 Thank you Father Dave. You know, I knew Father Dave when he was a student here at Steubenville. He looked different. Look better now. I'm so happy and excited to be with you here at this conference and I have to tell you that when I walked in the door this morning, really I felt like I just came into a wall of the father's pride and joy in you. I just tangibly felt it the moment I walked in the door. Just the father's heart bursting with joy for you. So I'm happy to be here for that reason and also because this is the first priest conference as you, I think you know, since Father Francis Martin passed away and he was hugely important in my life. He is the one because of whom I first fell in love with the Word of God and I know he's hugely important in the lives of many of you. I don't know how many priest conferences he was the main speaker for, but something like 15 or more, 20 maybe? How many of you were here at the first one that that he did or one of the first ones that he did? A few of you. Praise God. Well last year was a big year, wasn't it? Because it was the 50th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and it was the year that Father Mike Scanlon went home to the father in January and then another dear friend of mine, Father Peter Hawken, went home to the father in June and then Father Francis Martin in August. Three giants. So you know I can feel so little trying to walk in their footsteps and maybe you do too, but I just thank God for the incredible example and blessing that they were in my life and the lives of so many of you and so many other people. So I just, I stand in awe of what God did through them and I see God continuing what he's been doing and doing new things that are just as awesome and exciting as what he has done over the last 51 years of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. So my talk is that our joy may be complete and I'm sure you recognize that that phrase is from the first letter of John which says at the beginning, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest and we saw it and testified to it and proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing this that our joy may be complete. You see from these words that John is overflowing with joy. It's almost like he's tripping over his words. He's repeating himself. It's ungrammatical. He's just overflowing with the amazement of the fact that he has heard and seen and touched the word of life. He's experienced fellowship with the living God, the Father, and with Jesus, His Son. And despite the fact that this joy of fellowship with God is overflowing, there's something more he wants. His joy is just uncontainable, but there's one more thing he wants. He wants to share it with others. And he said, that's why I'm writing to you. I want to invite you into it. And it's only when I invite you into it and you also come into this incredible fellowship with God that our joy will be complete. Our fellowship with God comes in and through fellowship with one another. They're inseparable. I mean what what John is describing here is something that it doesn't happen apart from fellowship with one another. Nobody has perfect communion with God and lives isolated from other human beings. They they go hand in hand. And he's saying, this is the joy that God has for you. The joy of experiencing a deep fellowship with one another, which is a share in the very life and love of the Trinity. It's that fellowship that gives joy. That Greek word for fellowship, such a beautiful word, koinonia. I know one of the charismatic communities, the people of hope in New Jersey named their high school koinonia because they they just recognize the depth of meaning of this word. It means fellowship. It means communion, participation, a deep personal union, a sharing in the very being of the other. It's the same word that we translate as communion for the Eucharist. Paul says, the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a koinonia in the blood of Christ? A sharing in his very being. The bread that we break, is it not a koinonia in the body of Christ? And there's something in every human being that aches for fellowship. We're created for fellowship. It's written into our very bodies as male and female. We're designed for a communion of persons, for a relationship in which we are known and loved and we love in return. And John is saying, having that desire fulfilled, not only on an earthly level but on a vertical level, is the most unspeakable joy that can come to a human being. Fellowship, intimacy, friendship with God the Father and with his son. You might wonder in that quotation from one John, where's the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit doesn't appear there at all. But actually he does because he is the fellowship. He is the koinonia between the Father and the Son, and therefore he is our koinonia with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is the love that eternal, unimaginable love that unites the Father and the Son. So I believe that this retreat, this whole week, and this evening as we move from the talk into our time of worship and ministry and then Eucharistic Adoration is an invitation to enter more deeply into that fellowship and to allow the Lord to remove any obstacles. Tonight I think he wants to free us from obstacles, some that we may be aware of, some we may not even be aware of, that keep us from the depth of fellowship that God has for us with each other and with him. So I want to talk about those three things, fellowship with the Father and with the Son and with one another. Now you don't need me to tell you that fellowship with the Father is a very difficult matter for many people today. Maybe the deepest wound of all the many wounds in our post- Christian, godless culture is the Father wound. The wound of an absent or a harsh or judgmental or even abusive Father can lead to incredibly deep fracturing of the personality, incredibly deep mechanisms of self-protection when a person doesn't have a good relationship with their Father. It leads to what is essentially the characterizing description of our culture, spiritual orphanhood in your parishes. You're looking out at a bunch of spiritual orphans, many of them. When we walk down the street we are surrounded by spiritual orphans, people who have no idea who they are, what their identity is, where they're coming from, where they're going, what life is about, what love is, because they have no idea that there's a Father who knows them and loves them. And yet even people who had the very best of earthly fathers, present and loving and affirming, still have a Father wound because it goes all the way back to the beginning. Before the fall God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the day. Such a beautiful image of fellowship, a communion with God just friendship, just being comfortable in each other's presence, just talking, enjoying the beauty of creation together. But the moment they sin, immediately they fear Him and they run and hide. And we've been hiding ever since. God has been calling out to us ever since. The Lord banished them from the garden precisely so that they wouldn't eat from the Tree of Life and live forever and eternal living death. A life without fellowship with Him would be nothing but an immortal mortality, a horrendous empty existence, living but having no true life. And the whole rest of the history of salvation is a history of the restoration of broken fellowship. So if we go and look back at how God began to heal this wound, one thing that's absolutely crucial that I think is very often forgotten today is that God starts by revealing just how broken the relationship is. And so when God formed the nation of Israel and He manifested Himself to them at Mount Sinai, He took great care to impress on them the real and devastating consequences of sin. So He has to teach them that He's a holy God and that sin has separated them from Him. And that in fact it's not even safe to come into the presence of a holy God for a sinful people. So when He reveals Himself on Mount Sinai, it's with lightning and fire and thunder and earthquake and it's terrifying to them. But that first step of actually coming to acknowledge just how deep is our break with our God is essential in order to bring about the healing that God desires. Because otherwise if we downplay the separation caused by sin, we're tempted to shortcut the process. And we think that restoring fellowship with God is a relatively simple matter. We can basically just waltz back into His presence. It reminds me a little of the story people used to tell about Father Charles Curran when he was teaching at Catholic University and he was teaching that, well abortion isn't really a sin necessarily and homosexual behavior isn't necessarily a sin and living together outside of marriage, it might be okay in some circumstances. And when he was walking across campus, sometimes people would point and say, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Sorry, I don't need exoneration. I need forgiveness. And in order to receive forgiveness, we need to acknowledge sin for what it really is. And so God revealed himself on Mount Sinai in a terrifying way and then he told Moses to build the Ark of the Covenant housed in the tent of meeting. And the Ark of the Covenant was a way for God to dwell in the midst of His people. So it's something of a restored fellowship but ironically the role of the priests of the Old Covenant and the Levites who ministered in the tent of meeting, one of their most important roles was to ensure that lay people not draw too near. And so when God was out at Mount Sinai, he said, if anybody comes near and touches the Mount, they're going to be stoned. And then when the Tabernacle was built, the same instruction was given, henceforth the people of Israel shall not come near the tent of meeting lest they bear sin and die. So lay Israelites couldn't even come near the courtyard surrounding the Tabernacle. The Levites could be in the courtyard serving but could not enter the Tabernacle. The priests could enter the Tabernacle but only the first room, not the second room, the Holy of Holies. Only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies and even when he entered only once a year, he had to first fill it with a cloud of incense lest he be annihilated in the presence of God. So God was showing with all of these zones of limited access how an unholy people cannot dwell in the presence of an all holy God because of the brokenness of fellowship caused by sin. And so we have to appreciate that distance. We have to appreciate that devastating separation in order to really appreciate the striking change that occurs in the New Covenant. Our separation from God so grieved him in his father's heart. So broke his heart that he went to unimaginable lengths to restore us. So Christ came and laid down his life for us on the cross. And what happened at the moment of his death? You remember what happened? The curtain of the temple torn in two from top to bottom meaning no man did it, God did it. That limited access nobody could enter into the Holy of Holies except one man once a year. That limited access is over. Now we can enter into the very presence of God. And so from now on God doesn't tell us people to keep a safe distance anymore. That was an Old Testament commandment. Some people I think have not gotten the memo that it changed. The New Testament says something different. Again and again especially in the letter to the Hebrews let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Like children confident in the presence of their daddy let's draw near. Therefore brethren since we have confidence to enter. I mean we read this and we just kind of pass over it like oh yeah that's nice but a Jewish person who understood the whole temple system would find this radically shocking draw near to the Holy of Holies. Yes draw near to the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh and since we have a great priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean for a medieval conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Paul says the same thing in Ephesians in Christ we have boldness confidence of access through our faith in him. We kind of have to go back and put ourselves in the shoes of our Jewish Israelite ancestors in faith to realize how awesome this is and to have hearts filled with amazement and joy. Wow we can enter into the Holy of Holies. We have a privilege infinitely greater even than the high priest of Israel. He could enter once a year we can enter any time we want. He entered the earthly tabernacle. We enter the literal true Holy of Holies of which it was only a foreshadowing. Why the difference you know are we better than the high priest? No. Is it that God got indulgent with sin in his old age, got a little more lenient, you know passed past over things? No. It's that we have a high priest whose job is no longer to separate sinners from God to separate sinners from sin. He's fully dealt with sin and therefore we have incredible privileges that the people of Israel could only have dreamed about. Now we still do sin. Jesus dealt with sin and yet we still sin all the time but the first letter of John gives us such a beautiful reassurance. Our sin isn't a problem for him. It is temporarily but for God it's no problem at all to deal with our sin. As Father Ed my pastor loves to say we have a Savior who loves to save. He loves to save. So if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If anyone does sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the expiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. Our sins are not a problem for him. At the passion of Christ two disciples sinned grievously. Judas and Peter which one was a problem for the Lord. Only Judas. They both sinned but one refused forgiveness and so we should never ever think of our sin as an insuperable obstacle. Yes it's an obstacle to fellowship with God but he has already totally dealt with it. It's only one we're only one decision away from restored fellowship with him. Jesus went to such lengths to convince us of that. That he told what I think is the greatest of all his parables. The parable of two lost sons. The parable that really contains the whole gospel in a nutshell sums up the whole history of salvation really. The two lost sons and we're all super familiar with it and we know that the older the younger son represents those who are far from God those who have wandered away those who have rebelled. Maybe some of you could identify with that younger son at one point in your life your BC era but even those who were once like the younger son who runs away and wastes his inheritance often can little by little become more like the older son. So I want to just look for a moment at what's happening in this story with the older son because he represents the righteous the people who are with God the people who are hanging in there who are being faithful to God but is very interesting what Jesus shows us. So the younger son comes home he's reconciled with the father the father throws a feast. Now his elder son was in the field and as he came and drew near to the house he heard music and dancing the house. Wherever you see the house in the Gospels it's an image of the church. So he's coming in and he hears music and dancing because of the homecoming of a lost son. This is describing what the church is a place of joy, merriment, celebration at the homecoming of lost sons and daughters. Is that what the church looks like? It's a question worth asking. Well this young man has been working hard in the fields all day long and when he finds out what's going on that his rogue jerk of a brother who humiliated the whole family in front of the village wasted his part of the inheritance has the nerve to come home hasn't paid back anything hasn't paid for his sins and he's being treated like a royal prince. He's furious and at least I find it's not hard to identify with that older brother it does seem kind of unfair and so he refuses to go in. Now he too is publicly insulting his father refusing to join the family celebration. Maybe part of the reason for his resentment is he sees his younger son go and enjoy himself sewing his wild oats. Maybe he secretly had dreamed of the same freedom but he didn't dare to do it himself. Maybe that's part of the resentment going on and the father hears about it and the father comes out to plead with him so he treats this son just as mercifully as the other he goes out to him he doesn't wait for this boy to come and he goes out to him and he pleads with him and the older son reproaches his father. He says look these many years I have served you literally though the word in Greek is really slaved for you. These many years I have slaved for you and I never disobeyed your command yet you never even gave me a kid goat to celebrate with my friends. Accusing his father I've been slaving for you I've been working hard on the family farm doing your work I never even disobeyed your command I was working for you I served the parish I donated regularly I volunteered my time I cared for people you didn't give me what you deserve I think you were paying close attention we might sometimes hear echoes of the older brother mentality in our hearts his outward conformity to his father's will he's not disobeying he's faithful but it masks an inner bitterness in fact he actually doesn't see himself as a son he never even addresses his father as father the younger boy does he actually sees himself more as a slave who has to earn his master's favor and has to earn what he he thinks he now deserves at least a kid goat to celebrate with my friends and as we read the parable we might ask what image of sonship did this boy convey to his younger brother older brothers are a model for the younger ones right and maybe the younger boy watched his brother as he was growing up and thinking if this is what sonship and the father's house is I don't want any part of it I'm out of here maybe that was part of the reason for his taking off and another question we can ask is what might have happened if the younger boy upon coming home repentant not perfectly repentant because he's still just thinking about how how to get things better for himself at least I'll have something to eat in my father's house but he's coming home what if he had run into instead of his father his older brother how might the story have turned out then what happens today when lost sons and daughters are trying to make their way home taking faltering steps maybe a beginning of repentance but not certainly not a perfect repentance do they sometimes run into an older brother this son doesn't have real fellowship with his father and in fact his dismissive attitude toward his younger brother is connected to that a break in fellowship with the father leads to a break in fellowship with others but the father says to him son you are always with me and all that is mine is yours in other words everything I have belongs to you you were wondering why I never gave you a kid goat didn't you realize everything on the estate is yours to use and enjoy this son was living beneath his privileges as son he didn't realize who he was he was actually slaving in his father's house not realizing the whole estate belonged to him if we ever hear echoes of the older brother mentality in ourselves envy of others resentment jealousy ambition that can be an indication we have an older brother mentality in us we don't know the fellowship with the father that he desires for us only the Holy Spirit can reveal it to us you didn't receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you have received the spirit of sonship when we cry Abba father it is the spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children then heirs only the Holy Spirit can reveal to us the immensity of God's love for us and who we really are in his eyes and what belongs to us as his children the freedom that belongs to us the the resources to carry out the mission that God has for each of us the joy the daily hourly presence of God his help our privilege of going into his throne room and receiving whatever we need that's what the Holy Spirit wants to reveal to us so now fellowship with the son Jesus revealed in his coming the magnitude of God's desire for fellowship with us as it says in Hebrews since therefore the children share in flesh and blood and that's a form of the same word coin on a oh since the children share in flesh and blood human existence he himself likewise partook of the same nature the only way he could restore broken fellowship was to enter into flesh and blood fellowship with us communion with us and again and again the gospel show that fellowship as it's not just some kind of theological axiom but concrete very real very physical again and again Jesus sat down and enjoyed a meal with people he had a good time with them he loved to hang out in their presence he enjoyed the company of the most undesirable people sinners tax collectors he loved to spend time with them to waste time with them it says in Matthew after he calls Matthew the tax collector as he sat at table in his house doesn't say who he is does it mean Matthew sat at does it mean Jesus sat at table in Matthew's house or maybe Matthew sat at table in Jesus's house Jesus is the real host and is the messianic banquet restored communion between God and sinners many tax collectors and sinners were sitting with Jesus and his disciples so Matthew shows the right response to being called by Jesus he throws a party and he invites all his disreputable friends so they can enjoy fellowship with Jesus too and what a joy that must have given to the Lord's heart another example Jesus was also invited to the wedding there's so much packed into that line I know a couple who put it on the front of their wedding program isn't that cool they wanted to invite Jesus right into their wedding into their marriage and you think about well what did he actually do well it tells us in the Gospels he ate and drank he drank wine he probably danced Jewish men danced he chatted with people he had a great time he loved to fellowship in every concrete human way think of the house of Martha and Mary in Lazarus Jesus apparently loved to have fellowship with them maybe that their house was like a second home maybe it was one of the few places where he could actually take off his sandals after a long day of ministry and just shoot the breeze he was comfortable with them he wants your house to be like that he wants to be able to just shoot the breeze with you he loves that in the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus after this beautiful conversation with them it says he appeared to be going further but they constrained him saying stay with us for it's towards evening and the day is now far spent so he went in and stayed with him he waits for an invitation he wants to stay with us but he may pass on unless we invite him he loves to get entangled in human life he loves to do ordinary things so often people invite Jesus into their troubles when somebody gets in an accident or loses a job or somebody's sick we invite him in but do we invite him into our relaxation our entertainment if you think about what you love doing you play golf invite Jesus to play with you invite him to be right there talk to him while you're doing it ask him to help you make a good play maybe already do that even watching TV even things that you might feel a little bit ashamed about watching too much TV try inviting Jesus into it ask him to watch TV with you he might have changed the channel and if it's anything that's not of the Lord even if you don't feel like you have the willpower to let go of it invite Jesus into it sooner or later one has to go right and if Jesus is with you it's the other thing that's gonna have to go he loves to be invited into fellowship with us and he gives a secret to fellowship I feel like I'm just beginning to learn this secret it's it's an incredibly powerful secret he says it right here in John 15 you are my friends you have fellowship with me if you do what I command you that's kind of paradoxical isn't it I mean what do you normally tell somebody who does what another person commands slave obedience that's what the Bishop was talking about but Jesus says actually if you do what I command you stop being slaves and you start becoming my friends there's a mystery to it there's a paradox now when he says what I command you he's not primarily talking about the moral law the 10 commandments we can take that for granted as a foundation he's talking about the more he's talking about the individual personal commands if we really want to grow into deep fellowship with Jesus the secret is obeying those personal quiet little commands that he gives us if you read the Gospels with this in mind you find Jesus gives him sometimes rather strange commands sometimes we pass over we don't even realize how strange they are for example if you are weary and find life burden some take my yoke upon your shoulders really wouldn't a normal thing be you know you find you're weary and you find life burdensome let me take your yoke from you he says let me give you another yoke you know how much yokes way like the kind that oxen used to pull a car they can weigh like 200 pounds you're really weary and burdened down here let me give you a yoke thanks a lot and yet what's his yoke the will of the father you put it on and it's so light and it's so refreshing and it's so life-giving but you don't find that out until you obey that command or another one Jesus is teaching vast crowds in the wilderness day is getting late people are hungry the disciples are very practical Lord come on it's time to send them away they need something to eat you give them something to eat you give them something to eat now if I were there if I were one of the disciples I would have been tempted to say Jesus can we do some math here 5,000 men listening to you that's like 20,000 maybe 25,000 people five loaves two fish that's about 4,000 people per loaf Jesus can we be realistic you give them something to eat and it's only when they obey the seemingly absurd the seemingly impossible the impossible becomes possible and a miracle is being done before their eyes and the little they gave is has been feeding this vast crowd and they have a whole new sense of the majesty of the Lord and their incredible privilege of sharing with him in his work of feeding his people I think that's what he longs for you to experience more and more another time fill the jars with water they might have been tempted to say at that point Jesus you might have misheard what your mother said they didn't actually run out of water they ran out of wine village ours with water so they did the seemingly absurd because they had heard what she said do whatever he tells you and that was not an easy job they had to get their their jugs their buckets go down to the village well lower those jugs haul them back up haul them back to the wedding pour them into these big stone jars go back for more come back didn't make a lot of sense but they obeyed him and they had to obey him again now take some out and bring it to the steward take some water out and bring it to the steward hmm but they obeyed and they experienced the Lord turning their water into wine that's what he wants you to experience or he says things like if you're persecuted and people are insulting you and calling you every kind of name rejoice and leap for joy not just a half-hearted praise the Lord leap for joy if you're being persecuted again obeying that command leads to deeper fellowship with you with him forgive 77 times or 70 times seven times he come in he keeps commanding the impossible and he does that because it's only when we're faced with what is utterly beyond our capability that we learn to totally rely on him and then we go deeper in fellowship if you stick with what you're capable of and you don't take a risk in faith in obedience to him you'll never experience the depth of fellowship that he has for you that he wants for you and one last kind of fellowship that's intimately tied into the others fellowship with one another and I'll just share with you something from my own personal experience the Lord called me to live in a covenant community when I was younger and shortly after I had graduated from here I actually went kicking and screaming wasn't my plan for my life the Lord made it clear it was his plan and I ended up living in a household with other young women and the beauty of living in community whether it's living together in a house or living in close fellowship with each other is that once you start to experience your flaws and the flaws of other people you can't walk away that's not the option and so the beautiful thing about for me living in community is you know all of a sudden you see all the sin you never wanted to see and you find out all the things about yourself you never wanted to know and I had a ongoing clash with another person in the house and when I had come into the house I had an image of myself is basically holy growing in holiness kind easy to be with loving generous and as time went on with this other person I came face to face with the fact that I wasn't all that oh and another part of myself image was besides kind and generous and loving humble I came face to face with my pride my jealousy anger judgmentalism criticism and it was in that relationship with this other sister in the Lord having to repent to each other having to forbear with something that she did that really annoyed me or vice versa having to forgive each other and speak out forgiveness and sometimes confront each other when the other person didn't want to be confronted and having to go to the Lord together and actually sit down to pray sometimes what I couldn't even stand to be in the same room with her but sitting down to pray and praying together that my sister is not the enemy Satan's the enemy we stand together against him that the Lord did an incredible work of fellowship and over the months before we knew it we had become very close friends and we had each experienced something of the magnificence of the Lord through one another and we're still friends to this day the Lord wants every member of the body of Christ to experience that kind of fellowship it's what they experienced in the early Christian community when they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and Koinonia and the breaking of bread and prayers we can forget how radical it was because in the early church these are people who never would have remotely approached one another before immoral pagan sinners and devout Jews sitting at table together wealthy landowners and slaves sitting at table together people from every strata from different races and backgrounds experiencing a radical new brotherhood and sisterhood with each other oh and Paul describes it I want you to know how greatly I strive for you that your hearts may be encouraged as they are knit together in love that could be your prayer for your parish that the people would not only just be okay with each other that they would not only not be at war with each other or divided but that they would actually be knit together in deep bonds of love that's what the early church experienced that's what life in the body of Christ is meant to be today love one another with brotherly affection love one another intensely from the heart even more than it was then it's radically counter-cultural today because what most characterizes our society right now is autonomy and isolation and the generation that's growing up now the generation the generation that's growing up tied to their screens is more isolated than any previous generation probably in history they people who work with young people say that they don't even know how to have a normal friendship they don't even know how to look each other in the eye and talk all they know how to do is text and so the challenge for us the incredibly great challenge is to actually live it out ourselves for you to live it out in your priesthood with one another so that you can not only preach it but model it to your parishioners I remember visiting Russia one time staying with a parish a Catholic parish in Russia another one in Uganda and just getting a whole new window on what the priesthood could look like one of the things I noticed in both those places is how much time they wasted with each other every meal it was taken for granted that it would take at least an hour and they would just hang out at table both the priests with each other and priests with their parishioners with some of their staff or with some of their volunteers just enjoying each other's company just shooting the breeze and having a good time together and it just made me realize how how focused we have become on work how utilitarian we have become so that everything has to be so scheduled that we we don't waste time with one another we don't build fellowship with one another and so I would offer you this this challenge maybe just something to bring before the Lord in prayer this week how deep is your fellowship with others which is intrinsic to your fellowship with God in my observation priests are some of the most isolated people today and often it's it's not a matter of their fault it's that you're placed alone in a parish or three or four sometimes not conveniently near any other priest extremely busy burdened with many responsibilities besides all the pressures of being Christian and Catholic in a hostile society and the reality is Satan works very hard to isolate priests Satan works very hard to isolate all Christians especially those who are serving the Lord full-time but in a particular way Satan works hard to isolate priests because if you don't have others with whom you are being transparent and being accountable in some way then it becomes so much easier amid all of the pressures of ministry and of being in a hostile world to yield to unhealthy habits addictions stress coping mechanisms and things that can take you away from the Lord so I encourage you to be very intentional about fellowship even if it means sacrificing some kind of ministry even if it means letting something go that seems really important fruitfulness in ministry flows from fellowship with the Lord and with others so I would even say if you're not in a situation where you're able to meet at least once a month but ideally more like every two weeks with a group of people with whom you can really share your life honestly whether it's your brother priests or deacons or even lay people father Contel Amesa talks about doing that with a group of lay people and how it changed his life if you're not in a situation where you have that then find that or make it happen or ask the Lord how it can happen you could look for the fraternity of priests or the Jesus Caritas fraternity of priests or call some priest friends or or find some mature parishioners whom you can trust and and get together and pray and and and share what the Lord is doing what the Lord is saying and how the Lord is changing you and I think the Lord will bring greater good than you could imagine out of that tonight as we pray we're going to have an opportunity to let the Lord remove some of the obstacles to our fellowship with him and with one another obstacles like isolation maybe a fear fear of betrayal maybe you've been betrayed by somebody with whom you were in relationship maybe shame busyness but underlying busyness is something deeper maybe it's an older brother mentality needing to earn the father's favorite favor whatever those obstacles are we're gonna just give a chance for the Lord to lift those from you and then to fill us anew with the Holy Spirit who is our fellowship with the Father and with the Son and so we're gonna have a song now we're gonna enter from there right into ministry we're just gonna allow the Holy Spirit to do whatever he wants to do and I know he wants to do something marvelous in our hearts tonight