Thomas Merton enters the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. 1941.
I saw this on a desk calendar at the hospice where I volunteer last Thursday, Dec. 10. Earlier that day, in meeting with my spiritual director, I discussed discerning whether or not I wanted to become a deacon in the Catholic Church.
I also discussed with her some of what I mentioned about my volunteering at the hospice. She asked me if I ever considered being in a helping profession as a caregiver or maybe a counselor.
Then later that day, while on the phone with a college friend, who is helping to hold me accountable on my continuing quest for a full-time job (I work two part-time jobs right now), he mentioned a website that trained “biblical counselors.” I did check out the site, but from what I understand it is for those who already have an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in counseling. Plus while it looked like a good course, it is not accredited yet.
I’ll be honest too that as a Catholic, I would prefer to be trained by Catholic counselors IF, and to me isn’t a prerequisite, I were to be trained for “Christian” counseling. To me, counseling would be more important than necessarily the Christian aspect of it — not that I don’t think that it is important or that my faith couldn’t “shine through” even if not directly and not in a heavyhanded way. At least, those were my initial thoughts on Thursday.
So the next step is exploring the diaconate on our diocesan website to see what it has to say about becoming a deacon.
All this to lead into:
So far what am I grateful this past week?
1. Having a spiritual director with whom I can meet each month to discuss my spiritual life — and where it might be going next.
2. A friend who helps to hold me accountable. A couple of weeks, he called me after a few months of not calling and was pretty blunt with me about my lack of activity on the job search front. For that, I am grateful.
For what am I least grateful this past week?
Mainly, one thing: after all the great conversation with my spiritual director and my college friend, I forgot to pick up my wife from work, forcing her to borrow the company van when she didn’t have an appointment the following morning and shouldn’t have had the van. Ironically, I was talking with my friend when I was supposed to be picking her up.
Lord, help me to be more attentive to what I’m supposed to remember day to day and hour to hour, and guide me in my spiritual journey this coming week, month and in the following year.
For what are you grateful this past week or maybe, eh, not so much?
This post also can be found on my main blog, an unfinished person (in an unfinished universe). Here also is a post from this blog from two years ago today.
