With no "review," things were pretty much done by the time I arrived to pick up the study materials. Instead of breaking, though, we went around the room with introductions. First time for everything. I spoke last.
A few stood out. One said practically nothing. Many had traveled, with one returning to the Middle East for several weeks.
This one gushed with enthusiasm about spirited conversations with a close relative who had been to Medjugorje. I wondered instantly if that place name meant anything to anybody.
This relative had had a vision while there ... and, if I heard right, had a photograph of the Marian apparition. Ever since, this woman had been troubled in various ways: woken at all hours by visions, scars to her flesh without medical reason and feverishly writing hymns and poems and songs of praise. Not an appealing spiritual condition to me.
And apparently, neither to the others. They might as well have had tiny, red flags. One asked point blank, from across the room, "Does she know the Lord as her Savior?" The facilitator uttered a caution that the praise be directed to God and not "to her," meaning Mary, I suppose. Both objectors were reassured that everything was copacetic.
Afterwards, I was inclined to whisper that I appreciated what she shared but there was no opportunity. Those two who met the obligation to "say something" did so temperately, without haste. She was not urged to conform ... but then, this was secondhand. It wasn't actually about her.
Rarely do we talk amongst ourselves. I can't expect anything like this to occur again.
2 comments:
"This one gushed with enthusiasm about spirited conversations with a close relative who had been to Medjugorje. I wondered instantly if that place name meant anything to anybody. "
must have been a non-Catholic class? I always find interesting to quietly listen to others talk about our inside-baseball.
Is this the other John class?
Yes, all now non-Catholic but this one has said she was raised Catholic, that is, Maronite.
She said she went with many questions and got answers for all of them.
It's Genesis, chapters 1 & 2. Within six weeks' time, I'll have learned how to defend creationism against evolution. Or, at least, I hope so.
The "other" John class hasn't materialized yet. I'd like to do something clever with φανερόω - "make manifest"- as in St. John's Prologue. But I'm too doggone tired.
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