Faith Stories of SMG Parishioners
What was the path that led you here to SMG? To the Catholic Church? To God?
Have you experienced a particular "faith moment" that made you think, "God is here!"?
Click here to share your Faith Story
Faith Stories
I was at the wake for an SMG parishioner, who passed away way too young. This was the Monday after the 3rd Sunday in Advent. I knew the color of the 3rd Sunday of Advent is pink. I had just learned that the meaning of this week is: joy in a time of sadness.
At this wake, the son of the parishioner, who is a senior in high school, had the family mail brought to the funeral home. The young man received a letter from NORTHWESTERN University THAT DAY, saying that he was ACCEPTED to Northwestern. Wow! Talk about joy durng a time of sadness. How wonderful of the father to be looking down at his son and smiling and ... getting his boy into the quality school.
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| I grew up in a large Catholic family and my parents were very strict about the teachings of the Catholic church. I was a kid in the 1960s, so I have memories of Latin Masses and the priest facing away from the congregation and the many strict rules. Our parents kept a tight hold on those rules. So much so that every one of us kids, when we left home to go off to college, quit going to church, as though we’d gotten out from under a very heavy hand. Some of us have made our way back to Mass, one has defiantly stayed away, another found another church
My faith moment came after my mother died several years ago. My dad and she had been married for 56 years and, while he of course missed her terribly, he was ok. He would say, she’s where she worked her whole life to be. Just before she died in the hospital, he'd said to her, “you’re there, you made it!” And after she died, he had a real peace about it. It didn’t really click with me until Fr. Mike was giving a homily about faith a few weeks later. He posed a question to the congregation: “what’s the opposite of faith?” When someone answered “doubt,” he said no, it’s not doubt. And in that split second before he answered his own question, I thought, the opposite of faith is the opposite of that peace my dad had. And Fr. Mike said, “The opposite of faith is anxiety.” Faith is KNOWING that God is here for us through our whole life and beyond. That’s why now my favorite line of the Mass is “Grant us Peace.”
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