Yesterday was a very blessed day for my husband and I as well, I'm sure, as for all nine of the other couples who make up the Diaconate Cohort of 2014. For one thing we were learning about and discussing charisms and how to discern what gifts God has given each of us. These weekends take place approximately once a month and they are always full of learning, faith, love and compassion and we feel blessed each time we encounter Christ within each other. We always walk away feeling more than loved by our Father, our Church and all those around us which is always a very good thing to feel in our secular world. The second reason it was such a blessed day was that we were able to meet, as a group, with Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of the Diocese of Phoenix...the diocese we call home and the Bishop who is our shepherd.
It isn't everyday that we get to sit down and speak with the Bishop in such an intimate setting. Each couple was able to tell the Bishop a little about ourselves, our families, and our journeys up to this point regarding how our husbands and ultimately our families are possibly being called to a vocation within the diaconate community with our husbands, God willing, serving as ordained Deacons within the Catholic Church. At first I think we were all very nervous...it's to be expected I suppose as with any interview our nerves sometimes get rattled. The greatest thing is just how easy the Bishop is to talk to...he truly put all of us at ease. We each have very unique stories as does everyone in all of existence, some are simpler than others but all of our stories had one theme in common and that is service to our fellow brothers and sisters.
The Bishop listened carefully and attentively as each of us went through a brief synopsis of our lives and asked a few questions here and there. At the end of the time we had with him he made sure to go around to each person in the room, to shake hands and give some words of encouragement and/or advice, while I don't know what was said to others I do know what he spoke to me of and he subtly mentioned a book I may be interested in...which of course I interpreted as "You should obtain and read this book." (As soon as we were on our way home, you best believe, I jumped onto Amazon and ordered said book, lol) Our time with the Bishop was amazing and I am grateful for the encounter. I know our Bishop is a man of prayer and he leads his flock accordingly making sure that human dignity and all teachings of the Church are upheld to the best of his ability and I am blessed to have met him personally.
I'll leave this post by sharing one saying/quote that he shared with us...and I suddenly can't remember the origin...was:
"If Jesus can ride into Jerusalem on the likes of an ass, imagine what he can do with the likes of you and me."
How true this is for all of us.
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