How We Were Drawn To The Community

We were selected as one of three coordinators of our Marriage Encounter class, which consisted of 19 couples and one nun. We accepted the founding couples’ offer to help coordinate our ME class in sponsoring the next ME weekend. Why not? We can commit ourselves to another weekend, so we thought. One weekend? How wrong we were!

The following week, we and the other two coordinators were invited to the home of one of the founding couples for dinner. After dinner, we were introduced to worship, Word sharing and Christian fellowship. The prayers were an intimate and loving conversation with Jesus. The praise songs were a soulful serenade of God. The scripture readings were read prayerfully, as if savoring an exquisite dish: slowly, deliberately, repeatedly. We experienced heightened senses, which allowed us to detect the Word's movement in our hearts. Our encounter with the Word provoked the sharing of deeply personal thoughts, feelings, sentiments and experiences, of anguished pleas for God’s help, of joyful thanksgiving for His loving intervention. The fellowship was genuinely friendly- we found ourselves amidst a family who loved and cared for each other. I saw God in this small circle.

Although I have been a Catholic all my life and attended a Catholic school from kindergarten to high school, I really did not know God. Outside of rote prayer and my frantic appeals for help when I was in need, I did not have a prayer life. My Catholicism consisted of grudging Mass attendance on Sundays to which I would be often late and positioned for quick exit. I never read the bible. Nor did I reflect on His presence and actions in my life. Consequently, I did not know God and did not develop a relationship with Him.

I also had very few close friends. I was introverted when I was growing up. I preferred to read my books rather than to play with my siblings, cousins and neighbors. I was never comfortable sharing myself and my feelings with anyone. I did not believe anyone can be trusted with personal information. My father’s side of the family was dysfunctional and detached from one another. This dysfunction influenced my relationship with my mother’s side of the family, my siblings, and my own family. Community was an alien concept to me.

After Lee and I attended the marriage encounter, we were thrust into a brand new world – into a small and intimate community that the Lord had planted and wanted to grow in New Jersey. We were not seeking one, but God gave us one. In this small community, I had a profound, refreshing and exhilarating faith experience. And it just keeps on!

We who were weak in faith were warmly welcomed to this circle of vibrant faith. An undeserved gift! Our first taste of community was good, and we embraced it wholeheartedly. After this first meeting, we bought a bible and began to devour it. We began praying every day. We bought praise tapes and listened to them all day long, at home or on the road. We enthusiastically attended our weekly gatherings, where the Lord continued to form us as a community.

“Welcome anyone who is weak in faith…” Rom 14:1