[00:00:05] Speaker A: This is Faith Break, a podcast about recognizing God moments in our everyday lives with hosts Karen Luke and Anne Gallagher.
This week, Karen and Ann reflect on how the Holy Spirit is full of surprises, breaking boundaries to bring healing and growth.
This Lent, how can we let God move in our hearts to help us see in new ways?
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Faith Break. I am Anne Gallagher.
[00:00:41] Speaker C: And I am Karen Luke.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: And we are here to help you find God moments in your everyday. And today we are in Lent week four.
[00:00:52] Speaker C: We're just playing it's gonna be Christmas again.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: And today we've got the readings of the Man Born Blind, one of my faves. And the first reading is the Call of David. So really good stories to dig into this week.
And yeah, should we start off with our God moments for the week? Do you have one?
[00:01:16] Speaker C: I do. I always have them.
So last Friday, some of the staff went to the Schnacky place.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: I wasn't able to go.
[00:01:25] Speaker C: No. And it was fun. It was a lot of fun. But that wasn't my, I mean it was my God moment. Yes. Being with my, you know, friends. But I don't know if everyone knows, but Jeremy used to work with Deacon Kevin at Quickprint.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:01:40] Speaker C: And Kevin came to the play. We knew he was coming, so we asked if he wanted to meet us at the cottage for some drinks beforehand and dinner.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Oh, I haven't seen him in forever.
[00:01:51] Speaker C: Oh my gosh. It was just like old times. It was just so much fun. We had a blast. It was so good to see him and talk with him.
And he walked in and he saw Emma and he's like, holy cow.
It just how the time goes. So that was my God moment was spending spending some time with Deacon Kevin. And what about you?
[00:02:15] Speaker B: What was your God moment? My God moment. This is, this is going back maybe a few days, but that's okay because it really connects with our God. Not our first reading today. Okay. So one of the questions that we had thought about going into this episode and into these, looking at these readings was like, when have you seen God call people in surprising ways or to call unexpected people into certain roles or tasks. And thinking about young David being called and how in that first reading, Samuel see, like they bring all of the sons, all of Jesse's sons in front of Samuel. And so for him to pick like who the next leader is going to be, but they don't bring young David, they bring all of like the big, strong like grown up sons.
And Samuel looks at this list and he's like, nope, none of these.
There's somebody else.
And, you know, so it's all about, like, how the spirit comes. You know, it says in the first reading, like, the Spirit rushed upon David. The spirit of the Lord rushed upon David after being anointed. And so the reading harkens back to, like, confirmation.
But as people who work with young people, we get to see the Holy Spirit working through young people all the time. Yes, all the time. And I know we've talked about it a lot, but our teens recently gave a witness talk at all the masses to talk about how ncyc, the National Youth Conference, had been for them.
And I'm just gonna share a little bit of personal aspect to them. I worked with these teens for weeks, and they worked really hard to what they wanted to say down. But my daughter Bridget had been really excited to talk.
And then a few days before we were scheduled to go on, she was like, I don't have anything to say. I'm not gonna. I don't wanna do it. And she got cold feet and she just pulled way in.
And I had to kind of let her have her space and her own time. But eventually she did come around. And she had written in her journal, when we got back exactly what she wanted to say.
[00:04:30] Speaker C: It was so beautiful.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: But hadn't, like, written it down in the context of the other talks. So it was a little. But she brought her journal up and was just like, you know, and it's hard being the minister's kid. You know, you're kind of like, she's been in this fishbowl her whole life.
And she said some. She shared some real tough things. She's talked about her doubt, and she talked about wanting to feel God, but not feeling God. And then where she finally did feel God was in the love of other people, which is so like, what we're always talking about with our God moments.
[00:05:05] Speaker C: Crying. It was beautiful.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: So all of that is like a long, roundabout way to say that she was my God moment because not only because of the courage it took her to say what she said in a public space where people have known her her whole life, but also, I don't know, just like the reminder she gave that, you know, the God moments aren't always flashy. It's what we're trying to tell people every week. Right?
[00:05:30] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: And you know, what can happen when you. When you go out of your comfort zone and really just surrender, let God work through you, is powerful. So that was just, oh, I love
[00:05:42] Speaker C: our kids so great.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: I know. We have the best job in the whole world.
Yeah. But I mean, we get to see youth be prophets all the time. All the time. Right. Do you have any other, like, times you can think of when you saw maybe not only a young person, but somebody.
[00:05:56] Speaker C: Right.
Well, in addition to. We also had Hands of Christ.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: Yes. Last week. Yep, last week.
[00:06:02] Speaker C: And we're recording early, so the timeframe, if you're, like, realizing the bulletin, that type of thing. But I was blessed to be at both nights. Cause they host it two nights in a row. And it's all of the diocese, or the whole entire diocese. Anyone who can come those two nights.
And it was just so refreshing. We had 26, 26 or seven, like, teens from our T. Harrisons, seniors, high school seniors that were nominated for this
[00:06:38] Speaker B: award, all of whom have been so present and serving throughout their high school years. It's really been amazing.
[00:06:45] Speaker C: And so I got to hear both witness talk. So the diocese asks one representative for both nights. And it was the second night, it was the teen who was on the delegate for talking with Pope Francis or Pope Leo. Sorry.
And he just had this.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: He was great hoops thought, you know,
[00:07:09] Speaker C: like, he just had something about him. The spark. And he just. The whole entire night, he just. It's just so beautiful. And the range of where the kids serve.
Like, some kids are super, like, going to other countries and building and things like that. And then others are children's liturgy leaders.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: They're running vbs, Running VBS groups.
[00:07:34] Speaker C: It's such a breath of fresh air seeing the kids being called to something greater that adults are still unsure of.
[00:07:46] Speaker B: Right. You know who else I was thinking of in terms of God calling unexpected people or calling people in surprising ways are two little boys who at 10:45 mass, always bring up the collection.
[00:07:57] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: So we pass the basket.
[00:07:59] Speaker C: My little buds.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: But there are two little ones who, they have so much.
I don't wanna say pride in their responsibility, but they do this job with a lot of reverence and poise. And so after we dump all the little baskets into the one big basket, we've got two little guys who. They each take one corner of the basket and they process it up the aisle and they leave it at the altar every week. And, like, they're so responsible in doing that. And how did that happen?
[00:08:29] Speaker C: So we never usually had the kids
[00:08:32] Speaker B: at St. Catherine's Cause at Transfiguration, the kids passed the baskets.
[00:08:36] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: And that's been a long time since we've been so.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: At St Catherine's it's always the same adult ushers.
And one time Vic Torgiano, who is one of our. I'll call him out. He's fine.
He's one of our ushers. And he was sitting in back of one of the families. And as he got up to go, he's like, hey, you wanna help? And that's how it started.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: Arose organically. And now they do it every single week.
[00:09:04] Speaker C: Now they do it every single week. And they signed up for Christma. I had to make sure that they both had their spots for Christmas. But yeah, and then we had our kindergarteners for our in person classes. They all brought in canned goods one week and then processed them out to the gathering space during class.
And then they were making cards for the home.
And these are things.
This is what I love, is that we oversee the program.
And every week I send out emails to the teachers like, hey, here's some stuff.
I don't think that they've ever done anything that I have provided. They've all created their own projects and their own way of teaching and just making it their own. And it's just, it's so cool to see because there's not only. There's not one way, Right. To pray or serve or be faithful. Right. And so.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: Yeah, and so there's that line too, somewhere.
Yes. We're still in this first reading. Like, so, like, man sees the appearance, but God sees what's in the heart. And it's so rich to be able to look around our faith communities and see the different ways that people are serving from the heart, sometimes without any supervision or instruction whatsoever. And it's just.
I don't know, it's very cool.
[00:10:33] Speaker C: Yeah, we, we are very blessed in our faith communities at St. Catherine's and Transfig that we have people who are just like, I really feel called to do this.
And it's not even. I don't want to give everyone, like, oh, you don't have to get permission to do something.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: That's true. Okay.
[00:10:56] Speaker C: But there are a lot of people who come and, like, I feel called to do this. Is this something that we can do at St. Catherine's or Transfiguration? And if it's not, we're able to navigate, so they are able to fulfill that. And it's something that they really feel called to. And that's why I love ministering with you, is that we foster those relationships with people instead of like, oh, no, it's not gonna work.
And then just, oh, done.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. So in this week's readings, there's a lot about, like, God breaking boundaries to bring healing and growth. So, like, choosing the choice of David was breaking a boundary. Cause he wasn't the expected leader, but he was the one whose heart was aligned with it, who God wanted. And then in the gospel, we have such a good story.
We hit this one pretty much every Lent.
Jesus healing the man born blind on the Sabbath with spit and dirt. Right.
Oh, man. I know we talked about this last week when we had Margie here, but, like, the progression this Lent of the stories about how Jesus is just, like, knocking walls down one after the other and just escalating his prophetic action and the ways that he's.
Yeah. Breaking down barriers, but he's doing it
[00:12:21] Speaker C: in a way that's not protagonistic.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: Antagonistic.
[00:12:26] Speaker C: Yeah, that's antagonistic.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Except they were still threatened by him.
[00:12:29] Speaker C: Well, they were threatened, but he wasn't like.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: Right. He's doing it to bring healing.
[00:12:34] Speaker C: He's doing it to raise awareness and the healing and the love and the compassion.
[00:12:40] Speaker B: He's giving forth boundless compassion.
But the establishment experiences it as threat.
[00:12:50] Speaker C: Right. But there's the difference is that he's not going in with, you know, blazing
[00:12:56] Speaker B: like, oh, whips and chains and just armies and.
[00:12:59] Speaker C: Yeah, it's just. It's very quiet and subdued, but it makes such a point.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: I know. I just remember being in grad school and, you know, studying the Scriptures and talking about the prophets because, you know, the blind. The man born blind at one point calls. He's like, he's a prophet. Jesus is a prophet. He healed me. And. But we know what happens to prophets, right? Prophets are believed or they're killed. And so to be a prophet is to put yourself on the line and to put yourself.
Yeah. In a dangerous position. And Jesus walks right into that over the course of our Lenten readings.
[00:13:41] Speaker C: So today's season is season of unexpected.
And so as I was looking into that and trying to figure out, like, what does it actually mean?
And this quote came up, but it didn't have. Like, no one specifically said it, but it was. Transformation makes others uncomfortable, not because it's wrong, but because it reminds them that change is possible.
And I was like, holy cow.
And we have to transform to have change.
We can't change and be the same.
Right.
But, you know, the other question that comes about that, too, is what happens when God changes us faster than others can adjust?
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Right. Because.
Yes. Especially if you're in a community. If you're in a community, even one that's dealing with change.
Not everybody in that community is going to be at the same time moving through it in the same time, in the same way, at the same rate.
[00:14:58] Speaker C: I mean, in every aspect of our lives.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. And families.
[00:15:02] Speaker C: Families. You know, Emma's a junior, and I'm already looking ahead of her graduating and going, whatever she's gonna do next. And Jeremy's like, nope, she's not happening. And I was like, we gotta think about this. He's like, no, we don't.
[00:15:20] Speaker B: But it's with everything.
[00:15:21] Speaker C: And how can we handle those situations where were at a different point than other people, Right?
But Jesus seemed to bring everybody. Like, how did he do that?
[00:15:31] Speaker B: I know. Well, because he.
[00:15:33] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: I mean, his healing of the blind man, there's so much about, like, unexpectedness in this story, right?
He did the unexpected by healing on the Sabbath, by the way in which he healed.
But also, like, the Pharisees and the culture had certain expectations about, like, why was he born blind?
[00:15:52] Speaker C: Right?
[00:15:53] Speaker B: Who sinned? Was it him or his parents? Because the assumption was that he was blind because somebody screwed up. Somebody sinned. And Jesus coming around and being like, no one sinned. I was like, he's blind. So that the works of God may be made visible in him.
And we. I know. Seen all the time examples of when a situation feels dark, or there's suffering, or there's difficulty and challenge, but, like, God's grace and spirit move through that. And it's not that God desires the suffering, but it's that God.
God's grace can be made present in the suffering in our lives in that way.
And so the Pharisee sees. Just couldn't.
They could not. It did not compute. They did not understand what Jesus was doing with this man. And they're so fixated on the fact that he broke their rule about healing on the Sabbath. You're not supposed to work on the Sabbath.
[00:17:02] Speaker C: Wait, we're not?
[00:17:03] Speaker B: No, we are.
Yeah, I know we are.
But it's just like they. And then they interrogate this guy who's been healed.
[00:17:11] Speaker C: Isn't that the man who used to sit and beg? Like, no, it can't be.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: It looks like him, but they put him through the wringer. They should be celebrating that he can see now and he's full of joy. And they come at him like he's done something wrong with this crazy because he's changed.
[00:17:27] Speaker C: And they are not there with him.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: And you can sense his. Like, there's one point where he says, I told you this already and you didn't want to listen.
[00:17:40] Speaker C: I just.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: I heard that because I just feel like we've had moments like that where things are in the midst of change or we see a certain situation and we want to call people into a future or a different thing. And how many times do. How many times do we have to go around the same well, and it
[00:17:59] Speaker C: goes back to, like, corner here. What's the difference? Are you hearing me or are you listening to me? Right. Or are you hearing.
Are you listening to respond?
[00:18:11] Speaker B: And we've talked about that before versus listening to understand.
[00:18:14] Speaker C: Yes.
And it's just. There's such a difference of that. And yeah, I hear people all the time because of the noise.
I don't necessarily listen all the time. And I love, you know, that I'm a chosen girl.
This scene in Chosen, it's just so.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: They do almost a whole episode on this one scene.
[00:18:38] Speaker C: But the compassion that Jesus showed and his wanting for this man to have this experience and the fact that Jesus touched him and shared a part of him in this healing.
And.
[00:18:57] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:19:00] Speaker C: And sometimes we think that healing is going to make life easier.
And this just totally made his life worse.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: Well.
[00:19:07] Speaker C: Well, not worse, but, like, different.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Yeah, harder.
[00:19:10] Speaker C: Cause he's like. He had to defend.
Defend the whole entire situation.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: It dropped him into a whole new reality. How about that? Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, I know. Well. And we haven't even talked about the whole idea of light and darkness and blindness and vision and the way that when change happens, it has a way of just bursting open the doors and the walls and every. All the ways that we have limited our perception of reality and maybe even limited the way that grace can move in our lives. That when. When we. When God lifts those scales from our eyes and we see things in a whole new way. You can't go back.
[00:19:56] Speaker C: Right.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: There's no going back. And the resistance that can happen, like you said, when other people or other situations or institutions in your life are still in an older paradigm can be very. There's a lot of friction there. And a lot of.
It's tricky. It's just tricky.
[00:20:17] Speaker C: Well, and sometimes it's not as blatantly obvious that it's. All of a sudden you're in this darkness and it's just like flooded light.
Maybe there's like a crack.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:30] Speaker C: And you can see the light, and you're like, okay, what is that?
And then as you develop your life and change and think about things in a different way, that crack just seems to open up.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: So most of us maybe experience this more Like a process and less like a.
Yeah, right. And I think especially we've talked about midlife a lot, but yeah, there's this rearrangement of priorities that is happening. And, you know, we've talked a lot this season about the holy no.
And what happens when you say a holy no to something you've been saying a knee jerk yes to for a long time or because you've always done things a certain way and done. Let's do more programs and let's do. Put more on the calendar and let's have new initiative. Like, and that's maybe not the call. Like, maybe the call is discernment, creating space, letting light come through the cracks and illuminate what's there so you can make a wise choice and say a deeper yes.
[00:21:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: These Len readings are really. They're speaking to my heart this year.
[00:21:47] Speaker C: I always love the Lent readings.
The theme of it, it just, I always laugh when we, when we sit around the table at staff and they're like, what's our theme this year?
[00:21:57] Speaker B: I'm like, Lent, Lent.
We do have a good one. I like change our hearts. I like to change our hearts. But.
[00:22:03] Speaker C: But it is funny. It's like, do we really need a theme? It's Lent. Let's just, let's embrace it. So, yeah, like, another question that came up for me was, you know, this blind man, how do you handle doing the right thing but still face criticism?
[00:22:22] Speaker B: Oh, boy.
[00:22:24] Speaker C: I mean, especially in our time, in our world right now with the division of everything, you know, and he's right.
[00:22:32] Speaker B: Jesus did a good thing. Yeah, but he did a good thing. Let's celebrate it.
[00:22:36] Speaker C: But he. But the man is facing all this criticism, right? But the last thing he says, I do believe, Lord, I do believe.
And it's just like, yes, okay, what is that calling us to do?
It's calling us to change. It's calling us to be empathetic and compassionate and loving towards all.
So I just.
[00:23:03] Speaker B: Yeah, okay.
[00:23:06] Speaker C: Do you have anything else?
[00:23:08] Speaker B: I think that's a lot.
[00:23:09] Speaker C: I think we did good or did well.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: What is.
Yeah, we did.
So maybe this week the challenge for all of us is to just let God do something unexpected.
You know, take those blinders off and see what new thing God can do. Boundary pushing thing God can do in your life.
[00:23:33] Speaker C: And it's okay if blessings bring a disruption.
[00:23:37] Speaker B: Oh, boy.
Blessings bring a disruption.
[00:23:44] Speaker C: Because we don't know. I mean, it's.
[00:23:46] Speaker B: Think about the stages of your life. Like, getting married was a blessing. Having children was a blessing. But starting a new job.
[00:23:54] Speaker C: I keep going back to Deacon Eric's Beatitudes homily from a couple weeks ago. It was just, you know, we don't think about the blessing in being sad.
[00:24:07] Speaker B: Right.
Okay.
[00:24:09] Speaker C: So feel that disruption and be with it.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Be open to God, moving in unexpected ways, breaking down barriers.
And we will see you next week.
[00:24:19] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:24:20] Speaker B: Have a good one, everybody. Thank you.
[00:24:22] Speaker A: Thanks for taking a faith break with us today.
Karen Luke and Ann Gallagher are lay ministers with the parishes of Saint Catherine of Siena in Menden, New York, and Church of the Transfiguration in Pittsford, New York.
More about our parishes, including weekly live streamed Sunday Mass, can be
[email protected] Faith Break is engineered by Jeff Beckett.
Join us for new episodes of Faith Break each week in Studio on YouTube or on your favorite audio podcast or music applied.
