My Sister Met a Couple of My Heroes and I Didn't

So I'm pretty much living vicariously through my sister in meeting some of my Catholic heroes. Here's two examples.

My original home parish, St. Laurence in Sugar Land, TX, has a great speaker series. Last year they brought in Jennifer Fulwiler. I actually went to see her speak. Erika and I were supposed to go together but she had a rough day and wanted to stay home. Since she had such a rough day I left right after the talk. Lucky me, my sister was at the talk too. So, I texted her to buy a book and I'd pay her back. Well, this happened:

















So...SCORE! In all honesty, it's my fault I've never met her. She spoke at a conference in Denver and I was sitting in a hallway between talks and she walked by. I kept telling myself that she was just a regular person and I should just stop her and say hi but I chickened out and she walked right on by.

Monday night, Christopher West spoke at the speaker series. His teaching along with his books and my study of St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body has revolutionized not just the my life and my view but also express the truth of the Church's teaching of who we are and what we're made for. Well, I forgot he was coming, but I took the day off of work and decided I'd truly take it off since I was at work all weekend, and stay home. Well, my sister went and this happened:

Ok, so there's a story behind the autograph. If you didn't notice, this blog's title is included. If you go all the way back to one of my first, if not the first, blog I wrote I explained how I got the phrase vertical wildness from Christopher West's book Fill These Hearts: God, Sex, and the Universal Longing. Well before I used the title I actually emailed the contact email for Christopher West's Cor Project  to get permission to use his phrase. For some reason it really bugged me to use a phrase he coined without permission. Well, Christopher West personally replied, and this is how he did it:

"Dear Chris,
I appreciate you asking. I'll give you 30 days to come up with something different and if you don't, you'll be hearing from my lawyer.
JK. Feel free to use it. Happy if it blesses you and blesses others."

 Seriously?! What a guy. So here's to me hopefully meeting my next hero that comes to town. I'm looking at you Dr. Scott Hahn (I actually did speak with him once but it was for mere seconds because he was literally running by me because he was late for his plane.)

I Missed Holy Thursday

I missed Holy Thursday.

On Holy Thursday Erika had a gathering with the rest of her area Stella & Dot team in Galveston. We decided weeks before that I'd drop her off and then spend the day in Galveston with our girls. Our Holy Thursday plans were to make it to mass at a nearby church.

After I dropped Erika off the girls and I took the ferry over to Bolivar. We got out and walked around the boat. We got to see a guy feed the seagulls with his own mouth by sticking a long piece of bread in it and allowing them to swoop down and bite it out. Intimate. Once we reached Bolivar we headed to Crystal Beach and ate some snacks.

A couple of our friends, the Glazes (That Catholic Couple) had a beautiful baby daughter a week ago so I told them that we wanted to see them and that I'd bring lunch. So once I got their request (Raising Canes...OVERRATED) we got back in the car and headed back to the ferry.

Sidenote: On the way back I kept wanting to pull over and take a picture of this weed because it reminded me of the flower Murron gives to William Wallace in Braveheart. Well I just googled it, its a thistle and it IS the flower that Murron picked and gave to William. It's the national flower of Scotland. Back to the story...The more you know.

When we finally got back to Galveston I picked up some Chick-fil-a for the girls and then Canes for the rest of us.When we finally got to the Glaze's the girls were so excited. Yet when Daniel opened the door Elanor went into full opossum mode and laid down in the door way. Daniel's dad was sitting in a chair by the door, she didn't know him, opossum mode ensued.  She can be pretty shy at times. So once I carried her limp body in and Daniel's dad went upstairs to take a nap (he's been in town helping out) we sat down and got to break bread together and catch up (and get filmed for one of their vlogs).

It was so great to see them in their new element. New house, new baby, new family, new modes in life...mom and dad. I could see the sheer joy they had for this new chapter in their life. And the girls were super into Baby Lily. They just wanted to stare, touch, and kiss her.

After being there a while Erika called, way before I expected her, and asked for me to pick her up. So I packed up the girls into the car, headed back into Galveston, picked Erika up and got her food, and headed back to the Glaze's so Erika could meet Lily and love on the new little family.

I mentioned our plans for Holy Thursday above. Yeah, about that...I lost track of time and realized it was about an hour until Thursday night mass. I asked Erika if she still wanted to go and we talked about it and I checked my maps app to see traffic and I realize 1. It's Holy Week and you need to get their early to get a seat. 2. There was no way we were getting there early due to distance and traffic. So we decided not to go and stay a little longer with our friends. Honestly, I was a little upset because I didn't get to do WHAT YOU DO on Holy Thursday. Yet, after a few days and a little experience of hindsight, I came to realize that even though I didn't do the traditional Holy Thursday, much less Triduum traditions, I actually got to live out Holy Thursday. It's on this day we remember Jesus washing the feet of his apostles and the birth of the priesthood which are two powerful examples of service. I got to live out service that day. First I got to bring my wife to an event that was so powerful and invigorating for her. I then got to take my girls on adventure riding the ferry a couple times and going to the beach. And we finished our day loving on our friends and their new family. I got to serve them baby bringing them food they had a craving for and then my wife got to love on Ana just relating and sharing mama knowledge.

I've been really been trying to be intentional lately about the idea of allowing your self, your life to be interrupted. It's in this way that you are able to be incarnational and available to others. I mean that's basically Jesus' whole story. He was always being interrupted yet he allowed it. He was interrupted by the hemorrhaging woman, the lady washing his feet with her tears, the friends who lowered their friend down through the roof, and more. Yet, he didn't send them away and say "Hey, sorry, I have a schedule to keep." No, he took time and spent it with those people.

So yeah, I missed out on a traditional Holy Thursday but I got to experience what Holy Thursday is calling us into.