My First Night as a Knight

Tonight, I was knighted in the First Degree of the Knights of Columbus. As a good Catholic gentleman, I am sworn to secrecy as to the particulars of the event; however I do feel safe in telling every other good Catholic gentleman who is not part of this fraternal organization dedicated to charity and good works to consider looking into this group.

This is yet another milestone in my journey home, and I believe it will help me discern whether to go into a formal discernment of the Deaconate. I know Christ is calling me to serve His Church. What I do not know is if that service will be from the laity or ordained ministry. Yes, the Catholic Church does have clergy that are married. They're called Deacons.

I help out with the RCIA program at our parish. This is the discernment process for those who wish to enter into the Catholic Church. In most parishes it takes nine months to a year. This last Tuesday we were discussing the first letter St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians and the gift of God's grace became abundently clear.

Five years ago when I first began my return home to the Church, I couldn't appreciate the words that were in the Bible. Oh, I could read it, but it was like reading a letter written for someone else. Then as I began the process of letting myself go and giving myself to Christ sacred scripture became very meaningful...even personal. This Bible was now a letter from God to me. That only happened because I allowed room in my heart for God's grace through my return to the sacraments of my youth.

The truth has set me free, and I find myself in a near constant state of prayer. Not the kind of prayer where one is kneeling with bent back, but rather the kind where one is in a continuous awareness of the presence of Christ in his life. Oh, that I could give my gift of faith to everyone I meet. Yet, all I can do is live my faith, and hope that others will see the joy it has brought me, and perhaps one day dare to let themselves go, and let Christ into their hearts.

I have an aquaintance that could use this faith. She is a few years younger than me and sadly bought into the same lies and deceptions about human sexuality and its purpose that my Baby Boom generation inflicted upon the culture. From one damaging relationship to another she has drifted searching for happiness and finding only a loss of dignity. I considered writing her an annonymous letter telling her that there was a better response to her feelings, but then I read in my Magnificat yesterday morning about the perils of playing God. My words of wisdom cannot change her, only God's grace. So I am left with prayer for her conversion and letting God be God.

This blog has rambled on a bit as kind of stream of consciousness. I tend to do that when I am excited about something, and my experience with the Knights of Columbus has me pumped. May God's blessing touch each person who reads these words.

Deus Caritas Est