I was listening to Relevant Radio months ago, and one particular conversation has stuck with me. The topic was the church community: how it is now and how it should be.

Here’s the scenario I remember most:

Bob has had it rough, and we don’t see him in church often. When we do, his eyes are usually bloodshot and he kind of smells like liquor. Some of us are horrified that he would dare disgrace the sacraments by showing up to church in such a state. Others feel bad for him and say a private prayer for his healing. Nobody feels comfortable around him.

The guest on the radio had a beatific vision. Instead of avoidance, what if someone reached out to him, if only to make a point of sitting near him at Mass. Perhaps instead of ignoring him, someone could invite him over for Sunday dinner. Surely both people would be threatened… after all, isn’t sin contagious?

I agree that healing can be done behind the closed doors of a therapist or in a state-funded support program — but like Jesus said to his disciples before he used their dinner to feed thousands — “Do not send them away. Feed them yourselves.”

We might not be professionally trained counselors or even priests, but we are all innately capable of being a community. No matter who we are, we can be the one who steps outside our privacy bubbles to draw in the outcasts to our community. We will never be whole without the shunned and the marginalized — the beauty is that by reaching out, they are, by definition, no longer marginalized, no longer shunned.

Surely we can love people back into the light of Christ. Healing and change can happen when someone is lovingly absorbed into a nurturing community.

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Want to learn more about peer ministry or spiritual direction for teens? Contact John Schmitt, St. Anne’s Youth Ministry Coordinator, for some answers. Call the office at 715-849-3930 or email johns@stanneswausau.org.

Cheryl Mathis is a recent convert (2010) to the Catholic Church after growing up in a fundamentalist Pentecostal church. She’s married with two kids and spends much of her time homeschooling, designing the parish’s weekly bulletin and web-mastering this site. Being a teenager sucks – and she has the scars to prove it – but God’s grace and mercy is bigger than her mistakes and rebellion. You can contact her by email at cherylm@stanneswausau.org.

There is not a crystal clear line in the sand when my brokenness was made whole. I spent years in darkness, seemingly beyond the light of Christ. Even in my darkness, however, his light made frequent visits — a kind Catholic girl with aspirations to become a nun but refused to treat me badly despite my obvious sin — to a long daily commute when I couldn’t get NPR but could get Relevant Radio — to a Catholic foster mom from my teen years who never stopped corresponding with me despite my unholy lifestyle.

Saint Faustina transcribed,  “My secretary, write that I am more generous towards sinners than toward the just. It was for their sake that I came down form Heaven; it was for their sake that My Blood was spilled. Let them not fear to approach Me; they are in most need of My mercy.”

I didn’t have one major ‘a-ha’ moment when I tearfully turned my life over to Christ. Instead I found myself becoming more and more aware of the light around me.

I loved the light and wanted more of it. My searching expedition for stability and joy let me to the Church where I could tap into the grace my innermost soul had yearned for.

As a faithful Christian in a faithless world, you can reveal the light of Christ to those in darkness simply by being present in their lives. Don’t shy away from darkness, but walk with faith into the dark and let your light shine!

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Want to learn more about peer ministry or spiritual direction for teens? Contact John Schmitt, St. Anne’s Youth Ministry Coordinator, for some answers. Call the office at 715-849-3930 or email johns@stanneswausau.org.

Cheryl Mathis is a recent convert (2010) to the Catholic Church after growing up in a fundamentalist Pentecostal church. She’s married with two kids and spends much of her time homeschooling, designing the parish’s weekly bulletin and web-mastering this site. Being a teenager sucks – and she has the scars to prove it – but God’s grace and mercy is bigger than her mistakes and rebellion. You can contact her by email at cherylm@stanneswausau.org.

Are you willing to step forward to give Jesus a “yes” to His call?

The call is to let yourself be used for the glory of God as a peer minister. If you’ve ever felt nudged inwardly to pity or generosity for your peers, the Holy Spirit is getting you ready for peer ministry training. Instead of feeling helpless when faced with someone else’s brokenness, you’ll feel capable of prayerful intercession to stand between a soul and a lifetime of loneliness and pain.

Peer ministers don’t have to be perfect in their faith. They don’t need good grades or high-flying aspirations. They need soft hearts, open eyes and minds and the willingness to be the light of God wherever life takes them.

If you have a soft heart, step forward to receive training to be a more effective God light as a peer minister. St. Anne’s Youth Ministry is currently taking applications for those who wish to gain the skills to be a Light in whatever shadows you may come across.

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Want to learn more about peer ministry or spiritual direction for teens? Contact John Schmitt, St. Anne’s Youth Ministry Coordinator, for some answers. Call the office at 715-849-3930 or email johns@stanneswausau.org.

Cheryl Mathis is a recent convert (2010) to the Catholic Church after growing up in a fundamentalist Pentecostal church. She’s married with two kids and spends much of her time homeschooling, designing the parish’s weekly bulletin and web-mastering this site. Being a teenager sucks – and she has the scars to prove it – but God’s grace and mercy is bigger than her mistakes and rebellion. You can contact her by email at cherylm@stanneswausau.org.