Catholic – Page 2 – Disney Customer Service Keynote Speaker

God’s Holy Word

One Microphone, One Thousand Parishioners

We have teachable moments all the time. Most of them pass by too quickly to be noticed.

A decade ago, I volunteered to become a Church Lector, figuring my new role as a Professional Speaker would add value to the Church.

A year or so into it, we had a formal training class and one of the volunteers got up and made a statement that I’ll never forget.

“You may think you are simply doing a reading, but you are actually proclaiming God’s Holy Word. This may be the only scripture much of our congregation gets all week.”

Rather than judge others, I’ve promised God to do the best with the 60 – 90 seconds He gives me once or twice a month.

At 8:45AM Mass this morning, I hope it’s God’s voice they hear and not mine.

Pray Pay Obey Catholic

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.

So Real It’s Almost

Human’s get hungry several times each day. No brainer, right?

We are always needing to feed ourselves.

Enter the rat race and insanely busy schedules. Enter fast food establishments. Enter television.

The other day I saw a Burger King commercial, touting the toys in the kid’s meal packages.

The kids commented on the furry animal toys which are the current give-away.

“So real, it’s almost, real.”

Unexplainably, I immediately thought about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit – about Faith.

So real, it’s almost, real.

Make Me Cry

A couple days ago, while sitting in Church with my Family, I got teary-eyed three separate times in less than an hour.

Why? Where you sad?

Nope. Happy.

Happy?

Yes. And thankful.

If I have to explain this to you, chances are, you won’t understand.

However, if you don’t understand but would like to, simply scroll down and read yesterday’s blog post.

Pray Without Ceasing

Life is hard for many people this time of year. Add to that unprecedented times, and we have an overwhelming number of people who are struggling in one way or another right now.

And I mean struggling at a greater intensity than many generations can recall.

It sure seems that way to me.

Can you imagine being Tiger Woods right now, or President Obama, or even the Pope?

Can you imagine being the average American who can no longer put food on the table, when a year ago they could quite easily?

I worry about a lot more than I used to. So, now more than ever, the phrase, “Pray without ceasing“, has a special meaning.

And also a special obligation.