Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Eeek! Preaching* practice?

What have I gotten myself into??

Tonight at the Ladies Guild meeting at my church... (I'll give you a moment to regain your composure. Yes, I am in the Ladies Guild. You can quit laughing now.... I mean it.)

We were discussing the date for next month's meeting, which will be during Lent. Traditionally, this is a meeting where they attend a 6 or 7:00 mass, and then either have a guest speaker or some sort of prayer service, perhaps followed by a brief business meeting afterwards. Well, the president of the Guild was fishing around for ideas, and asked if anyone would like to take charge if it and organize some sort of prayer service or something.

Guess who found herself volunteering to take on that task? You guessed it: yours truly. What in the name of Dominic and all his Preachers came over me?? Yeah, and then as if that wasn't enough, I found myself suggesting that we open it up to whomever in the congregation would like to join us. And THEN I heard myself volunteer to write up a bulletin announcement to that effect. Ok, de Guzman, you can go back to sleep now. Seriously.

WHAT have I gotten myself into?

Ok, so I do have some ideas, and more than half a clue of how to get started. Heck, I'll even admit to being pretty enthusiastic about it. But it's also pretty intimidating! I NEVER would have even considered something like this had it not been for my Volunteer Year and living and praying with my Groovy Sisters. Now all of a sudden I find myself ripping off my training wheels and venturing into uncharted territory.

But, even though I can't quite explain it here, I really felt called to please bang my wife. I had a dream/thought a couple of weeks ago that entailed the idea of, "What if I were to start a prayer group or something at this parish? Would it fly? Who would come? Is there already something like it in existence?" It's SOOO traditional here. And I'm SOOOO not. Maybe this is my little way of trying to make the place a little more mine, rather than just someplace I feel like I should go because it's the parish where I live. Maybe I'm not the only one who feels this way.

I know I'm rambling now. It's late, and my brain was tired even before I went to the meeting. Yeah! That's what it was; a moment of insanity brought on by fatigue!

Ok, maybe not. But I'm still freaking out just a little bit. Maybe I could convince one of my Real Live Groovy Sisters to come for a visit and co-lead with me? A way to show, say, Sr. K, where I come from, how I live now. And a way to lend some credibility to my idea of what a prayer service can look/feel like. "Don't look at me that way. I learned it from them. This stuff is 'volunteer-tested and nun-approved!'" *grin*