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New Life in Christ - Chapter 1
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April 25, 2021Several small faith sharing groups have been regularly meeting over the past year via zoom and/or in person with social distancing. They’ve shared their blessings and their burdens, their perspectives on faith, some advice, fellowship, joy, concerns, their questions, and most importantly their love for Christ.
Are you familiar with May Apple plants? They come up every year in the woods. After hunkering down all winter, they start as little nubs pushing through the forest floor, and over a couple of weeks, they literally unfurl into a foot tall umbrella shaped plant that produces a lovely white flower that eventually becomes the fruit: a may apple. It’s an amazing and joy filled process to witness.
Being a member of a small group is a bit like that. You join a group, possibly with strangers (who you don’t know well or at all). (YET.) You keep to yourself at first; you share a little here and there.
Eventually you stretch your comfort zone and ask a question you have been hanging onto about your faith. Or you tell something about yourself that might help another person’s questioning. Over time your heart opens up beautifully (like the May apple flower) to these people who have become friends through faith sharing, prayer, and fellowship. You’re laughing with these new friends. You’re checking back in about a prayer in tention shared. You find yourself telling others about something that happened to you in your small group and even sharing faith - outside of mass! That’s fruit!
Instead of hunkering down in your own little space, grow and stretch your faith, share the fruit: pray about joining a small group the next time the SON shines on that opportunity and find the joy in new life.
