This week Patty gives us personal imagery of her years of spiritual journey, growth, and formation as a means for us to do a self-examination of our life’s spiritual journey and appreciation of our own personal growth in HIM.

The Primary Spiritual Nutrition Ingredients for me are threefold: Scripture Study, Wonderful Teachers, and the Blessings of participation in my faith community in good times and in bad. In other words, Word and Sacrament in the Company of teachers and friends! I’ll begin as I began …  with Sacrament first.

SACRAMENT: I was baptized at St. Francis parish in Staunton 80 years ago (my Catholic dad was in the Army and my mom, and I lived with her Presbyterian parents in Staunton, thus my Catholic/life at Blessed Sacrament didn’t begin until I was 2). Of our 7 Sacraments, I have received 6: Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, and Matrimony. (But if you ask my granddaughter Julia - she would tell you ‘Nanny is a Priest’). I don’t remember my Baptism, but I do remember all the preparation for the 5 sacraments that followed. And each one continues to nourish my life today. Eucharist at Mass no matter where I am on a Sunday, Confirmation-and the opportunity to reaffirm my faith annually, Reconciliation/Penance and the gift of change of heart it brings, Anointing and it’s healing of body & soul, and Matrimony to my beloved ‘Hardheaded German’ Leonard for 54 years. Our life at Blessed Sacrament in Harrisonburg, where my Great-great Grandparents had been founding members since 1857, became his cherished faith community too. As a child, I lived across the street from the rectory and the nuns and priests were part of my family life from that early age on.

The WORD: The Scriptures in Prayer and In Study. In My Catholic childhood and Young Adulthood, the Scriptures, God’s Word, did not play a big part. We had a family bible, but we did not read it. It was used to record the Sacraments received by family members in the section between the Old and New Testament. What we learned were the questions and the answers of the Baltimore Catechism. I didn’t have or read or study my own Bible until I was a wife, mother of two, and adult student returning to college, taking my very first Bible study Class. It was life changing. God’s Word, page by page, studied, prayed, and pondered. Chapter by chapter, and taught by my first Bible teacher, Dr. William West Thomas. He never revealed his own faith tradition, but he did honor mine in our many classroom conversations. His introduction to the New Testament was then and is now a vital component of my life and my seeking. His class was a major turning point in my life, and nutrition for my soul from that point onward.

The COMPANY: My first Bible Study Class after college was also a non-denominational class – Bible Study Fellowship/BSF – held at the Mennonite Church at the top of our new home. I attended that class weekly, year after year, Book after book, Old Testament and New, as soon as our youngest was in elementary school. My classmates were from many different denominations, and each year I was the only Catholic in my group. Catholics were welcomed to attend BSF but never in a leadership role. I tell this story because the scriptures we will hear at Mass this 4th Sunday of Lent, 2024, are treasured verses, John 3:14-21. I first studied them in BSF when I was 37 years old. The class leader began, today’s question is from John 3:16”. I replied, “What’s John 3:16?” EVERYBODY Laughed! Loudly! I didn’t know why…but I was embarrassed and didn’t say much more as the class continued. When I got home, I looked up that verse in my bible. We will hear this Sunday at Mass: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” I knew that! I have a plaque of it in my kitchen! I just didn’t know that was “John 3:16”! Hmm! I continued reading….John 3:17, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” And I have treasured John 3:17 ever since. It became the first favorite scripture verse of my lifetime. When I got back to BSF the following week, I asked out loud if anyone knew the words of John 3:17. Not one of them did. I have believed ever since that there is difference between STUDYING and PRAYING the Scriptures, and both are important! I still cannot quote chapter and verse, but I do cherish spending time with God’s Word, alone – and with others. It is nourishment for my soul, again and again.

Lastly, the COMPANY, the nourishment of others, at Mass, in the classroom, in group retreats. TEACHERS that have helped me grow, helped me learn, change direction, and seek the light have been many. From my Dad, teaching me my nighttime prayers, kneeling with me beside my bed, to Dr. Thomas at JMU, and Rabbi Joe in my Old Testament Classes with him, my leaders in the 10 years of BSF, Pope John XXIII and Pope Francis, my teaching Nuns, Pastors, Prayer groups, and friends, my mentor and longtime Spiritual Director Fr. Chester Michael, I have been richly fed - And am so thankful for all of the stretching of heart and mind thus far.

Deo Gratias! 

Patty