Thank You....

There is a Christian song by Ray Boltz called "Thank You," in which a person dies and goes to heaven wondering if he or she made a difference and runs into all kinds of people who thank him for the "giving to the Lord."

Last night I was awakened by the baby having hiccups. While I lay there waiting for the hiccups to stop and my mind began to wander and I began to think of all the clergy I had known in my life and the thanks I owed them. So here goes....

Thank you to Sister Isaac Koenig. Sister Isaac runs the social ministries at St. Mary, our parish. Jeff and I were discussing Sister Isaac the other day and how beautiful we found her as she truly reflects God's love. There is no doubt that Sister Isaac is doing what God intended for her. Her smile lights up a room whether it is filled with volunteers folding donated clothes or with the uninsured waiting for appointments with doctors and nurses who are donating their time. Sister Isaac takes on several duties aside from social ministries. She has taken over the religious education at our parish. Her love for her fellow human is so immense I have found myself overwhelmed by it almost to the point of tears when I am in her presence.

Thank you to Father Pat Keane. I first met Father Pat when he was just Pat, a seminarian candidate at my home parish. I was a teenager at the time and he volunteered with the youth group. I found in Pat a true friend who understood that being a teenager was incredibly difficult and did not judge teenagers as the selfish and sometimes cruel beings most people see but as children of God who needed all the love they could get. After high school, I kept in touch with Pat as he entered the seminary and went on a mission to El Salvador. During some very difficult times in college, Pat listened to my problems without judgment. Little did I know he had bound me to his daily rosary since we had first met in 1996. When I met my future husband, who was Pat's age, Pat expressed some reservations but also expressed to me that he felt God would guide me and that I surely had a place in Jeff's life. Pat was later thrilled to hear of our marriage and when he heard we were married in Methodist Church, he did not criticize me and accuse me of leaving my faith. Instead he commended me on finding the beauty in the diversity of Christianity. When I underwent surgery to correct a birth defect that had caused me to miscarry a baby. Pat, now Father Pat, sent Jeff and I a spiritual bouquet and had two masses said for us at his parish in Fayetteville. Which brings me to one of the greatest things Pat taught me. While on his mission in El Salvador, Pat fell in love with the poor indiginous peoples. He has made several more trips back and started a charity, The Least Among Us (http://www.theleastamongus.org). Pat knew that he could do more than just tell people and give his own time and money, he could find a way to get others to help this mission. And he told me at one point, that if there was nothing else someone could give another person, one can always give prayer.

Thank you to Reverend Skip Williams. Skip is the pastor who married Jeff and I. Like Father Pat, Skip did not find it unusual that a couple of mixed religious backgrounds would want to be married in his church. He also did not proselytize his beliefs over mine. In fact, he commended my faith. He acknowledged that there was a difference in doctrine, but was commited to respecting my Faith. He asked us early on why we wanted to be married in a church. My answer was something I had not thought over, but came out naturally. In the 90's there were a series of billboards that appeared around the Triangle area of NC where I grew up. The most famous of these was one that said, "Don't Make Me Come Down There.--God" But there was one whose impact on me I didn't understand until that night Skip asked me about wanting to get married in a church. It said, "That was a beautiful wedding. I hope I'm invited to the marriage.--God" I expressed how I felt that God was an intregal part in every marriage, or should be. I had almost never thought about that billboard since going to college. But I had no doubt of the importance of seeing it and sharing that with Skip. Without Skip, Jeff and I would not have been married in a church. We would not have had the guidance he provided. And the impact he has had on our lives shows each year when we stop by the church around our anniversary and try to make the church's annual Pancake breakfast on the 4th of July a part of our tradition.

There are so many more I have to thank and will from time to time. But I am most thankful to God for bringing these people into my life.