Semi-Retreat Day

 Today my spirituality Group will come here as the weather forecast for Santa Cruz is cold and foggy.

We will meet in one of our new parlors and they will bring lunch and I will take care of drinks and dessert. I did invite them for the 9:00 Mass here, but suspect most will come at 10:00 and all will be gone before 3:00, our usual time when we go to Villa Maria in Santa Cruz. Each is going to bring her favorite Gospel story and share why it is important for her.

I am torn between two and no doubt will share both. The first is the night after Jesus has fed the multitude and sends His disciples off in the boat while he dismisses the crowds and goes up the mountain to pray. A storm comes and the wind is against the little boat and they are in danger so Jesus comes to them. They think they are seeing a ghost walking on the water towards them. Jesus tells them, "Fear not; It is I"  - now I have heard Jesus say the same to me. He has also called me to get our of the boat and come to Him. Peter did, but then took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink. I think this Gospel story has taught me so much, but I also need to share the post-resurrection story of when the disciples went fishing with Peter and caught nothing all night. As day was breaking, someone calls to them from the shore and asks if they have caught any fish. He then tells them to cast the nets to the right side of the boat. They do it and the net is so full of fish that they cannot lift it into the boat. John says, "It is the Lord" and Peter jumps out of the boat and swims to the shore to be with Jesus. 

Jesus has prepared breakfast for his friends and has fish frying on a charcoal fire, but he tells them to bring some of the fish they have just caught. Peter rushes back to help and they count 153 fish! When I arrived in Chile straight from Rome without knowing a word of Spanish, I had a study hall with 153 middle-school children. It was bedlam! Somehow I survived, but these stories of being at sea really helped me. Then, of course, I love the fact that after breakfast was over, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him and he asks him three times. I had written on a blackboard in my office in Spanish Peter's final answer:

"Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you!"