There’s Something About Mary

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Curt and I traveled to neighbouring Langley today, to St. Nicholas Parish to attend a seminar sponsored by Redeemer Pacific College. The speaker? St. Blogs’ favourite son, Mark Shea. We’ve been reading Mark’s blog, Catholic and Enjoying it, for about three years now. As we journeyed towards the Church, reading blogs like Mark’s helped both Curt and I along tremendously. While we didn’t get a chance to chat with him (Sorry Mark! We were rapidly running out of fuel and had to find lunch fast right after the session wrapped up), his talks were edifying and enjoyable. I personally learned a ton, especially during the first talk: “Behold your Mother: Discovering the Blessed Virgin Mary”; as a convert from a scattered evangelical past, I have had to unlearn some things about the Mother of Christ over the past few years. I will try to work out my notes that I took and post my thoughts here in the next few days. I haven’t been here much lately for a variety of reasons, but I will try to fix that. There’s lots going on, both in my life and in the lives of people I “know” online, and I need to keep in touch a little better. It’s good to keep connected. It’s also good for me to get some of my jangly thoughts and musings out of my head and out to where they can’t keep nagging at me.

Mark had a little trouble at the beginning with an uppity microphone, but all was well when he moved up to the lectern near the altar. My camera had a few problems knowing what to focus on because of all the fantastic sunshine streaming in!

Mark’s second talk was on “101 reasons not to be Catholic. There are a million reasons not to be a Catholic, and only one reason to be one. You be the judge.” This talk was not quite as theological and had quite a bit of Mark’s personal story, which was very interesting to hear. We have much in common, and I think he and my husband even more so. I’ll let Curt tackle that on his own blog, though, if he so chooses.

It’s always a joy to visit with Redeemer Pacific College students and staff. RPC is a small Catholic college attached to the much larger Trinity Western University, an Evangelical University in Langley. The arrangement is unique, and is exciting. RPC students receive a Catholic education while also attending classes at Trinity, and can choose from many undergrad degrees. Both Curt and I wish we were about 10 years younger and able to choose this type of education, but the fact is we’re well into the workforce with a mortgage and other responsibilities, so we do what we can. A couple years ago, we did the same trip and heard Dr. Janet Smith speak. That was before we were received into the Catholic Church, and was a real experience. I remember those days as being somewhat anxiety ridden as I wasn’t sure if my request for a declaration of nullity of my first marriage would be valid or not. The waiting was very hard, but I had determined even then that no matter what, I still wanted to be Catholic, even if I couldn’t participate in the Eucharist. My thoughts on that day with Dr. Smith are here, for all posterity. See? Blogs are awesome. You can dip back two years in your archives and see that you actually do know how to string a few coherent words together after all.

Anyway, we came away from today very grateful that we are part of a Christian community that has depths to plumb like nothing either of us have ever had. The intellectual goldmine is one thing, but the real treasure is in the deposit of faith that is being protected, loved, and handed down now and until Jesus comes back. Thank you to Mark Shea for being yet another apostle of common sense; his hero, GK Chesterton, would be proud of what he shared with us today.

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