To Truly be Nourished

Change can be a good thing, right? As someone who was born and raised in Grand Rapids, and went to College in town moving away for Grad school has been something rather difficult at times. From not knowing where the grocery store is, to the grocery store not having Vander Mill's totally roasted, to finally finding a store that does carry Vander Mill's only for them not to have it the move has been a struggle at times. Grand Rapids was always home, and for the past 4 years was home by choice. But even in the years of living in Grand Rapids while growing up and going to grade school and middle school at St. Alphonsus, it slowly became the parish I used to go to, no longer the parish I called home. Even the place I laid my weary head at night changed these past four years, from living in Regina hall to a summer in the on campus apartments to then being in Dominican hall, and then back home to my moms for one of the longest summers in my life, to another apartment on campus, to then a summer back in the first set of apartments on campus, finally to a house on campus before a second long summer back at home before moving to Dayton. Home has changed a lot, and as I'm reminded by friends and my self sometimes on a daily basis change can be a good thing. 

In one light Change can be the best thing. I did not mention the bit about St. Al's just for shits and giggles, but rather because its important. Having gone to church there, gone to school there, helped lead youth group there, taught religious ed there, and helped with VBS more times than I can count it slowly started to no longer nourish me. I still loved the stained glass, and the physical structure of the church, I loved seeing the people I've gown up with, and those who watched me grow up. But something was missing, something didn't fit any more. For a while I simply chalked this feeling up to moving "away" to college. For the better part of 3 years I was not going to mass on a regular basis, more accurately I wasn't going at all. One of the reasons for this was because the mass time offered on campus on Sundays conflicted with a youth group I volunteered with, so in my young naive state I said that was a fair trade off, volunteering counted in place of mass. The other reason for not going to mass was because when I did go to mass at St. Al's there was something missing, I wasn't leaving mass feeling nourished, in fact their were some Sundays I left feeling anything but nourished. 

It took me four years to see the error in my ways, if only my friend Alex had been around sooner to tel me "just go to mass man". Suddenly I started to realize that something was missing in my life by not going to mass. I wasn't being nourished, well feed of course, remember theres always enough food at my moms, even if I was just there for Friday night family, that would have been enough to keep me feed. However I was not being truly nourished. Something was missing, and I knew I needed to go out and find it. In order to do that I decided, maybe change could be good. I went to mass at the Cathedral, it was a Saturday night, and it was just about 4:00, mass was at 4:30 and I decided to go. 

After that week I went back, then I started inviting friends to go along with me. Some weeks it was just me and that was ok because normally I would see someone I knew, then after a while even the people I didn't know became familiar faces. Change was good, I was being nourished again. 

I would likely go as far to say that without this change, without going to mass at the Cathedral, I would likely not be writing this weekly blog.

Now I am 5 hours away from home, and I don't have the cathedral, or a cathedral at all to attend mass at (Dayton is part of the Arch diocese of Cincinnati). Since moving here on August 6th, a thursday I have embraced the change and gone to mass at St. Albert the Greats, Immaculate Conception for a "Rock Mass" St. Anthony of Padua, Church of the Ascension, and Holy Angels, all these places have had different things to offer. Different physical structures, some traditional, some ornate, some plain, some rather odd, some places had wonderful music, some left room for better music to be desired, some had deacons others just a priest. They all had a Catholic mass, and they all had different nourishments for different, people. 

In my reflection on the 17th Sunday of Ordinary time I challenged you to try mass at a different Church, or simply just sitting at a different place in the church. 

Here I am telling you, my account of needing to find my nourishment. In this the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time reading's we find the Gospel account, again from John (6:41-51), again having to do with bread. "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life... I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever". At this point I would like to take a moment to translate this into my own words. Whoever eats of this bread will be Nourished, truly nourished. And while the bread I ate of the flesh of man was the same at St. Al's as it was at the Cathedral, and both had the ability to nourish me, in my human nature, I only found True nourishment in one. 

My closing thought in this post is a question. Why do we go to mass, why do you go to mass, why do I go to mass? What is the purpose? Do we do it simply because it's Sunday and thats what we do? 

Please be honest with yourself in your reflection, if you'd like to discuss it further you know how to find me. 

Peace and Blessings Always!

~M