Catholic Men's Rally

Trenton Bishop John Smith was gracious enough to pose with me after accepting a copy of Jesus in the House which just came out. It was an amazing day with some wonderful speakers and witnesses and great music by Bob Filorama which was really uplifting and added greatly to the day. One of the highlights was hearing Rep. Christopher Smith of NJ. He spoke powerfully and from the heart about his faith and commitment to life issues. Chris from the Coffee Shop / Bookstore / live entertainment venue in South Jersey shared his witness and was selling some items from his store. It was awesome to see about 500 men from all over NJ there to grow in faith and to be encouraged to live out their baptismal call. Fr. John Rhea from Austrailia spoke before the Bishop celebrated Mass. For myself, I then had to drive about 2 1/2 hours North to Warwick NY to join my Union Catholic students at their Senior retreat.

Attuned to His Voice

I had the opportunity to speak at a local Parish at the beginning of the new year and it was a wonderful experience and I think I delivered what they were looking for. The people who gathered seemed very pleased and one man in particular, I'll call him Robert, was very complimentary. He mentioned to me repeatedly how much he liked my presentation. Now, I'm not just tooting my horn here for my own glory because something happened when I was asked to come back 3 months later. As I entered the Church I saw Robert with the Pastor and after saying Hello to the Pastor I immediately gave a big smile and handshake to Robert. I said, 'Hello, nice seeing you again!' He looked perplexed and said, 'Excuse me, I don't think we've met?' I said, 'It's me, Allan, don't you remember me?' He looked me square in the face and said...'No' I was a bit humbled to say the least. Well, we had Mass and then I gave the first of three presentations. Well, after the first presentation, Robert came up to me apologetically and said, 'Allan, of course I remember you. You see my eyes are not that good without my glasses but I was attuned to your voice.' 'When you spoke I remembered who you were.'

'Attuned to your voice'

I don't remember what I said the rest of the day but I'll remember for a long time Robert's words and the importance of being attuned to God's voice in my daily life.