I’ve just spent the weekend at a retreat led by a wonderful Catholic priest from Los Angeles, Father Terry Richey. If LA is the City of Angels, he certainly is one of them for me. While I am not Catholic, I did get my childhood education in a Catholic Montessori school. Perhaps that is part of the basis of my love of ritual and tradition. I remember the Latin Mass and being mesmerized by it. But I do not ever remember thinking of the priests as real people, human beings with feelings and experiences that I could relate to.
In my pursuit of my spiritual truth, especially recently, I have spent a great deal of time expanding my understanding of Christianity, and quite a bit of that work has been done in retreat under the guidance of Catholic priests. I have been surprised — in the most joyous and exciting sense of that word — by their vision, deep commitment, humor, love, insight, and most especially, their real humanity — mistakes, flaws, conflict, small victories, and feelings just like mine. I would never have imagined I could identify so completely with someone who on the surface lives a life so different than my own.
How often do we pass each other by because the surface — the exterior — we notice as we glance at our fellow human beings seems so different from ourselves we assume the soul which animates the body we see has nothing in common with our own? How many opportunities for true friendship and sharing are lost?
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