We kicked off Lent by reading Francis Chan's Crazy Love together. It was a good spiritual kick in the pants for each of us, really speaking to our hearts. Richard is feeling the Lord calling him to try to control less and surrender more. To grow in trust - to relinquish his grasp on the parts of his life that he clings to as "his". Kelly has been trying to enter more deeply into the mystery of Love. To love the Lord better, more maturely - and by extension, to show charity, to be patient, to have her will thwarted gracefully.
On a practical level, Rich has been spending time with youth ministers, attending their events and trying to pick up some valuable pointers. He actually was asked to pose as an atheist on two 8th grade confirmation retreats this week! (The DRE was trying to help the students grow in their ability to articulate the faith to non-believers). Kelly has been using Maria as a guinea pig to practice some new catechetical techniques; last week we created 41 Biblical "characters" out of clothespins and scraps of old clothes. We've been using them to act out the Gospel after dinner each night and it's been a huge hit. Maria truly looks forward to nightly Scripture (she clamors for the "sticks"- the name she has given the clothespin people), and Bernadette belly-crawls determinedly to grab whichever stick person is closest to her invariably stick-y little fingers. If only all our ideas could turn out to be half as popular!
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