From back-to-back days in Sulphur for the softball state tournament to taking a foul ball off the stomach and from a baseball playoff game in Oberlin on Monday to taking pictures of Passe Partout at Chicot Park on Tuesday, it has been a long couple of days.
Tuesday night I went to bed early so I could rest up for a busy press day on Wednesday. But, as I was trying to fall asleep, I heard my dad fussing as he was trying to get the cat back in the house. Amongst the clangs of the spoon against the metal cat food can, I found myself realizing an important thread that connected the long series of events that began with our esteemed editor Elizabeth and I taking a road trip to Sulphur last Friday.
This important thread was really a reaffirmation of something I already realized, but it is good to look back on every once in a while. I realized I am where I am supposed to be in life.
I want to share a couple of examples from the past few days that back up this realization.
Tuesday was our last Come, Lord Jesus! meeting at Sacred Heart for the school year. I had been a group leader since October and had eight junior boys in my group. We met every Tuesday morning in the school library when school started.
Because of a confidentiality agreement, I am not going to name the guys. But I will say it was a good group. Most of the guys I knew already, which made it better for me in a way.
At first, though, it was kind of awkward as we tried to settle into a routine and get to know each other better. But, then a month or so into it, we settled in, and the guys really got more receptive.
What helped the guys being more receptive was the fact I was more prepared each week and the fact I stopped doing it by the book. I started doing it more freestyle while still focusing on the core component of the meetings which was reflecting on the upcoming Sunday Gospel.
We also got off topic and just talked about things, but I still reined it back in whenever we got too far off topic to get us back where we needed to be. The guys really gravitated to that as well.
Before our last meeting began, Fr. Blake Dubroc gave me a Holy Water bottle as a gift for being one of the Come, Lord Jesus! leaders. The card attached did not say “Thank you for being a friend” but said the whole school mass on Friday, the first Friday of the month, would be said in my name for my personal intentions. The card also thanked me for my “time in helping form our students in the learning to read, reflect, and praying of Sacred Scripture through the ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’ program. Your time has been of great value to Sacred Heart School. You are greatly appreciated.”
I mentioned all this because I told Elizabeth on the way back from Sulphur Friday if I would still be working at the Clerk of Court then I would not be able to do Come, Lord Jesus! The meetings are from 8:10 a.m. to 8:50 a.m., and I do not have to be at work here at The Gazette until 9:00 a.m.
The other example I will give from the past couple of days is a visit I had on Monday from Jim and Doreen Youngflesh. I wrote about them in a previous column when Charles Edwards and I met up with them on Bourbon Street for the Sugar Bowl several years ago.
They had come into town to do business at the bank and stopped by the office. I did not recognize them at first when they walked in because it has been a few years since we had seen each other. We visited for a while and told Elizabeth stories about us working at the clerk’s office together. Of course, we had to share a story or two about J.L. Brignac. It struck me when Doreen said J.L. would be proud of me for coming over to The Gazette two years ago.
Before Jim and Doreen left, I gave them a copy of the paper that had the column about them. Doreen even subscribed to the paper.
Then the next day, I got a text message from Doreen saying how much she enjoyed the visit. She said she had been sick and called the visit “most therapeutic.”
She went on to say how much she enjoyed my column and how she understood why I left the clerk’s office. She also said in the message “You may one day make a difference in this crazy world... There is heart and truth in your writing.”
I do not know about me changing the world, but I do know I am where God wants me to be because I am making a difference in the spiritual lives of students at Sacred Heart by being a Come, Lord Jesus! leader, and hopefully making a difference in the lives of you the readers by delivering content you want to read about.
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Tony Marks