Brother-to-Brother Ministries in Raton, NM, February 3-4
Last Updated on Tuesday, 21 February 2012 09:37 Written by Brother Rick Sunday, 19 February 2012 16:30
As part of the Brother-to-Brother Ministries mission, we travel to parishes around the country to hold workshops for Catholic men on how to be active Christian leaders, how to live Christ-centered lives, and how to mentor/disciple other men on their faith journeys. Additionally Bob Tomlinson and Rick Lentz give a powerful joint testimony on the Power of Forgiveness, and Rick speaks on the Importance of Forgiveness for our personal healing and salvation.
Recently, Fr. Daniel Balizan invited the Brother-to-Brother Ministries team to come to St. Patrick-St. Joseph Catholic Church in Raton, NM on February 3-4, 2012. He had a two-fold purpose in mind when he made the invitation. The first was to prepare parishioners for Lent by having Rick and Bob give their joint testimony to the power of forgiveness, and to have Rick speak about the importance of forgiveness on Friday evening. The second was to have Dennis and Rick encourage the men of the parish to get involved in adult faith formation and become more active leaders in their families, the parish, and the world through the Active Christian Leadership and Living a Christ-Centered Life presentations on Saturday morning.
Dennis and Rick arrived at the parish community center mid-afternoon on Friday and were warmly greeted by six parish volunteers led by Diana Sanchez. They were preparing the evening’s pasta dinner and prepping for the next morning’s breakfast for the men’s conference. Diana introduced them to Beverly Stolarczyk who graciously provided them with lodging for the night. They then met with Fr. Balizan, whom Rick had the pleasure of meeting at his parish in Colorado Springs in March 2009. Fr. Balizan is a vibrant and spirit-filled priest who lovingly leads his flock to the fullness of the truth of Jesus Christ.
After dropping off their belongings at Beverly’s guest cottage, they went to the church to take part in First Friday Adoration and Benediction followed by Mass. Fr. Balizan gave a stirring homily on living a Christ-centered life with a properly formed Catholic moral conscience. His homily tied right in with what Dennis and Rick would speak about to the men of the parish on Saturday morning.
After a delightful dinner, Rick presented his and Bob Tomlinson’s joint testimony on The Power of Forgiveness to 80 parishioners. Unfortunately, Bob was able to attend because earlier in the week his brother, Wayne, had undergone brain surgery to repair an aneurysm. Fortunately, Wayne’s recovery is going well. The presentation was well-received and several people related similar family tragedies during the break and talked about their healing process.
The second presentation was on The Importance of Forgiveness. This presentation was prepared at the request of Fr. Balizan to give his parishioners a head start on the Lenten theme of forgiveness. In the presentation, Rick spoke about how the act of forgiving brings healing to both the forgiver and the forgiven. He pointed out that harboring unforgiveness can destroy relationships, even with those who had no part in the situation (see Hebrews 12:15a). Rick also explained how unforgiveness can prevent us from entering heaven since Jesus taught that the Father will forgive us only if we forgive others (Matthew 6:12, 14-15; Matthew 18:23-35). If God does not forgive us, then the stain of sin remains, and we know from the book of Revelation that “nothing unclean can enter heaven” (Revelation 21:27).
As Rick was packing up for the evening, he felt a tap, tap on his shoulder and heard a soft voice ask, “Mr. Lentz, Mr. Lentz, will you speak with me”? He turned to find a spry young-at-heart woman standing behind him. After Rick told her he would be happy to speak with her, she began to relate her story. Because of the cold windy weather, she had not wanted to attend the evening’s events; yet, something (the Holy Spirit?) compelled her to come. After listening to Rick’s testimony and seeing the topic of the second presentation, she felt the Holy Spirit bring a deeply hidden unforgiveness to her thoughts. The unforgiveness stemmed from her being assaulted as a child. Through the Spirit’s prompting, she forgave the man and prayed a prayer of forgiveness to God. She told Rick that for the first time in almost 70 years, she felt freed from the pain, grief, and sorrow of the event, and the burden of unforgiveness. Praise be to God and the Holy Spirit for healing her!
On Saturday morning, Rick ate breakfast with a young man who is discerning the priesthood. The young man said he has felt the call to the priestly vocation since he was five or six years old and hopes to enter undergraduate seminary upon completing high school. He is very thoughtful young man and has a wonderful example of how to be a priest in Fr. Balizan. Please pray for him.
After breakfast and a change of venue due to a power outage, Dennis gave our presentation on Active Christian Leadership. Using the examples of Jesus and St. Joseph, he discussed what it means for the lay man to be an active Christian leader in the family, the Church, and the world. One of the key pieces is always acting with a properly formed Catholic moral conscience. This includes treating others with respect and making informed voting decisions based on the teachings of the Church. During the Q&A, many of the 40 men in attendance, who are from varied cultural backgrounds, yet are all Americans, concurred in citing their concern about the secular humanist attacks on our Catholic faith and our religious and civil liberties as guaranteed in the First Amendment of the U.S Constitution.
Rick then presented Living a Christ-Centered Life. We started by praying together in asking Christ to become the center of our lives and rededicating our lives to Him. In this presentation, Rick spoke about how to put Christ at the center of one’s life and how to grow in our relationship with Him. Using the Wheel Illustration from The Catholic Topical Memory System by Richard Cleveland, Rick showed how we gain strength from the sacramental life of the Catholic Church, God’s Word, prayer, and our faith community. Then through obedience to Christ, we share God’s plan of salvation with others both inside and outside our faith community.
Brother-to-Brother Ministries would like to thank Fr. Balizan and the parishioners of St. Patrick-St. Joseph Catholic Church for this wonderful opportunity and for the encouragement and support we received from a truly Christ-centered and Holy Spirit-filled community. We also want to thank Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan, Archbishop of the Diocese of Santa Fe for granting Rick, Dennis, and Bob permission to speak in the archdiocese.
