Sharing My Spiritual Gifts as a Eucharistic Minister

When my father’s health was deteriorating when he reached the age of 95, I realized how isolated and lonely he had become. I lived in California, Dad in Wisconsin. When he passed at age 97, struggling with “Why, God, have you not taken me yet?”, it was then I knew I had to serve the shut-ins. His struggle helped me understand how desperately the elderly and hospitalized need to feel a Spiritual connection, especially at this time.

The training provided for Eucharistic Ministers helped me feel confident in serving those in need. We learned about the needs of the bed-ridden, both physical and emotional, and the process of serving the Eucharist in various circumstances.

When I visit these wonderful people, I feel I am filling a tremendous void for them, and allowing them to reconnect with what they may feel they had lost at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Their physical needs may be met, however so often their spiritual and emotional well-being is set aside, while nurses, doctors, and family, honorably attempt to improve their health or mobility.

I have been serving Eucharist to those home-bound for several years, and often jump at the opportunity to do this more than the once-a-month schedule. My dear husband, Doug, often volunteers to accompany me, so we can “run” as the need arises. The joy and blessing I receive surely must be more than what the recipient receives. Knowing how much our presence and reconnection with St. Paul’s is so important to each person we visit, is evident on their faces, which may be the only way of expressing their gratitude.

God surprises me almost every visit, such as when I was visiting Rita and Dorothy at their nursing homes. Rita, although blind and bedridden, found no obstacle too great for her to express her love for the Cathedral, and joy in having me serve Eucharist. I discovered through Rev. Dorothy Curry, that they loved music, and that Rita was a long-standing choir member. I made sure to bring my music and play songs that may have familiarity. Rita loved classical music, and could even remember the names of various compositions, so I included Bach and Mozart. They both loved being able to recite The Lord’s Prayer or Psalm 23.

A special bond is created with those we serve. I am blessed to provide that Spiritual Presence, as a vessel from God. It's the slow paced quiet, reverent time for both recipient and provider to share their love in Christ.

You may want to consider becoming a Eucharistic Minister. Or, you may know of someone who would love to have a Cathedral Visitor or Eucharistic Minister enter their life. In either case, please contact Brooks Mason at masonb@stpaulcathedral.org or Vicki Hoppenrath vl_hoppe@hotmail.com.

by Faith DeHart

Following the Little Drummer Boy

Christmas is coming. Does that thought stress you out?! Do you worry about not being able to give the most expensive and extraordinary gifts at Christmas? Do you feel you must keep up with everyone else? Relax…think about the gifts you already have to give. They are more precious than anything you find in the trendiest stores, the most fabulous catalogs or online shopping sites. These gifts are within you and are often called your Spiritual Gifts. God shared them with all of us so we could share them with others. They can be given in so many ways and to so many people. They are the gifts of time and talent. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

At St. Paul’s Cathedral, everyone is able to find these gifts and give of them freely. Just as the Little Drummer Boy shared his gift of music with the Baby Jesus, you too can share your Spiritual Gifts. They cost nothing, but are extraordinary and precious.

 If you would like to explore your Spiritual Gifts, please contact Vicki Hoppenrath, Time and Talent Coordinator, hoppenrathv@stpaulcathedral.org, 619-298-7261 x349.

40 Days of... – Volunteer Opportunity Spotlight!

Have you ever thought of volunteering for a ministry, but the time commitment made you anxious? Accept the 40 Day Lenten Challenge! Try volunteering for a ministry (or 2 or 3) for the 40 days of Lent. If you find a certain ministry is not for you, there's no obligation to stick with it. The idea is to try something new. Stretch yourself and see what it's like to try out a ministry you've never done before.  For more information or to sign-up online: 
http://www.stpaulcathedral.org/40days

Spotlight on: St. Paul’s Foundation
The challenge: Would you like to help parents of LGBT people in other countries?

The Program
The St. Paul's Foundation is developing a program that will connect loving parents of LGBT people in the US with concerned parents of LGBT people in countries where their children could be arrested. We are looking for volunteers in our faith community who would like to give support to these parents by answering questions about sexual orientation and how to support their LGBT children.

Funding
Thanks to a grant from the San Diego Pride Committee, we will be able to fund the computers and other materials for this effort.

Training
Members of the local San Diego PFLAG (Parents, Relatives, and Friends of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders) will give a 1-2 hour training session in March to parish parents on how to answer common questions. The training dates will be announced in February.

Methods and Time Involved
Support sessions will be initially set up for connecting our volunteers with parents in Kenya and Uganda. The sessions will take place once or twice a month and will last one hour each session. We will be using the free computer conferencing programs Skype or Facetime. With these software programs, our parents can see as well as hear the parents abroad and vice versa.

Because of time differences, the sessions will be scheduled in the morning or evening hours, most likely 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM or 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Eventually participating parents could set up their own schedules once they have established rapport.

The parent-to-parent sessions will start in late March.

Why?
The volunteers at St. Paul's Foundation feel that understanding and acceptance can be attained through faith communities. We have good contacts in the Anglican and Catholic communities in several countries and we intend to reach out to other faiths as well. Perhaps eventually, the Spanish-speaking parents of LGBT people in our congregation will be asked to volunteer to help parents in Latin America.

Project Coordinator Linda Miles will be arranging the training session at the Cathedral for volunteer parents. She will also be scheduling the parent-to-parent sessions, many of which will take place at the Foundation's Cathedral office. Her contact information: Email: lindymiles@gmail.com ; Cell Phone: 615-251-4881; Home Phone: 858-509-9173.

Please contact Linda if you are interested in volunteering to help parents abroad who want to support their LGBT children.

-The Rev. Canon Albert Ogle

Take the 40-Day Challenge: we need you!

Try googling “Lent”. On Wikipedia you will find that “The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer—through prayer, penance, repentance, almsgiving, and self-denial.” Most Christians would agree with this.

 However, I would like to ask those of you in the St. Paul’s community to think about Lent as a time to volunteer.  Perhaps you have thought about being an usher, a greeter, assisting with the youth program, visiting Dorcas House, or other efforts.  Maybe you are worried about the time commitment, whether you would be volunteering for life.  “How will I tell the ministry leader if I no longer wish to volunteer?”; “Would I be able to volunteer in another ministry?”; ”Will someone be angry with me if I decide this is not for me?”

We have a solution!  By taking the 40 DAY CHALLENGE, you can give of your time, try out a ministry (or two, or three) and decide whether you are a good fit.  Do you find joy and satisfaction? Do you feel closer to Jesus? Are your Spiritual Gifts at work?   You may find a new home!  Or, you may simply enjoy the experience of seeing St Paul's from a different angle while making an important contribution to our lives together.

Our ministry leaders are enthusiastic at the prospect of their fellow worshipers sharing their talents and trying out a new ministry.

 You will not be held to any commitment of time other than during the period of Lent. Following is a list of ministries that would welcome you for 40 days. Think about each one. You may have been thinking of volunteering in one of these. Now is the time. Take the 40 Day Challenge!

• Docents
• Ushers
• Acolytes 
• Lectors
• Greeters
• Dorcas House
• Altar Guild
• Children and Youth

When you decide on one or more ministries to try out, or you have questions, please email me. You will also see a sign up table after the Sunday services beginning Feb. 3rd.

Join us!


Vicki Hoppenrath
Time and Talent Coordinator
hoppenrathv@stpaulcathedral.org
619-298-7261 x349

8 Steps to Draw Your Vision Out

So much spins around us that many of us rarely, if ever, contemplate our personal vision. May I give you an excuse to do so here? Imagination is incredibly important in this because it sees more possibilities than limitations. So, set all those voices aside which say “No” and “Yeah, but . . .” If you can imagine something, you can usually work out a way to do it.

A Drawing to Contemplate
Now, I hope the simplicity of this exercise is not below you, but, hey, maybe that would be a good thing. Use this drawing to help you contemplate your vision. And, no you don't have to “draw good”. (Consider a pencil with eraser.)

1. On a landscape oriented paper draw a small head-and-shoulders profile on the left side looking right. Let’s say this is you. (You may want to adjust the nose, or something.) Leave plenty of room inside your head. I'm not implying anything by this. I just want you to have room for the next thing:
2. Draw a star inside your head. That star is an incredible idea, or inspiration inside of you. That is your vision. Nobody else may know that vision. Even you may have forgotten it is in there. Everybody looks at you and thinks many things, but they don’t know what’s inside you. That vision could just stay there unknown by anyone except you and God. You may be agreeing with the voices ingrained into you that it’s just impractical, or you can’t afford it, or you might fail and look like a fool. So, nothing will come of it because it is safe in the secret place of your head. Are you playing it safe?
3. Let’s say you are going to take a risk. Draw an arrow extending from you out a little ways in front of you to the right. At the end of that arrow draw the same star floating out ahead of you. Maybe you sketched some plans, maybe you wrote a poem, maybe you cut from a magazine a picture which looked like your idea. Whatever it was, it is now out there in the open. It has taken on a more material form than what was in your head.
4. Now draw to the right of the star floating out in the open another head and shoulders of a person looking at that floating star. What if someone you trusted could access your idea in some form? What if you could share with him, or her so that they would think of the possibilities of this idea?
5. Draw another arrow leading in an arch from the floating star to inside the friend’s head and draw the same star inside the friend’s head. Now you have two people percolating on the vision. They are collaborating. They are building the idea and discussing how it could work and they are getting excited. “Yes!” is happening. You have a comrade and that’s the beginning of a community where the idea is passed on to someone else. Together, you begin to work it out. It’s incredibly important to have other people that are of a kindred spirit in your life.
6. Now draw three other head-and-shoulder people on the other side of the friend. Draw arrows from the friend to the new friends and put the same star inside each of their heads. One person inspired by your vision leads to another and another. One person remembers someone who would like the idea, finds them and plants the idea in their minds too. They find somebody who wants to collaborate, and they find another guy who wants to collaborate and pretty soon the group has grown. But each one has to engage with someone else by sharing the idea.
7. Now, on the far right, draw arrows big enough to represent the whole group. Extend the arrows out to the right. The community of collaborators begins to realize that they have what it takes, and with a little grace, and a lot of imagination, they will be able to unite their forces, each person working on a different aspect perhaps, but eventually they work on the vision.
8. Now draw at the end of the big arrow an elaborate, decorated version of the star that was originally just in your mind.

The community that shares the vision creates it in the material world. The thing that was in your mind, unknown, intangible, eventually becomes a tangible, beautiful object, and maybe even has a little extra to it, because the people got together. This could be a crude picture of your progression. When you draw this for yourself you ought to sign and date it so that it is worth a lot of money hanging in the museum commemorating the beginnings of your historic work.

Partnering with God
This is a simple approach to the very model found in the story of beginnings with Adam and Eve, how God brought out the unknowable, shared it with their new minds and let them run with it. The Apostle Paul wrote in I Corinthians chapter 3, verse 9, “We are fellow workmen (fellow laborers) with God.”

In the book of Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10, we are described as God’s workmanship, God’s handiwork, made to do good work and live a good life which God prepared for us to do beforehand. We are like a poem, a sculpture, a beautiful work of art, which God has made; not just to sit here and be objects, but to actually do important things.

When we stop and contemplate our vision we begin to know ourselves as what God made us to be. Know that we are made with many options and that we can choose these freely. Know that we are able to work around challenges which seem to block us from doing what we were made to be. Know that we have many ways in which to show who we are.

What could you be passionate about, in your life? That is a likely candidate for what God wants you to do. What is your passion right now? What is your long-term passion? Contemplate that. Begin to imagine it. Describe it in detail: what it looks like; what it sounds like; what it smells like; how you will feel when you are accomplishing it. Your vision will begin to come out into the open and become a context for the choices you make in your life. That is a major way God works in you to give you good direction, especially as you dialogue with God about these passions. Integrate these dreams into your prayer life. Maybe they will motivate you to start a prayer discipline if you you haven't already. And maybe doodling while you pray will help.

Mark Turner

The Best Laid Plans...Are Not Always Your Own

As far back as I can remember, I have had a plan and a road map to where I think I needed to go in life. Whether it was planning for college, the job I would take after college, the perfect career, the house I would buy, the car, the perfect wedding and the perfect plan for a family…you name it, I had a plan, or as I came to learn, I thought I had a plan…

It was somewhere in the Summer of 1999 that I stared to notice that my plans weren’t always God’s plans. I had just separated from my husband, and I might add, left with all the debt we incurred our marriage. The divorce was pending and I was scared and worried that I wouldn't be able to pay the debts, afford an apartment, afford a car – even eat! I remember vividly crying on the couch not wanting to ask for help, but as my sobs slowed I looked up to the ceiling and said, "Okay God, I am going to trust in you to carry me through this tough time." The following weeks, I continued to focus on my job and worked hard to earn a promotion. I spent hours working and dealing with creditors asking for more time to work out the debts. I learned a lot during this time about expenses and how to survive with less than my earlier plans had envisioned. Suddenly, I was offered a promotion and a chance at a fresh start to move to San Diego with my company.

By the end of 1999, my divorce was final, I was living in San Diego and I was really starting to make a dent on the debt. I remember taking such a deep breath after reviewing my bills one night, and although I still had a ways to go, for the first time I realized it was going to be possible. An over whelming feeling of being thankful came over me and I reached for the yellow pages and found Saint Paul's Cathedral. I started going on Sunday's and found my quiet little pew on the far right. The music was so soothing and the service brought me so much peace. I kept to myself, didn’t get particularly active in the church, spending the majority of my free time at work.

Just as I was beginning to feel things were coming together and I started planning again – planning on finishing that debt, getting another promotion, looking at condos – my father died. Suddenly everything was turned upside down again. My father and I were very close and we talked about my career path, business and life regularly, so this was a major blow. I began to feel very lost. And once again, I found myself talking more frequently with God. I had a lot of questions, and asked them frequently, but was I listening for answers?

Fast forward to 2003, I am still on the career path and working towards a new promotion. I had paid off the debt, and now I was planning to buy a condo. The promotion happened, the condo happened and now I was left with trying to come up with another plan. I started to really watch my expenses and focused on trying to put money away for retirement. I started to enjoy charity work, volunteering and helping people. I was still struggling with where I was in my life, what I wanted out of it, and working very long hours. I continued to live by my new found principle about controlling expenses. This principle was to ask myself a question before I bought anything, "Do you just want this, or do you really need this?" The simple little question made it much easier to say "NO" when it was a want vs. a need. I found ways to save by having money taken directly out of my check for the 401K program, stock purchase and money to be placed into a savings account. Since I didn't have children, I wanted to be sure that I could afford medical care for my pets. I created what I call my "kitty fund" and would put money into short term CD's that I would roll over into new ones when the percentage went up.

Three years passed and I was up for a new promotion. For some reason, I struggled with whether this was what I really wanted to do but I don't remember talking to God. I took the promotion and suddenly life became more difficult. I found myself challenged, which I enjoyed, but I found that suddenly things I enjoyed doing were now in competition with my work. My volunteering at the church and with animal rescue groups started to become a thing of the past. I wasn't talking to God and instead, found myself doing a lot of complaining. As time passed my family and I went through the loss of six family members. Yes six. It was then I really started to take inventory of my life and what I was doing. What did I want out of life? What was my plan now? I started to go to church more frequently and I really started to talk to God again. Then a funny question came out of my mouth.....

"What is your plan for me God?"

My next question quickly became: "Do I have the courage to find out?" I started to take walks and go for swims to exercise. I started to realize that my values had changed and there may be a better plan for me than to just work. During my walks, a question popped in my head....." What would make you happy?" The answer came quickly, I wanted to help people, I wanted to be able to volunteer, to make a difference. The next question came, "So what is preventing you from doing that?" So, I sat down and worked on the list. After contemplating the pro's and the con's, I realized that the only thing in the way was me. That is, my not wanting to change, to leave my comfort zone, to give up some of my control and so on. I truly believe that God was speaking to me to make a change. I just needed to follow that lead.

Over the next year, I did what I always do. I started planning. Only this time, rather than planning for the next house, next car or the next promotion, I started to really plan my exit strategy from my job. I stepped up the savings plan by figuring out what I really needed to live on. I refinanced my home down to a 15 year with a very low interest rate. I paid off my car and started to live on a very modest income. I planned out my expenses to include my tithe to Saint Paul's and figured out how many years I wanted to be able to take off from work. Then I made the big jump, and retired from my job. Now mind you, I am 44 years old and I am not permanently retired. I put a plan together to go back to school and find the job that will let me do what is important to me. Yes I am still planning, though now I would like to think they are little more aligned with a plan that’s bigger than just me…

So there it is, I think many times I may have been talking to God, and he may have been carrying me in tough times. But I don't think I was really listening to God.....all I can say...when you really start to......amazing things can happen. My new journey started May 28th, so far it is great....I am in Playa Del Carmen Mexico and I start school on June 22nd!!

Lisa Crosbie

Feeling Called to Help Others

As some of you might know, I live next door to the Cathedral in the Park Chateau apartments. Because it’s so close, the cathedral staff and clergy have become a kind of extended family for me. And I am very grateful because I know they care about me and try to look after me.
But, I have to admit I drive them a little crazy from time to time when I occasionally open my home to someone in need of a place to stay. Usually it’s someone who is in-between jobs, having become separated from their family or experiencing a low point in their life. I let them stay on my couch for whatever period of time they need to get back on their feet.

People might think I'm a little out of my mind to let folks who are at first strangers into my home. Maybe so. But I feel called to do so, within reason, due to experiences in my own life.

You see, many years ago as a young man I found myself homeless. I was going through a dark time in my life, battling depression and was even hospitalized at one point. When I got out, I didn’t have any place to stay and found myself sleeping wherever someone would let me.
I can remember one night asking an acquaintance if I could sleep in their car for a night. To this day, I can remember the embarrassment of having to ask someone I didn’t even know very well, if I could sleep in his driveway. That was one of the lowest points in my life. Having no place to sleep is just about the last thing a man should be made to suffer.

A few years later, in the 1970’s, after I had gotten back on my feet, I was living in the Bay Area. Driving from work I started to notice more and more people living in poverty, starving, and without living accommodations. These people were living in front of storefronts, and at People’s Park in Berkeley and in Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco. Finally I made a phone call to the Berkeley Free Clinic, which at that time was housed inside the lower portion of a church, and let it be known that I wanted to offer my apartment for the homeless. Eventually, the clinic agreed and, after a screening process, would make referrals to me.

My apartment was large enough to accommodate up to 4 people at one time. I must have had 20 or 30 people come through there in those days, of all ages and stations in life. And yes, it was a little uncomfortable and a little crazy at times, but it was also a time when I never felt more alive. How gratifying and enlivening it was to help these folks; to learn their names, to hear their stories and share their dreams.

It’s a practice that I have kept up pretty much my whole life. And even today, I will occasionally make my home available to those in need. In all the years of doing so, I have never been ripped off or taken advantage of. Is there some risk? Sure. But just as I was given a second chance, I truly feel that it is my ministry to extend that hospitality to others.

Christ said I was hungry and you gave me food. Because of my life experiences, I have come to understand that he was not only hungry for bread, but for understanding, for being loved, for being known, for being someone to someone.

When I help others, I try to see Christ in them, as others once saw him in me.

Harold Potter