Father Mark and the white elephants
16 of us gathered on the chilly Saturday evening within the comfy confines of the Youth and Family Room at St. Joseph's to listen to a talk by Father Mark Wagner and to exchange gifts. Those of you who did not attend were missed, but the group that was there had an inspiring evening full of prayer, laughter, and fun.
There was an unofficial gathering in the morning, as the Environment Committee of the parish was setting up Christmas tree in the hall and had asked for help. 4 of us showed up to add our muscle power to setting up and decorating the 12 foot trees. There are pictures below of the work.
In the evening, it first appeared that we were going to have a small, cozy group listening to Father Mark, but as the minutes ticked past 7 PM, more and more started arriving until we had to go in search of additional chairs, since the comfy couches were already full. There was a table full of wrapped presents, but that is getting ahead of the story, as we first spent about 10 minutes socializing with new faces and those we already knew.
When Father Mark gathered us onto the couches, we weren't exactly sure what he was going to talk about. The website and the parish bulletin mentioned "Going Deeper into Prayer" (which goes along well with the parish's theme this liturgical year of "Going Deeper into our own Conversion", but that could really mean a lot of different things. Father's talk was based on the book by Ralph Martin "The Fulfillment of All Desire," which talks about the wisdom of the saints in providing us a road map to sainthood. Father Mark shared about the lives and teachings of St. Teresa of Avila, St. Therese de Lisieux, St. Augustine, St. Catherine of Siena, and St. John of the Cross. Each of those are Doctors of the Church (a title that refers to the great amounts of teaching that they added to the wisdom of the Church as a whole). He focused on how each of their lives, mired with sins and not perfection, could help us in our daily struggles. He pointed out how, with the grace of God, we too can begin to make the positive habits that would lead us to a holy life. We laughed a lot about some of the comments of the saints, particularly St. Augustine who had responded to God with "at once," "presently", etc. each of which translates well to Spanish as "ya." After continuing to struggle with his addiction to lust, he eventually prayed to God the famous line, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet."
There was an unofficial gathering in the morning, as the Environment Committee of the parish was setting up Christmas tree in the hall and had asked for help. 4 of us showed up to add our muscle power to setting up and decorating the 12 foot trees. There are pictures below of the work.
In the evening, it first appeared that we were going to have a small, cozy group listening to Father Mark, but as the minutes ticked past 7 PM, more and more started arriving until we had to go in search of additional chairs, since the comfy couches were already full. There was a table full of wrapped presents, but that is getting ahead of the story, as we first spent about 10 minutes socializing with new faces and those we already knew.
When Father Mark gathered us onto the couches, we weren't exactly sure what he was going to talk about. The website and the parish bulletin mentioned "Going Deeper into Prayer" (which goes along well with the parish's theme this liturgical year of "Going Deeper into our own Conversion", but that could really mean a lot of different things. Father's talk was based on the book by Ralph Martin "The Fulfillment of All Desire," which talks about the wisdom of the saints in providing us a road map to sainthood. Father Mark shared about the lives and teachings of St. Teresa of Avila, St. Therese de Lisieux, St. Augustine, St. Catherine of Siena, and St. John of the Cross. Each of those are Doctors of the Church (a title that refers to the great amounts of teaching that they added to the wisdom of the Church as a whole). He focused on how each of their lives, mired with sins and not perfection, could help us in our daily struggles. He pointed out how, with the grace of God, we too can begin to make the positive habits that would lead us to a holy life. We laughed a lot about some of the comments of the saints, particularly St. Augustine who had responded to God with "at once," "presently", etc. each of which translates well to Spanish as "ya." After continuing to struggle with his addiction to lust, he eventually prayed to God the famous line, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet."
After Father's talk and prayer, we continued the evening by exchanging gifts. This was a White Elephant exchange, meaning that each of us had brought something from around the house (no purchasing allowed) and wrapped it to exchange. We were each assigned a number and the corresponding numbers were dropped into a hat. As our number was drawn, we were able to go and chose a gift from all of those, including those that someone else had already chosen. It started quiet and uneventful, as the first ones whose number was drawn chose from the stack of gifts on the floor in the middle of us all. It got much more exciting when certain gifts began to attract different people and as certain numbers were drawn more than once. One gift which was wrapped only by being placed in a brown paper bag went from person to person before landing in the fifth person's hands. People were actually hiding it, so that the next person would forget that it was still available. Laughter filled the room when Father Mark ended up with his third gift, only to have one of them stolen by the next person whose number was chosen.
Finally, Father suggested that we chose 3 more gifts and that those who had more than one would be allowed to keep their favorite and pass on the other to one of the people who had ended up with none. As luck would have it, there were only 2 people with none, and Father Mark was one of the ones with two gifts. There was a wide variety of gifts which included hand-made blankets, a Czechoslovakian windmill, gift cards, chocolate, a bottle of barbecue sauce, a collection of Catholic Answers magazine editions, prayer cards, a water glass, a laughing monkey key chain and more. All in all, it appeared that all, whether with us for the first time or having attended all of our events, had a fun time. We look forward to you joining us for our next one.
Below are pictures from setting up the Christmas trees in the morning.
Finally, Father suggested that we chose 3 more gifts and that those who had more than one would be allowed to keep their favorite and pass on the other to one of the people who had ended up with none. As luck would have it, there were only 2 people with none, and Father Mark was one of the ones with two gifts. There was a wide variety of gifts which included hand-made blankets, a Czechoslovakian windmill, gift cards, chocolate, a bottle of barbecue sauce, a collection of Catholic Answers magazine editions, prayer cards, a water glass, a laughing monkey key chain and more. All in all, it appeared that all, whether with us for the first time or having attended all of our events, had a fun time. We look forward to you joining us for our next one.
Below are pictures from setting up the Christmas trees in the morning.