I’m busy again this Lent doing traditional three day parish missions.
I love getting out to visit other parishes and spending time with God’s people. It is so encouraging to see so many people who want to know more about their faith and learn to grow closer to God.
Last evening I finished three days at St Peter’s, Beaufort in our own beautiful diocese of Charleston. The low country of South Carolina is a beautiful network of islands surrounded by marshland, wide open space and historic towns with little cottages and gracious Southern mansions.
The three day mission here was on Faith Sharing. The first evening I tell my own conversion story–how I went from a fundamentalist home, Bob Jones University to Oxford, England and the Anglican Church before becoming a Catholic and then the journey to the Catholic priesthood. The second night of the mission I do a talk on “Hearing the Faith Story”. This talk examines what a faith story is and how we live that faith story first of all in our own lives. The third evening the talk is entitled “Sharing the Faith Story” after examining larger trends in the church and society and why we need to share the faith story as Catholics I give some practical pointers and stories from my own experience on living and sharing the faith.
On Saturday I’m off to Fredericksburg, Virginia for a second parish mission. This time I’ll be sharing my conversion story on the first night, then speaking on “The Attack of the Ism’s”–twelve ways of thinking that are part of American society, but which undermine our Catholic faith. The third evening I address what to do about it in a talk, “Becoming One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.”
It’s a joy to conduct these missions, but it is difficult to be away from my parish and family for such a long stretch.
Nevertheless, if you would like me to conduct a mission at your parish drop me a line through the contact page at my website. I’m also available to speak at conferences, retreats and seminars.
