jeff noel.org

Pray, Pay, Obey

What does that mean exactly?  Growing up Luthern, in a small Pennsylvania town, there weren’t many Catholics. In fact, I don’t recall knowing what a Catholic was until college.

Well, life comes full circle and here I am, a devoted Catholic for over a decade. There are something like 15,000 members of our Holy Family congregation. All walks of like.

One of them, I see occasionally at Gold’s Gym.  We recently had a nice conversation with these highlights:

Draw nearer to God and God will draw nearer to you. James 4:8.

True love doesnt force anything.

Greed, sloth, doubt, hypocracy – the four points in the circle surrounding the four squares.

Pay, pray and obey Catholic.  This is how my friend (60-something) described himself.

God does not want good men in heaven, he wants Saints.

Gotta go.  Time to work on praying, obeying, paying and demonstrating.

Food for Families.Nov18

Where do you volunteer?  Presumptuous of me to think you volunteer, right?  Maybe. Maybe not.

You do volunteer, don’t you?  Not judging anyone, simply assuming everyone does something, no matter how big or how small.

When I look at volunteer opportunities, there are a few criteria:

1. We do it as a Family
2. We look for “traditions”
3. We focus on a learning point
4. We have to be able to integrate it into our lives

This morning is a perfect example.  I’ll be reading as a Lector, and Cheryl will act as a Minister of Holy Communion.

Our son (9) has seen us do this once or twice a month for his entire life.

We also have him place our offertory envelope in the collection plate every week.  He knows how much money we give.

When he gets older, we are confident that our actions will instill in him a duty to serve others with his time, talent and treasure.

Do you ever think about the messages you send to your children, or the young people in your lives if you have no children?

“Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means.” –Einstein

jeff noel Lector.

Doing the first reading this morning at Mass.  May God’s Holy Spirit fill me with the wisdom to read in such a way, that the parishioners will feel like God is speaking to them and not me.

Blessed beyond measure we are.  Aren’t we?

Children’s Liturgy of the Word.  God’s Word.

And the fact that I would be delivering homilies (sermons) to dozens of elementary school children boggles the mind.

Yet, it will happen again today, like it does the fourth Sunday of every month.  My wife and I volunteer to do this.

Four years ago, a woman from our Church made an appeal to the congregation that she needed more volunteers or Children’s Liturgy would go away.  After Mass, we volunteered, thinking we would simply be helpers “on the sidelines”.

Funny how things turn out exactly opposite from the way we expect.

It felt good to be back in the classroom last night.  You could sense, and feel, and see God’s Holy Spirit in the classroom.

This is our son’s third year in Catechism.  This is my second year having the privilege to be a classroom helper.  However, I missed all four September classes due to my business travel schedule.

A colleague commented at the end of the business day,  “I don’t know how you do it”.

I asked her, “You know I write five blogs, everyday, then run five miles, and volunteer for things our son is involved in”?

And she already knows how hard I work as a professional speaker – she is, after all, a colleague, and a parent, and Catholic, etc.

What I have learned is that being incredibly busy is part of life.  Or not. Figure out what you want to contribute and then go from there.  Carpe diem.

Visiting today, here in Portland, Maine.  On the phone last night my wife (and son) asked how my day was.

“I left the house at 7:30AM.  I got to the Hotel room to finish the day’s activities at 8:30PM”, I said, not complaining, just stating the facts.

We all should feel blessed beyond measure for what we get and what we make of what we get.

Otherwise, life might get the best of us.

It’s a daily choice.  Sometimes even an hour to hour or minute to minute choice.

Six months ago, I accepted our Pastor’s challenge to start everyday on my knees.  Our Pastor would ask the congregation every Sunday, “How many of you started the day on your knees”?

Literally, no one’s hand went up.  Over 1,000 people and no one? Impossible.

So, on April 1, 2009, I started.  It’s been six months and I haven’t stopped. Does this make me a righteous person.  Not even close.

Does it make me more mindful of each day being a special gift and privilege?  Absolutely.

What’s stopping you?  Seriously.  How hard is it to do this every day. It isn’t.  Which brings us back to the original point.

It’s been six months.  And six months from now, it will have been a year. Six months from now will mean what to you?