Faith's Beginning

Faith was always there for me.  I was born into it. I was born into the Church of St. Stanislaus. There I sat at Sunday mass or daily mass and watched old Mrs. Kwiatkowski slam her arthritic knees down on the kneeler in front of the life size crucifix at the left door of the church. I wondered what she was praying about. Years later I began to understand. On the side altar the beautiful statue of Mary the Immaculate Conception was crowned with twelve stars and stood trampling this snake. I wondered what this snake was. Years later I began to understand.On the main altar I used to kneel as an altar boy and watch and listen to the priest mumble in Latin and I would mumble back. Years later I began to understand the words and the great mystery that I was so near. And when Fr. Frank Staebell SJ (who recently passed away)taught me how to pray in the Sodality at McQuaid Jesuit High School I began to more things. When I began to pray in the Society of Jesus through the Spiritual Exercises my imagination was opened up in new ways to the Word of God.  So many brothers from those years and later years have come and gone, that I feel that there is a great cloud of witnesses to my faith, their faith, our faith and that they are praying for me still in the bosom of Abraham, the father of faith. I remember Father Thomas Lannan who gave me a great gift of faith in the Resurection, in the power of music and the beauty of art. And now I live in a world of twenty year olds who have no idea what I am talking about, who live in a world of abbreviations LOL, who don't know who Handel is or even Three Dog Night, or Nat King Cole and I feel old. And here I am kneeling at the foot of the Cross asking those mysterious questions of the heart and receiving equally mysterious answers.