Putting God at the Center
Posted by Lisa Hendey in Faith on Friday, September 25, 2009 5:35 PM
Please excuse this very bad photo of what was, indeed, a wonderful evening. Yesterday morning, I hit the road for a quick trip to San Francisco. My destination: St. Dominic’s Catholic Church and a lecture by Fr. Robert Barron of WordonFire.org. You may recall my earlier post on Fr. Barron’s wonderful endeavor, The Catholicism Project.
Fr. Barron’s purpose in coming to California was to spread the word about the Project. But this was far from your typical fund raising appeal. Instead, Fr. Barron delivered a message so powerful in nature that I felt like I was on a mini retreat! Sitting in this gorgeous neo-Gothic church, listening to a man who has truly embraced the talents God gave him to draw hearts closer to Him, my heart was truly stirred.
Fr. Barron’s message was at once simple and quite complex. At heart of his words was a recurrent theme: we are “hard wired” for God. Inside each of us is a deep desire to have God at the center of our lives. Many of us fall prey to wrongly putting other gods— wealth, pleasure, power or honor—at that center, and in doing so we deny God’s right place in our lives.
As I was listening to Fr. Barron speak of these four substitutes (employing the words of Thomas Aquinas) I began to think of which of the four is my biggest struggle, that is—which do I desire as much (or more) than I want a right relationship with my Creator? I’d like to think nothing fills that “God shaped” spot in me, but if I’m being honest with myself, it’s not hard to see which one of the four causes me the most grief. Listening to Father, I had one of those spiritual “ah hah” moments - the kind you want to write down right away and vow to begin working on immediately.
Fr. Barron called those of us present last night to look within ourselves and to try to discern God’s true will for our lives. As moms, this can feel a bit murky sometimes. So much of what we do is simple and unglamorous - and little of it feels very Godly! But the truth is that we are also very greatly blessed to have such frequent opportunities to serve Christ through our loving service to others.
I hope if the opportunity presents itself for you to hear Fr. Robert Barron speak in person, that you’ll be able to seize your chance as I did. In the mean time, be sure to visit www.WordonFire.org to hear Father’s video and podcast messages.
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