4/1/15

Today was the last Spiritual Formations group meeting, which was moved to Wednesday because of the Holy Thursday service tomorrow night. I didn't stay until the end, though, and I felt bad for leaving early to go to the B- meeting, but the B- group means more to me. It's my spiritual home at St. Philip. It's not an exaggeration to say that I'm a part of the Church because of the B- group. Dorothy's invitation back in August is what opened the door to the Church for me.

Fr. Michael talked about the Triduum, the last three days in Holy Week leading up to Easter. It's the most important time in the liturgical year. He described it as one service/play with three acts. I'm really looking forward to it, and I'm glad that I took the next two days off of work so that I can fully immerse myself in it. It looks like the RCIA group will have some active roles, as well.

After the meeting, Dorothy offered to give me a ride home. We had a nice talk on the way about all kinds of stuff like what led me to St. Philip, about her time as a volunteer school teacher in Texas, and about my upcoming baptism and confirmation. She also gave me a really sweet card welcoming me into the Church since she won't be able to make it Saturday. The card says, "The community of God's people welcomes you with love," and she added, "and especially Dorothy."

Something else of note is that I've been reading Karen Armstrong's A History of God and, finding myself very drawn to the chapters on Islam and Sufism in particular, I decided to see if there are any Sufi groups in the area. I sent a message about my interest to two of them and I got a response from both; but I think I might check out the Sufi Circle of Portland first, which is in the spiritual lineage of Rumi.

Looking back at the me of eight months ago, it's hard to believe that I'm here, now, doing what I'm doing. At the same time, I can see how the path I was on was leading me here the entire time, and the really surprising thing is that I didn't realize it sooner. That's why it feels so natural, why I don't have to ask that many questions in the RCIA class, why I've just gone with the flow. I already have the answers that I need. I intuitively know the direction I need to go.