of his birth. I took Sugar and Moogie to Mass yesterday morning. The talk was on Loss. J and I went back last night for the talk on Grief and the healing of the Holy Spirit. I think so many in our Parish have had death hit them lately. If not death we have had lots of job loss. The topics were very nicely addressed. I did not make it Tuesday morning but hope to make it tonight.

Fr. Cedric has a ministry that he supports by his books. We did not get any yet. They sell out very quickly. A friend got a book after the first talk and told me she loved the book. Not sure which one she got. Fr. uses the profits from the sell of his books to support his TV ministry. He has a few that I hope to some day read. One written for the youth sounds fun, God's Not Boring! Another one meant to entice fallen away Catholics written about Fr.'s passion for Golf is one that looks like it would be a fun read, Golf and God. His TV program is called "Live with Passion!"

Fr Cedric told a story last night of a baby eagle stuck in a chicken cook. He made the analogy of this little eagle and those of us. We sit and think we are chickens. We sell ourselves short. Then a storm comes and forces our wings open. This can prove that we are eagles. He encouraged us to not be thrown by the storms. The storms can help define us and unite us to God if we allow ourselves to grow. We need to identify ourselves as Children of God not by the chickens that surround us.

I encourage you to visit Father Cedric Pisegna, C. P. website. He has links to daily readings and meditations, information on his TV show, links to purchase his books with detailed explanations. After all the grief that I have felt over the past few months I must say that it was very nice to be lead back to a peaceful place in Christ. I don't know how people get through loss in their lives without a faith. I am not asking here, I am just stating my own love of my faith.

God bless us all. Please help all of us to realize the eagle within us and not to try to be a chicken just because that is what it looks like we should be. Thank you for your peace. Continue to help those that have fallen away to find their way back into your arms. Your will be done. Thank you for all of my heart aches. I know that you have not caused them but have allowed me to grow because of them. I pray that you also find Him in this season.