meeting with the bishop: lessons on faith

This week, I met with Bishop Piché. As was the case in my first meeting with him, it was filled with blessings and many lessons given from a very wise and (I believe) holy man. Over the course of these meetings, he is gently, yet firmly, steering me to think in ways that are much more conducive to completely living one's life with God. I am always amazed at what I learn from him!

At the beginning of our meeting, I got a little teary-eyed, as did he, when I told him just what his ordination had meant to me. I said that I had the impression that he hadn't vied for the job and was happy doing what he had been doing but, amid all the grand pomp and circumstance, he was standing up in a very public way and saying "Yes, Lord, I will do Your Will". In that moment, he was a shepherd to us, or at least to me, and calling me to say yes to our dear Lord, too. I could tell he was touched by my words but he joked by saying he didn't feel like much of a shepherd that day, given he was being told where to stand, where to sit, when to do this, when to do that.

I told him the best advice anyone had ever given me was when he told me at our last meeting that I am to look only to today, not into the future, to ask what God wants of me. I told him I ask every morning what God is wanting of me that day and I see his dear face in my head. He shook his head and said that was unfortunate because he always feels blessed that he is wearing that face so he doesn't have to look at it all the time. I thought that was cute. He certainly does have a sense of humor!

Of course, we then got down to business and delved into just what I was doing. He told me I should not be thinking in terms of forming a new community. That would be putting the cart before the horse. Out of my relationship with God, this may or may not happen but it MUST come out of my relationship with God. He said God was giving me a gift and the IDEA of forming a community was merely the gift wrap. He said the most important part of a gift is not the wrapping, it's the relationship between giver and receiver. I told him I understood. And, I do...I've come to see that doing God's work today and the next and the next may or may not lead to a community. Only God knows the big picture and, as long as I keep doing His Will today, it won't matter if it's formed or not in my life time. What will matter is that I will have done my part to further God's Kingdom here on earth.

He affirmed several things that I am doing right but the most important thing he did was challenge me to think in new ways so as to grow, to change, to love God more fully. I so appreciated that! Affirmations are nice but challenges are better, for how else will I grow in faith?

I've come to see more clearly that I cannot be in charge of my life. I think I've spent a large part of my life, thinking I was. The bishop and I talked about how obedience to God is the foundation of everything. I told him I give great lip service to obedience. Historically, I spent many years being a disobedient child. And, now I can give 80 or 90% toward obedience but I'm working on giving 100%. I truly believe I must be "all in" if my life is to mean anything.

At the end, he asked me to get "something on the books" for 6 to 8 weeks from now. In my head, I was thinking "Yikes!" because I have so very much work to do between now and then to prepare for that meeting. (He gave me a lot to think about and to do!) However, I was humbled by the fact that he was open to meeting with me again.

Afterward, I was thinking about how God has been preparing me for this time in my life. I started my journey toward obedience years ago. The Holy Spirit incited something within me, to wake me up, to call me to change long ago. It's just now that it's becoming clearer to me what this all is about: my journey through life, with God at the helm.

I am very blessed to be the student of such wise lessons. What a gift our bishop is to us in this archdiocese!