Keep The Fire Burning - Talk 2

The CRS Boston Evangelization team gathered at Waltham's Saint Jude school hall on October 21, 2023 to pray for all who would come that day. People who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit came from North (Salem), to South (Quincy), to West (Medfield) to experience growth in their openness to the Holy Spirit.

All enjoyed a getting-to-know-you contest and then took time to pray for each other. We also prayed and interceded for the needs of others. Bob Hartman led a time of prayer and sung praise.

Mike Marraffino spoke about Christian love as contrasted to the world's ideas of love. He presented some examples of how we can show love through care, concern, and service. A more extensive list of situations that test our ability to love neighbor was used for group discussions and for homework reflection.

People especially liked the small group discussion time. It gave us time to express how we deal with everyday situations involving our love of neighbor.

Maria from the Norwood New Jerusalem Prayer Group attend the program. She wrote:

The talk was able to expand the concept of giving love for me. We can balance out our problems by giving love to others. By being aware of those in need, it gets us outside of ourselves, and takes the focus off our troubles.

The topic that I thought would be hard to say anything new about, “love your neighbor as yourself” was challenging. Yesterday, We were talking about giving our problems to Jesus and it made me think of the love shown to us thru His compassion.

As per the talk: We model His goodness when we fill our hearts with his love, and give love to those in need, who are really part of our Catholic family. As you intimated, we can only do this by being “vigilant”! Not walking mindlessly past someone in need.

Our next Growth in the Spirit session will be held at St. Jude's on November 18, 9 to noon. Diane Colgan will teach about Faith.