From the deacon who blessed my doggie!
There’s so
much I don’t know about my Catholic faith, there’s things that I have a
protestant understanding and there are other areas that I have no clue at all. It’s popular during Lent to give things up,
it’s a time of conversion of shedding the old to make room for the new. I get the importance of trying to change old
habits to become a better me; yet, I still have a lot of questions about fasting. Am not sure how fasting helps me become a
better version of me, but I know that just as I have been converted in other
areas I will soon have a eureka moment- that clears things for me. Thus, this past Lent I wanted to do something
that made my forty days special and made sense to me. I thought about the many times I have wanted
to thank my religious leaders, but never made the time. So, during my forty days of Lent I wrote each
day a thank you card for priests, religious and deacons who during the year I
had a reason to say gracias. First, I
didn’t think I knew that many church leaders to cover the forty days, but every
day during prayer the Holy Spirit helped inspire a new person to thank. Writing to me is very personal and each note
that I hand wrote I tried to make it as unique to that person as possible. I never thought of the outcome of such a
small gesture. However, one must be
careful when doing things for others because God will never leave a server
empty handed. It’s as if the more one
gives of oneself the more one receives.
From my bishop, he made me feel so important!
From one of the deacons.
As the
forty days went by, I got a couple emails expressing their gratitude for my
little note. When I bumped into one of
the deacon’s I sent a note to, he told me how much my note made his day since
his job can be quite a thankless position.
Another deacon’s wife came up to me and told me how cheerful her husband
had been at my note and she thanked me for making her husband’s day. Then, I got a couple of notes in my mailbox
thanking me for my thank you note! I
almost didn’t want to continue sending notes because I was getting such a
positive response. It was just
surprising to receive so much when I felt I gave so little. Yet, people who serve (as do our church
leaders) are usually people that know how to be grateful and they have a server
mentality where it is easy for them to give- even as a response to a gift to
them. I really enjoyed working on the
thank you notes and might adapt this process as an annual Lenten activity. Though, to be honest all the fuss I got made
me a little uncomfortable since I don’t do well when so much attention is
lavished on me, especially over my writing.
I had wanted to write this post for a while, but kept forgetting. Over the weekend, I received my latest thank
you card for one of my Lenten thank you notes and it reminded me that I needed
to write this. Maybe you’re not
surprised by the positive feedback I got, but I was really shocked. I just had never gotten a thank
you for my thank you (smile). It made
the image I have of my church leaders even more impressive- we have a lot of
saints in the making all around us!
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