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Ultreya -- Lay Witness
Talk Archives
WITNESS
TALK: MY SUMMER OF LOVE
This summer has
been a very different one for me.
Normally my family and I spend as much
time as we can at our little cabin in
Windham, NY, making whatever repairs are
needed, barbecuing and
 eating
outside, wading in the freezing cold
water of our stream, sitting around camp
fires and gazing at the endless number
of stars in the black sky. So far this
year, I’ve only been to our cabin once,
and that was on the Memorial Day
weekend.
Last spring I
attended the Life in the Spirit Seminar
held here at St. Mark’s. It was a very
interesting and very spiritual time for
me. There is no doubt in my mind that I
was baptized in the Holy Spirit during
one of the meetings and I’ll never
forget the experience. At the end of
the six week seminar, we were given a
questionnaire to fill in, designed to
help you discover your special gifts of
the Holy Spirit. After much prayer, I
answered the questions and tallied up
the results. The top three areas I
scored in were Intercession, Healing,
and Evangelism. As far as Intercession
goes, I have a long list of people I
pray for every day and am the contact
person here at St. Mark’s for our prayer
chain. As for healing, I recently
rejoined the order of St. Luke which has
started a new chapter here at St.
Mark’s. And concerning evangelism, I
try every day to live my life so that
others will be led to know Jesus through
my actions. Thanks to the guidance of
the Holy Spirit, it seems that I’ve been
doing what God wants me to do.
This summer my
mother in law has been my focus. Last
winter, she began to gradually change.
Over time she became deeply depressed.
It was terrible to watch her turn into a
person that I didn’t recognize. When my
sister in law and niece visited in June
she was unable to cook meals for them,
so I stepped in to do it. She wound up
never leaving her home except for a
visit to the doctor. She couldn’t seem
to muster up the strength even to get
dressed on most days. She was always
tired and suffered terribly from
insomnia, headaches and nausea. She
hasn’t cooked a real meal for herself or
driven her car in months. She also got
confused about the medications she
should have been taking. After a lot of
doctor visits, two falls, four emergency
room visits this summer and a three week
stay at Our Lady of Consolation, she is
finally getting treatment for her
problems.
Instead of wringing
my hands and asking God why this was
happening, I found strength and
tenderness I didn’t know I had. I began
doing her grocery shopping and preparing
meals for her, taking her to doctor
appointments, labeling her medications
day by day and explaining to her over
and over why it was very important that
she take the medications as prescribed.
I tried to encourage her that this was
only temporary and that she would get
better. On top of this, I was trying to
comfort my husband, who was devastated,
and also frustrated about his mother’s
condition. Madeline has always been
strong and capable, and to see her in
this state was sometimes unbearably sad
for Gary, and also for the rest of us.
I pray for the wisdom to know what to
do, for the strength to continue helping
Madeline even as I also work full time
and take care of my home and family,
including Autumn, my very active 7 year
old granddaughter. I have also
continued to group and continue my other
church related activities. And I have
also agreed to be part of Cursillo Team
#91 which begins team training this
month. I was even able to enjoy a two
day trip to Hershey Park with Nicole and
Autumn at the end of August. We had a
great time and I know it’s a memory that
Autumn will have for the rest of her
life.
With continued
prayer, God has provided me with all I
need to lovingly serve Him and everyone
He has sent my way. I do thank Him
daily for all of the blessings He gives
me every day, and there have been many.
I don’t feel overwhelmed any more, and I
know it’s because He is answering my
daily prayers for strength and stamina.
I pray daily for the ability to listen
for the direction of the Holy Spirit,
and also for the courage to be obedient
to His direction. With all that God
gives me daily, I know that I will
continue to serve Him to the best of my
ability. Some days I feel frustrated
since I fear that Madeline may no longer
be able to live alone eventually. But
every day God brings me peace and helps
me to do my best to deal with the
situation as it is for that day. My
husband and his brothers now have to
face the reality that Madeline may have
to be in an assisted living facility
someday; a decision that has to be made
by them together. Until then, I’ll
continue to love and help Madeline, and
anyone else God sends my way, in every
way that I can.
ULTREYA
Lay Witness Talk
presented by Pat Weickart, Long
Island Cursillo, The Great South Bay
Ultreya
Gospel
Response
Pat thank you for
your wonderful witness talk.
The Scripture
passage that came to mind come from
Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Paul
has been
 through
hardship and the Church, upon learning
about it, reaches out to be of some help
to Paul. He was most grateful for their
loving action, and goes on to tell them,
that he in his life he has known plenty,
and he has also known privation, and
that he is content either way because he
has found the secret of living well.
I can Do all
things through God who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13
Pat you have
reminded us that in all our actions and
ministry we have a source of constant
strength, comfort and inspiration
through our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ.
ULTREYA
Gospel Response
presented by The Very Rev. Richard
E. Simpson, St Mark’s Islip NY
Iowa Men’s Weekend
#30
Witness
Talk – Evangelization of Environments
My name is Tony Hiatt, and I’m from Fort
Worth, Texas. I’d like to talk
with you for a few minutes today about
how the experience of being a
Cursillista has changed
 the
way that I interact with my environment,
and how that environment is being
transformed.
I’m convinced that there are two kinds
of Cursillistas – those who can’t wait
to go on a Cursillo weekend, and those
that go kicking and screaming. I
was definitely the kicking-and-screaming
type. I made my Cursillo 3-1/2 years
ago; my wife had been on a Emmaus Walk,
had loved it, and subsequently worked on
me for a couple of years before I
finally relented and agreed to go on a
weekend so she wouldn’t pester me about
it anymore. You probably can guess
the rest of the story – it was a
life-changing experience, so much so
that now, 3-1/2 years later, I’m a
seminary student on the path toward
ordination to the priesthood.
Even though I’m in seminary, I’ve kept
my day job. I’m an engineer with a
company in Dallas which builds railroad
cars. After I came back from my
weekend, I started to think about what I
could do to change my environment; of
course, I was energized and full of the
Holy Spirit, so on Monday morning I
immediately sought out a coworker who I
knew was an Episcopalian, and said to
him, “I met a friend of yours this
weekend, and we both think that you need
to go to Cursillo!” Well, as you
can imagine, this wasn’t a particularly
effective approach. I needed to back off
and let the Holy Spirit work in its own
way rather than in my way.
One of the things I started to do was
intentionally working on developing my
relationships with my coworkers, and
things began to happen that I wasn’t
expecting. I had always been very
private about my spiritual life, but
once I had perceived a call to ordained
ministry and begun my seminary studies,
I found myself looking for opportunities
to share my faith – not in a
confrontational manner, but as the Holy
Spirit provided openings, I took
advantage of them. An unexpected
result was that many of my co-workers
began to share their faith with me as
well.
Now, working on changing your
environment in Dallas is a little bit
different than in other parts of the
country. We’re in the middle of
the Bible Belt, and honestly, there
aren’t too many people that you
encounter in the workplace that don’t
belong to some type of faith community.
Changing one’s environment in that type
of setting means building bridges
between different strands of our own
faith –finding our common ground and
building on it rather than concentrating
on areas in which we disagree.
There are three people in particular who
I would like to tell you about today in
this context. The first is a man
whom I have known for many years.
He was one of the first people I got to
know when I took my current job twelve
years ago; in fact, he invited me to his
church one Sunday before my family had
moved to join me. His church is
the Church of Christ, a very
conservative denomination, which is
quite common in Texas. I went to
church with him, but it certainly wasn’t
my cup of tea; he and I remained
friends, but it was only after I had
been to Cursillo that our relationship
began to really blossom. Because I
became open to him on his terms, and in
turn made myself open to him, we have
become very close; we have lunch weekly,
share our hopes and concerns, and keep
each other in our prayers.
The second person whom I have grown
close to is a lady who is rather new to
our company; she is a second-career
engineer and a single mother, and is
also a member of the Church of Christ.
While we were on a business trip
together shortly after she was hired,
she noticed the books which I had in my
backpack from seminary; when she asked
about them, the door was opened for my
being able to share my spiritual journey
with her. This has been a blessing
for both of us; when our daughter was
experiencing a particularly difficult
time in her life, my friend was able to
share her experiences in a similar
situation, which helped my wife and me
to be better able to understand and help
our daughter.
The third person who I’ve been led to
share my experience with is a man with
whom I have worked very closely for the
past several years. I also had an
opportunity to share my faith with him
when we were on a business trip.
I’m not sure exactly where he is on his
faith journey, but every once in a while
he will make a comment or ask me a
question which sparks a theological
discussion. I don’t push anything
on him, but I am sure to make it clear
to him that I am available and open to
what he is seeking.
The biggest thing that I notice as I
reflect on the development of these
relationships in my workplace is the
change in myself. BC – that is,
"Before Cursillo", I completely
compartmentalized my spiritual and
secular lives. My faith was
something that was experienced away from
work. By doing this, though, I
wasn’t allowing my faith to be available
to those in my workplace environment.
Things are different now. The funny
thing is that it’s not like I set out to
make a plan to evangelize my environment
– it has sprung from the way in which I
now lead my life in a natural and
organic way. These things are
happening far beyond my ability to
influence them or my understanding of
what is taking place – God is working
through me without my even being aware
of it.
I used to just build trains – now I’m
also building relationships, through the
power of the Holy Spirit.
Ultreya!
Lay
Witness Talk presented Friday, October
28, 2011 by Tony Hiatt, Trinity
Episcopal Church, Fort Worth, Texas at
the Southcentral District Meeting at
the 2011 NEC Conference in Phoenix, AZ.
Gospel Response
Tony’s lay witness talk tells us how
important relationships and community
are to our lives as disciples. Jesus
felt that discipleship in community was
so important
 that
He called disciples to be and stay in
community. Scripture is full of
examples of Jesus’ instructions to the
disciples about unity and community.
For example, when Jesus sent the 70 out
on a mission trip, he sent them in pairs
so that they would have support for the
work of ministry; and when they returned
from their trip Jesus gathered them
together to recount their successes and
failures. In a way, the model Jesus
used is a lot like group reunions and
Ultreyas. In group reunion, we hold
each other accountable for our actions
and inactions as we walk together in
ministry; and in the larger gathering of
Ultreya we come back from our various
“mission trips” and share our successes
and failures so that we can be lifted up
and renewed to continue the work Jesus
gave us to do.
Look at the steps of our own lives,
first we commit to Jesus as disciples
and almost immediately Jesus tells us to
become a community and to share that
sense of joy and love with others. In
John’s gospel, chapter 13 verses 34 &
35, Jesus says, “I give you a new
commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also
should love one another. By this
everyone will know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one
another.” Love is what brings us into
community and it is what holds us
together as the body of Christ, the
Church. Love and community and the
actions we take to share Christ’s love
with others are how we live our 4th
day. Each day brings us opportunities
to share Christ’s love with others and
as Tony reminds us, we have to build a
relationship with those around us in
order to show them and tell them the
good news of God’s love.
Later in the gospel of John, Jesus
promises to send us the Advocate, the
Holy Spirit, who will equip us to
testify to God’s love (John 15:26).
Living out our 4th day is to
be part of a community of faith who
support and love each other. In this
way through reunion groups and Ultreyas,
we live out the gospel message by word
and deed in a community of Jesus’
disciples. Follow Tony’s example, build
loving relationships with those whom God
places in your environments and share
the word of God with them; but remember
it is important that we live out our 4th
day in community by our own actions and
we get the support we need through group
reunions and Ultreyas - Jesus never
sends us out alone to do the work of
ministry. Ultreya!
ULTREYA
The Gospel Response was made by the Rev.
Dr. Patricia Miller, Vicar St. Michael’s
Episcopal Church, Independence,
Missouri.
Witness Talk - Evangelizing Your
Environment
It dawned on me a couple of weeks ago
that I have a new environment in my
life. Actually, I’ve been in this new
environment for a number of months but
it was only recently that I thought of
it as a “new
 environment”.
This environment isn’t one I’m studying,
trying to discern who the leaders are
and who might benefit from the Cursillo
method, but it is a place I can take
Christ. This new environment is my
Friday morning Weight Watchers meeting.
At each meeting, we spend a lot of time
celebrating. First, we celebrate,
corporately, our weight losses for the
week. The leader asks everyone who’s
lost between zero and one pound to raise
their hands, and we clap and cheer for
everyone whose hand is raised. Then
it’s one pound to two pounds – there’s
more hands raised, more clapping and
cheering, and on and on it goes. Then
it’s time to hand out the “awards”. If
you’ve lost your first five pounds, you
get a bookmark, and for each five-pound
increment, you get a star to put on your
bookmark. At Weight Watcher’s meetings
I’ve been to in the past, both here and
in Iowa, you would sit in your chair and
the leader would come to you and hand
you your bookmark or your star.
However, Judy, the leader for my Friday
morning meeting, has had a debilitating
stroke, and so we go up front, to her,
and get our bookmarks and stars. And
once we’re up in front, Judy asks us to
share with the group a tip – something
that’s helped us lose the weight.
Normally, tips are things like “drink
your water”, or “exercise” or “write
down everything you eat”. Since I’ve
lost 65 pounds, I’ve been up in front of
the group, giving tips, quite a few
times. Sharing in this way helps you
get to know one another on a superficial
level. They know I have a supportive
husband at home, they know I made a deal
with my doctor to try and get my blood
pressure under control with diet and
exercise rather than medication, they
know I’m a breast cancer survivor. They
know things about me, but they don’t
really know me, they don’t really know
who the Linda behind the nametag is.
They don’t know I’m a Christian. And
even though we spend a little less than
an hour a week together, and perhaps I
could be excused for not spending that
time evangelizing, I decided that I
wasn’t living up to my baptismal
covenant by ignoring this opportunity.
With the realization that this was a new
environment, which I should be
permeating with and for Christ, came
also, the conviction that I should do
something! That I could do something!
That, by gum, I would do something!
God willing, of course! So, the last
time I was called up front to get my
star and give a tip, this is what I
said:
One of the things I find most helpful in
losing weight is PRAYER. I tend to be
obsessed with food, and I also have a
tendency to overeat, and I think both
are a sin, so I confess that to God. I
ask God to forgive me for worshiping
food and making food a god. Then I
thank God for the weight that I have
lost. I thank Him for Weight Watchers,
and for the support I get here, and for
the support I have at home. And I give
thanks that I’m out there walking –
because that’s when I pray – when I’m
walking and getting my daily exercise.
I thank God that I got off my butt and
I’m out there moving, and I especially
thank Him that I CAN walk. Our leader,
Judy, is a prime example of just how
quickly it can be taken away from you,
and I recognize and thank God for the
blessing, and the gift of a body that
works. Then I ask God to help me remain
strong and motivated, to be with me as I
choose what and how much I’ll eat, to
help me remember to drink my water, to
get out and walk every day, to be with
me always on this weight loss journey.
I went on to tell them that I wasn’t
trying to convert or offend anyone, only
tell them what’s working for me. I also
told them that God wasn’t losing this
weight FOR me - that God helps those who
help themselves. I shared with them
that if I can go to a brunch and eat
salad, fresh fruit, a dab of scrambled
eggs and steamed vegetables, and walk
right by the sausage and bacon and hash
browns and Belgium waffles, well, if
they really knew me, they’d know it was
a miracle, that there was definitely
something supernatural at work!
When I returned to my seat, one of the
other ladies patted me. And the lady
who always sits in front of me told me I
did a good job. And after the meeting,
another woman told me she also prayed
when she walked and that what I’d said
touched her. And that’s what I wanted
to do – touch people – touch them for
Christ.
Talk presented by Linda England at a
Grand Ultreya of the Heartland Episcopal
Cursillo (Diocese of Kansas and Diocese
of West Missouri)
One of the most difficult
Rollos to give during the weekend is the
one on Environments. In the first
place, most people think of
“environment” as thenatural world around us; and when the
speaker starts to talk about “other
environments” most of us get a little
squeamish. Nonetheless, we all live in
and change environments several times
each day. In John’s Gospel Jesus said,
"My Father is still working, and I also
am working."[i]
What Jesus is saying between the lines
is that, as his disciples, we too, are
always to be working. We live in the
kingdom that groans for its completion
and part of what disciples do is to
co-operate with the Holy Spirit and be
open to opportunities in their
environment to witness to God’s grace
and action in this process.
St. Francis of Assisi said that we are
to preach the Gospel at all times using
words if necessary. What he means is
that everything we do, from brushing our
teeth in the morning, to exercise, to
work, to love, to going to Weight
Watchers we do as followers of Jesus.
Sometimes it ends with an invitation to
join us at church or a small group or
something like that; but most of the
time it means sharing our prayers and
thanks to God for being there for us.
There isn’t any environment in which the
Holy Spirit is not with us. In
everything that we do, say, or think the
presence of God permeates our heart,
mind and spirit.
Disciples walk in the footsteps of the
master, that is, they adhere to the
teachings they hear, take them to heart
and emulate the teacher. As disciples of
Jesus Christ we are called to follow his
path and to be open to any opportunity
God presents to us to witness. Linda
didn’t have to quote from the Bible or
invite people to church or a small
group. She witnessed to the effect the
grace of God has in her life. She
acknowledged that losing weight is not
something she can do through her own
will power, but rather, she relies on
God’s grace to accomplish her goal.
Isn’t that true for each of us? God
gives us the talents and skills to do
something, we have to participate by
exercising those skills and work at
bettering them. God also gives us the
grace to overcome temptation and all we
have to do is reach out and take the
grace that surrounds us. This is what
Linda has done. She preached the Gospel
both in action and word.
[1]
New Revised Standard Version,
John 5:17.
Prepared and
presented by The Very Rev Cannon Alfred
J. Jewson, Diocese of West Missouri
WITNESS TALK -- HEAVEN
Let us
pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for
this opportunity to gather together in
 friendship,
and for bringing us all together to
share your Love. We ask your blessings
upon our fellowship in the name of your
Son, our savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
In trying
to come up with a topic for my witness
talk, I had no particular luck, so I did
what anyone would do when they’re stuck,
I asked God. Of course He had many
suggestions so I asked myself, what was
the most important aspect of my
spiritual life. That just caused even
more confusion. But then out of the
blue, ideas started to jell. Words,
thoughts and ideas started coming
together and I was moved.
I’m going
to tell you about heaven. Well at least
my experiences with what may be heaven.
When I think back to those times when I
felt closest to God, I ask myself, “Is
this a glimpse of heaven”? Other
questions come to mind like; “What is
Heaven”? “Is Heaven just being at
peace”? So I started looking for
definitions of Heaven. Heaven has been
simply described by people smarter than
me as “Living in the presence of God”.
Hell would be “Living without the
presence of God”. Most people think of
dying and going to heaven. So my
question to myself was, how could I live
in the presence of God, do I have to die
first to be in the presence of God?
Looked at this way, the answer came back
to me as a “NO” you don’t have to die to
see heaven; you just need to be in the
presence of God. So the next question
was, If it is this easy to see heaven,
why don’t I feel like I’m in heaven all
of the time? I want to be in the
presence of God. I like the way I feel
when I’m in the presence of God. There
must be more to this whole business. I
guess feeling like I’m in the presence
of God requires something extra on my
part.
Maybe it
would be easier to follow my thoughts if
I told you about times when I thought I
was in heaven. Rose Mary Turner. I was
in the delivery room when Rosemary was
born. The Lord had my undivided
attention and I was at peace. Other
times I would hold her when she slept,
and I felt the presence of God and that
overwhelming peace, that sense of being
connected to everything.
Now I’ve
not always been at peace, or even aware
that I could be at peace. For most of
my years I thought of myself as a man of
action. After all, I was an infantry
platoon leader with the 1st Infantry
Division in Vietnam. I was wounded on
several occasions and decorated on
several other occasions. If someone
asked me my opinion on something, I’d
tell it “like it is” without much regard
for feelings one way or the other. I
was considered gruff and insensitive by
some; well maybe by many. In truth,
I’ve always been a very sensitive
person, but for years I hid this major
part of my personality. I felt that the
“old softie” was the real me, and there
weren’t very many people I wanted to
share the real me with. I wasn’t very
trusting of others and my thoughts
revolved around me and not others.
Then I
joined St Marks in 1995 or so and I
began to get back in touch with my real
self. I started to question who I was
and who I wanted to be. I even came
upon the prayer of St Francis and
carried it with me, reading it often.
And this was years before Cursillo. It
always consoled me and had me thinking
about things in a different way.
Getting back to Heaven, going to
Crusillo was a very important milestone
in my life. It was there that the
prayer of St Francis came alive. It was
at Crusillo that I had one of those
shocks that wake you up. I recall
staring in a mirror late at night and
seeing my reflection, only it wasn’t me,
it was the person I wanted to be,,,
looking back at me. Suddenly I was
overwhelmed with God’s presence and
peace. I think I saw what it would be
like to be in heaven again. I feel that
I now understand Philippians 4.7, “the
peace of God that surpasses all
understanding, will guard your hearts
and your minds in Christ Jesus”.
How do we
get this peace, this glimpse of heaven?
How can we see heaven on Earth? The
answer is to be in the presence of God,
but how can we live in the presence of
God? St Francis said, “It is in giving
that we receive”. The conditional part
of the Lord’s Prayer prays: “forgive us
our trespasses, as we forgive those who
trespass against us”. God wants us to
forgive and love others. Remember my
sense of peace holding Rosemary? When
my entire being was focused on someone
else. Caring and loving others seems to
be one key to seeing heaven.
I want to
see Heaven more often. I’d like to feel
like I’m in Heaven now. I know it can
be done. I’ve seen Heaven. It turns
out that “others” seem to be the key. I
need to give, I need to forgive, and I
need to love others. Maybe then I can
live in the presence of God. Maybe then
we can all see Heaven here on Earth.
Jim Tuner,
Diocese of Long Island, Given at the
Great South Bay Ultreya at St. Mark’s
Islip
GOSPEL
RESPONSE
When we
being to see ourselves in the light of
Christ we become different people. For
 what
does God see when he looks in our
hearts… The only Biblical moment that
seems to work for me is at Jesus
Baptism, when Jesus comes up from the
water, and the Holy Spirit descends upon
him, and the voice of the Father says,
you are my Son the Beloved….
When we
draw near to God, we often fear that all
God will take notice of is the stuff we
are ashamed of, or embarrassed about, or
even the things that we don’t like about
ourselves and don’t even want God to
know about.
God sees
us and all I can see the prodigal son
coming home to a joyful embrace, My
Child was dead and is now alive… I hear
the words of the Father, “You are my
beloved…
When God
becomes the measure of life, we not only
see ourselves differently, but we begin
to see others differently. We
begin to see that others are also
“beloved of God.”
When we
know that are beloved of God, we know
that inner peace that surpasses all
understanding.
The Very
Rev. Richard E. Simpson, St Mark’s Islip
NY
Iowa Men’s
Weekend #30
Witness Talk -- Study
Like many of you, I’ve
been involved in Christian study groups,
sporadically, for much of my
 life;
Sunday school off and on as a kid and as
an adult; a non-denominational Bible
study group; Cursillo rollos; several
studies at various churches and here at
Holy Trinity, including the one most
dear to my heart, Monday morning’s
Natural Spirituality group. These studies have
added to my understanding of what I
seek, more knowledge about Jesus’
teachings and ways to better live my
life. Each study helped me understand
how God has worked throughout my life.
I have also found that fiction and
nonfiction books that I read for
pleasure often inspire me and enhance my
Christian journey. Recently, I
reread Dickens’s Christmas Carol.
Besides spending an enjoyable evening
with a beautifully written story, I went
away with food for thought about sharing
with others, instead of “storing up
treasures on earth.”
I also read a
best-seller-list nonfiction book called
Unbroken: A World War II Story of
Survival, Resilience and Redemption by
Laura Hillenbrand. This story of
survival under unimaginable conditions
was very moving and helped me understand
how God walks with us every day, no
matter how difficult the circumstances.
I just finished reading Losing Mum and
Pup, written by Christopher Buckley
about the deaths of his parents, William
F. Buckley and his wife Patricia, just a
few months apart. Christopher, a
doubter, talked about his dad’s
unshakable faith. He noted that once in
a conversation when someone said that
“we all doubt sometime,” the senior
Buckley said, “I never did.” And when
asked during a Playboy magazine
interview what he would like for an
epitaph he said, “I know that my
Redeemer liveth.”
Books aside,
studying and observing the Christ-like
behavior of others has taught me as
well. My paternal
grandmother, Laura Vinyard, set the
stage for my desire to understand holy
scripture. Her Bible was never far from
her side and the way she lived her life
and treated others was a sermon.
Others in my
life patterned similar behavior. Some
that come to mind includes a young
couple, Hopie & Vernon, who sponsored
our MYF group when I was a teenager.
They showed us what a happy Christian
marriage could look like, how well-loved
young children could also be
well-behaved children and that a whole
family could be active and involved
together.
The other
example that came to mind was a
minister, Terry, whose denomination
forbid him to preach after his divorce.
But his strong calling led him, after
several years, to another, more
enlightened denomination. Back in the
saddle again, Terry challenged and
motivated everyone who knew him with his
sermons and with the way he led his
congregations and conducted his life.
And then there
is the example of friends. I could tell
many stories, but this is the one I
chose. I hitched a
ride with Suzanne to and from Camp
Mitchell one year for Women’s Institute.
Just before leaving the mountain on
Sunday, after a spirit-filled weekend,
we gathered the Holy Trinity crowd for a
photo for the VE. Here came a gal, who
lives here but attends another church,
chirping “wait for me, wait for me, wait
for me.” I was waving her off, because,
after all, this is a picture of Holy
Trinity folks. Meanwhile, Suzanne with
her big smile reached out and welcomed
her into the group. Suzanne modeled
Christ-like behavior for me that day,
making the woman feel part of the group,
and, above all, valued.
So I have
become aware that knowledge about God is
all around me all the time. I just have
to use all my senses and pay attention
to become aware of grace-filled moments.
I have to remember to notice what it
says in the words of this song:
I see the love of God in
you,
The Light of Christ
comes shining through
And I am blessed to be
with you
Oh, holy Child of God.
Ultreya
This talk
was given by Sue V. Hood at the February
17, 2011, Ultreya at Holy Trinity
Episcopal Church in Hot Springs Village,
Arkansas.
Echo
Response(s)
Responses will be uploaded as they
are received.
Gospel
Response
In any decent
Concordance on the Holy Scripture, one
will find over 150 citations under
 the
word “witness”. These citations
cover both the Old and New Testaments.
They provide references to aspects of
witnessing falsely, witnessing
truthfully, and testifying for, against,
and about someone or something.
In the New
Testament, two places are worth noting:
the Book of Acts and the Gospel
According to John. In the first
narrative, we hear the stories from the
earliest accounts following the news of
the resurrection of Jesus. Chapter
1, verse 8 reads,
“you shall
receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you;
you shall be my
witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea
and Samaria
and to the end
of the earth.”
Later, when
selecting a replacement for Judas, the
one chosen “must become with us a
witness to his resurrection”
(v.22). Still later, we hear
Peter's first “witness talk” as he
stands and says in part,
“This Jesus God
raised up, and of that we all are
witnesses.” (2:32)
In the Gospel
According to John we are told in the
prologue of Chapter 1 that John the
Baptis “came for testimony, to bear
witness to the light, that all might
believe through him.” (v7)
Witnessing – by John the Baptist, by the
apostles and disciples, by Jesus himself
are a key ingredient to this gospel's
presentation of why the “word became
flesh and dwelt among us”.
Finally, this gospel ends, in Chapter
21, v. 24 with these words:
“This is the
disciple who is bearing witness to these
things,
and who has
written these things; and we know that
his testimony is true.”
We all are
witnesses to the truth of God – in our
lives and in our world. Our lives
are a testimony to the presence of God
in our midst. We are the flesh in
which the Word dwells, and so we are the
disciples that Christ counts on.
Through piety, study, and action, we
strengthen our resolve to be of service
to One who calls us into being, and who
calls us to follow. He also calls
us to lead – to lead others into all
truth; to lead others to and through the
cross; to lead others to witness to the
glory of Christ, now and forever.
ULTREYA
The Gospel Response was prepared by The
Rev. Richard Biega, Rector of Holy
Trinity Episcopal Church, Hot Springs
Village, Arkansas.
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