One of the greatest aspects of being Catholic is already being friends with people you haven’t even met yet. Through our baptism and practice of the Faith, there is an interconnectedness within the People of God around the world that makes already family. Such was the gift behind my hanging out with some Catholic Cowboy friends in upstate Pennsylvania.
Paul and Susan Walters, from Sweet Valley PA, reached out to me a couple years ago. They had found my blog and wanted to encourage me in our Catholic Cowboy ministry. Since then we’ve kept in touch, and being this close to them with the recent retreat, I had to stop in.
We started the day by celebrating Mass at their local parish, Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Then, after a good ranch breakfast, we went out exploring.
Venturing up to Wilkes-Barre, we stopped at a beautiful private shrine of Our Lady of Fatima.
Then stopped at King’s College Chapel of Christ the King. This guy was originally a Presbyterian church that was later acquired by the Catholic Church.
The entire church is stunningly beautiful. Especially the Altar made out of coal!
Near by, Jerry and his son were selling Krispy Kreme donuts to help support youth ministry efforts. Good work, boys.
But my favorite stop was at Paul Scavone’s place. We met at Mass this morning and he shared that he used to hunt in the Big Horns Mountains. Cool. Then he randomly shared that he bought a 1949 Chevy from Dan Miller in Worland! I knew that truck well. So he pulled it out for me to see and drive. Wild!
Providence knows no bounds. What fun connections. No where other than in the Catholic Church can you take off running with friends you’ve never met before. I love it. Special thanks to Paul and Susan for showing me around upstate PA. Your friendship, support, and prayers have more value than we realize. Keep in touch and keep up the Good work!
No comments:
Post a Comment