Be Faithful. Listen. Pray.

My prayers today started with Isaiah 6:3-8, (Verse 8 is one I got from one of my favorite missionaries I know, so thanks!). Listening. Key to prayer. Listening. No matter how loud you yell, "HERE I AM, SEND ME!", if you don't listen to God's voice, we won't know where he is calling us.

I opened my Bible next and got to Sirach 6:5-17 which is a passage I have read many times before and I have notes written next to it, but none of that matter today when I was praying with it. Some things that stuck out to me were these words:

16-17 "A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds; For he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself."

14 " A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure."

My Bible also had a note at the bottom that really caught my attention:

"True friends are discerned not by prosperity but through the trials of adversity: distress, quarrels, sorrow and misfortune. Such friends are rare and their value is beyond estimation, a gift from God."

I was asked yesterday if I would like to be included in a prayer chain for a retreat that will be happening in July, so I decided, why not! Today I prayed for the retreatants, peer ministers, Abbot Issac, the Youth Ministers, chaperones, and the Holy Spirit to come into every aspect of this retreat and the peer minister's lives so this could be the best retreat ever. These verses really stuck out to me though when I was praying for this retreat...
One word that I loved and thought was very important is "faithful". You can't just act like or be their friend for a week, you need to be there for each other and the retreatants after the weekly bowling trips, parties, and random hang outs fade. You need to be there for them once school starts and they are faced with struggles, hardships, and also great moments. You need to be a faithful friend.
I really like what I learned from some missionaries not too long ago and guess what?...we are ALL called to be missionaries!...so back to what I learned. While you are in ministry, be friends, be brothers and sisters to each other. As Peer Ministers, as Missionaries, we are called to minister to these people and to each other and I have seen a lot of relationships ruined with people because they tried to act on being in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship which effects their ministry. I learned that if this is what you think is right, God will open that door once your ministry is over in that place. We need to first learn how to be good brothers and sisters to each other and be out of ministry together before we can think about a dating relationship with those people.

Brotherhood.
Sisterhood.
I am not saying don't be friends with the opposite sex, but have a brotherhood or sisterhood as your main support. I saw how important and amazing that was on my NET interview retreat where there were these beautiful, Holy, men who were so filled with the Spirit that I wanted to just be around and hear about God working in their lives and talk about what we've gone through, but I learned that my small group that was all women made all the difference in the world. It was so rewarding because we had a common bond already that no guy friend of mine could understand and I'm sure it's the same for the guys. I look at an example of looking to Mary and Joseph for guidance. Women will learn and follow Mary and Joseph in different ways because of our connection with the two in different ways. Mary was a mother, Joseph was a father, a carpenter. Children look to their father's and mother's for different things based on their gender I think a lot of the time so it is the same with our spiritual life.
This topic is something that has been tugging on my heart since I left my interview weekend because I saw how much I loved having that Catholic Sisterhood and I wasn't focusing enough on it in my life back home. Peer ministry, no matter where you are needs to have a strong sisterhood and brotherhood before anything else. Without that, I find it really hard to really do what we are called to do. This last year I loved the women in the peer ministry program I was working in because the women were so supportive and understanding and that bond is like no other bond I could have with guys in my life.
I have watched many Peer Ministry programs change over the years and some things that I miss seeing is the brotherhood and sisterhood and Catholic Fellowship among the group, the energy and love that the programs used to be given and most of all, letting the Holy Spirit take charge of our lives in ministry and in our daily lives.
People may just be a part of a peer ministry program because it's just what's next to do to keep us busy in the program, it's fun, or it's cool, but LISTEN to where God is calling you.

Are you where God is calling you to be and do?

Praying for you all.
God Bless,
Erica Jean