Father Rick
18th April 2005, 02:16 PM
I posted this in a thread over in P/C. Since I know there is carryover between here and there, I wanted to post it here as well-- since it applies equally to you guys:
One of the difficulties of ministry is that many times you don't have anyone that you can just talk to.
As a priest, you're always suppose to be right. You're always suppose to know what to do, and how to do everything-- so it makes it difficult to really engage in good dialogue about different subjects. Here I've found a bunch of folks just about as crazy as me who will tell me to 'go stick in your ear' if they don't agree with me (in a nice way, usually). It's been great having people just to be friends.
What you guys don't know, because I've never discussed this on the forum...
When I first found this forum on accident, I was going through one of the most difficult periods of my life. My wife and I had just been through 4 disrupted adoptions within 1 year, including a baby that we had had since he was brought home from the hospital at 3 days old (my wife had even named him). Two of the children had lived with us for over a year when the adoption fell apart and they were taken away. I was hurting so bad inside that I had pretty much shut myself off from everyone, even the people in our church. I was still going through the motions, but no one-- not even my wife-- was able to get 'inside'. How do you explain to people what if feels like to lose 4 of your children?
During that time I found a group of friends here who didn't expect anything of me-- they just became my friends. And I was able to come here and 'escape' and just chat about God. Many times these chats were the only thing that kept me going. I would re-hash with you guys all the things that I had seen God do-- and I would read your stories of the work of God in your lives as well-- and it would give me hope to keep going.
As I write this, tears are literally dripping off my face. There will never be enough words to express the appreciation I feel for so many of you who just let Jesus shine through you-- even though you had no idea of what was going on.
I can only say "Thank you!"
One of the difficulties of ministry is that many times you don't have anyone that you can just talk to.
As a priest, you're always suppose to be right. You're always suppose to know what to do, and how to do everything-- so it makes it difficult to really engage in good dialogue about different subjects. Here I've found a bunch of folks just about as crazy as me who will tell me to 'go stick in your ear' if they don't agree with me (in a nice way, usually). It's been great having people just to be friends.
What you guys don't know, because I've never discussed this on the forum...
When I first found this forum on accident, I was going through one of the most difficult periods of my life. My wife and I had just been through 4 disrupted adoptions within 1 year, including a baby that we had had since he was brought home from the hospital at 3 days old (my wife had even named him). Two of the children had lived with us for over a year when the adoption fell apart and they were taken away. I was hurting so bad inside that I had pretty much shut myself off from everyone, even the people in our church. I was still going through the motions, but no one-- not even my wife-- was able to get 'inside'. How do you explain to people what if feels like to lose 4 of your children?
During that time I found a group of friends here who didn't expect anything of me-- they just became my friends. And I was able to come here and 'escape' and just chat about God. Many times these chats were the only thing that kept me going. I would re-hash with you guys all the things that I had seen God do-- and I would read your stories of the work of God in your lives as well-- and it would give me hope to keep going.
As I write this, tears are literally dripping off my face. There will never be enough words to express the appreciation I feel for so many of you who just let Jesus shine through you-- even though you had no idea of what was going on.
I can only say "Thank you!"