Good morning guys
Last week was a fruitful meeting for us. After a slow start, we found lots of participation and discussion again. That makes me feel pretty good that we haven’t lost the momentum as much as we could have.
We wanted to touch base on our various gifts provided to us by the Holy Spirit. What are our strengths and/or specific skills that are inherent within us. Are we able to recognize those or is it difficult to identify and admit. Many of us struggle to feel like we have a gift at times. Realizing that we do, that we are able to work towards new ones and that we can and should be using our gifts for God’s glory, requires us to put aside our own ego and understand that God wants us to be there for His people in our own special ways. We need to get out of our own way and be humble enough to accept that we are special and unique and required by God. The question should be “What have you done with what I gave you?”
Here are the readings we went over last week:
– 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
– Romans 1: 10-12
– Romans 15: 32
– Romans 16: 17-20
– Romans 13: 3-5 (sorta seems like it would be worth just reading all of Romans in context of what God gives and expects of us)
We talked about the parable of the servants and the talents given them by the master. What did they do with their talents? Some were able to take them and create more value or wealth for the master. One was afraid and just hid his. If we recognize the word talent as a gift instead of actual currency, it brings into context what we should be thinking about when we think about what gifts we have been given. What does it mean to bring more value to them? Does it look the same as the next guy? Should we be trying to conform or are we meant to take our specific unique gift and doing whatever we can with that, regardless of what others have or do with theirs? Being unique creatures of the creator, we will all have unique results from the efforts we make, or the help we can offer others.
It was mentioned that everyone has the gift of time. How are we using ours? Can we do something better with the time we have? That one hurts a little to think about but its important to ask that question.
We talked about how the biggest gift of all is Love. We explored what that means when things are tough or challenging, and discovered that the word Love is used so cheaply in our society. Everyone has an idea of what it should mean to them, but it seems that people use it so inappropriately or out of context that the meaning becomes lost. Be careful to have a good understanding when you speak, mean what you say, and say what you mean. That’s part of the integrity that will set the standards for our children and our community. Men who know what they mean when they talk, and then walk the walk.
There was a discussion around why we are saying to single out the Holy Spirit when we pray. I may have walked away with a different understanding after that conversation than you may have, but I believe we took a step towards recognizing that praying to God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit is all connected and the same. I’m not sure we landed on a solid answer to the specific question as much as assured ourselves that its not incompatible with our faith to do so. There is more to work through on that one I think.
We are starting a Tuesday morning coffee meeting for whoever is available to get together and just start connecting on a personal basis. Not meant as another study or gospel discussion. More just so we can learn about each other more and become stronger friends. It’s open to any other men you want to invite as well. It’s supposed to be open to growth and fellowship, which we can sometimes be lacking in. So if you can attend please do. Russ and Dale are setting this up for the Tuesdays in the “off week” around our Wednesday meetings. So that would be the 2nd, 4th and if applicable, 5th Tuesday of each month. 10 AM at the food court in the Outlet Mall. Some of us wont be able to go as we have work commitments etc, and thats ok. I just encourage those of us who can make it to try to attend when you are able. It sounds like a riot.
Russ and I talked a little bit about preparing for the Wednesday night group to expand and how that would work if we end up with more and more men in attendance. Our goals when starting this were to keep things simple, avoid anything that puts our faith, discussion, the Holy Spirit, in a box. And to be open to wherever we are being led as a group in our discussions. The organic simplicity has been a breath of fresh air for me personally. Its also why we don’t follow a specific program of study. The target has always been to find ways to encourage each other in ways to strengthen our faith, how we practice it, and to find the fire of faith with a healthy relationship with God. Then we can share that beyond our group with other people who also hunger for that. Faith can be a roller coaster of passion and exhaustion, where you sometimes go from being super motivated and filled with joy, to being too tired or feeling rejection and we withdraw into ourselves for a time. Its normal, its ok to go through that, but when you are on the low, try to hang on until God throws you over the next hill and speeds things up again. Don’t be tempted to jump off the roller coaster in the middle of the ride.
So going forward we are thinking of getting into the habit of looking forward to the readings of the next weekend mass, reading over those and discussing them at our Wednesday meetings. The hope is that will give us a little better preparation for what is coming and the homily Fr. will provide. Russ has been looking ahead and trying to read the whole chapter around the readings to get an even better concept of what is being said. So in light of that, I will start sending you the readings list in these Wednesday messages. Here are the ones for Sunday Jan 25:
The other thing we discussed is looking at ways to handle the growth if we end up with a large group at some point. Right now we are thinking that if we get to 14-15 guys, maybe we break up into two smaller groups, and then near the end of the night we can get together and do a large group sharing again. This is just to make sure everyone still has a chance to contribute or engage on a more personal level. If we get too large then its more likely that some guys might fall back and remain out of the conversations. I think at this point we might look at 14 as our trigger to break things into smaller groups. So if for some reason we end up seeing 28 guys one week we might look at splitting into 3 small groups and so on. Its a bridge we only need to cross when we get there, but we wanted to share the idea with you guys in the hopes that some of you might also be willing to act in a leadership role at tables if we get more than a couple tables going or if one of us cant make it. Don’t be afraid of that role. All we are asking is that the person leading only really tries to throw more balls in the court if the discussion fizzles out. Since we have the idea of looking at weekly mass readings as our starting point hopefully we wont need to find more topics to introduce, but we will have a handful to draw from if that happens.
Have a great week and I’ll see you at the next Wednesday meeting Jan 21.
Thanks guys
Chris
