Things That Make You Go "Hmmmm

This post will seem disjointed because I'm not exactly sure what it means, if anything.

How many times have you experienced a deal where you just read a word in print at the exact moment that someone on television said the same word? And it's not a common word?? Happens to me a lot. Not frequently, but a lot.

My church has been doing an all-church study called "Out of the Stands and Into the Game". For six weeks now, the graphic on the projector screen has shown athletic logos. Today, the logo was a picture of a baseball player who had "Bautista" on the back of his shirt. That was obviously the man's last name. But how often do you run into the word "Bautista"? I saw it many times over when I was in California and toured the San Juan Bautista (St. John the Baptist) mission in a town by the same name. Interesting to me that I should be exposed to the name in California and again at home. What does it mean? I don't know!

I do know that as my daughter, son-in-law, and I toured the two missions in CA, we were totally in awe of the time of the establishment of those places. The San Juan Bautista Mission, established in the late 1700s right on the San Andreas Fault, has had daily mass celebrated there, uninterrupted, for 213 years. I am in awe of that. But there was something else...

Megan (my daughter) isn't totally a believer. She is working on that...but as we toured the two missions, she and I shared some unexpressed emotions. She didn't take pictures in the sanctuaries, even though they were most photogenic, having respect for the holiness of the places. I mean, God was present in those places, and we felt it. I bought rosaries for my Catholic grandchildren and finally found a font of holy water to bless them for Easter gifts for the kids. I'm not sure they will totally understand the moment, but I did. Once, when the mission bells were tolled to call the faithful to worship, I puddled up. I didn't know it at the time, but Megan did, too. I'm not Catholic but I have total respect for the ancient missions that helped to create California. It all starts with respect.

I don't know what the "Bautista" exposure means to me, but I'm sure it is a sign of something. We are challenged at church to pray the prayer of St. Francis every day during Lent and then report how our lives are changed at the end. I'm up for that.

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon:
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grand that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen