October 1998
Index
- Why it's Hard by Lory Misel
- Is SacraMentors to become Ecumenical? by Fr. Bob Camuso
- Do You Feel Called to Teach? by Carl D Jones
- Do You Have an email Address? by Carl D Jones
- Three More Parishes Join SacraMentors Program by Carl D Jones
- New Audio Tape Created by Carl D Jones
- Mid-Winter Retreat by Carl D Jones
- Computer and Copy Machine Donated to SacraMentors by Carl D Jones
Why it's Hard
By Lory Misel.
The most difficult thing we will ever experience in this life is accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord, living His Gospel and being like Him. Why the difficulty? Because every thing Jesus taught and stood for is the opposite of what the ego and the world teach us.
From the miraculous changes we have now witnessed in hundreds of men, it is quite apparent that our SacraMentors program is inspired by the Holy Spirit. This program was given to provide us a way of joining in love, faith and hope with our brothers that we may join in love, faith and hope with Christ. It is a program and a process to be one with our brothers and our God.
Because of the divine inspiration of this program and especially our Apostles Process, brothers' egos try every way possible to keep them from surrendering to the spiritual potential of what we have been offered. Many brothers have touched the edge of what is possible by meeting and joining 90 minutes a week with their brothers and God. Lives have literally been healed, enriched and blessed. We are just beginning, for the potential of this process is without limit. We have only touched the edges of what is possible.
The thought of being one with your brothers and experiencing the literal Presence of Christ can be absolutely terrifying to the ego. The ego believes and whispers to you that you will cease being, even die, if you join as one with God and your brothers. From the ego's point of view, this SacraMentors program and especially the Apostles Process can become "life threatening". What your ego does NOT want you to know is that you, God's child, will not die with the experience of Oneness with your brothers and God. The child of God that is you yearns and craves this experience. It (the ego) is the part of you that would cease being. You are not the child of your ego. You are a child of God and you are eternal. Your ego is not.
Since the ego believes this program is a direct threat to its ideas, perceptions, beliefs, needs and being, it will give you every excuse not to continue. It will use excuses such as, "It takes too much time. It is boring. I get nothing from it. I am too tired. I forgot. I hate the brothers in my group" and so on. None of these ego ideas has anything to do with why you have stopped or may stop attending your weekly Apostles meeting. The real reason is, "Your ego is terrified of love and being at one with your brothers because these will open you to the very direct and personal experience of Jesus Christ." Period!
The divine inspiration of the Apostles process is that it offers you a very direct way of turning your ego resistances over to God and your brothers. If your talk about your resistances to the process with your brothers and God, your resistances will evaporate and you can continue moving into love and the depth of His Gospel.
The "Sharing, Part One" of the Apostles process was given for this specific reason: To share and let go of the your ego resistances to the love of God and being at one with your brothers. Bring your ego's resistances and excuses to your meeting. Share them with God and your brothers that you may continue the pathway God has called you to walk with Him.
To all of you dear brothers who have listened to your ego's reasons for not continuing, come back. God and your brothers are in great need of you. And, I might add, you are in need of what your brothers of the Church and God can offer you. Set you ego aside and let us join hands and walk Home to God.
Philippians 3, 12-14
"It is not that I have already taken hold of it or have already attained perfect maturity, but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it, since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus."
Is SacraMentors To Become Ecumenical?
By Fr. Bob Camuso
Something we did not expect is beginning to happen in the SacraMentors movement. We have discovered that Protestants are coming to our program. One or two, here and there. Some announced as Protestants. Others not. At the close of the series presented recently at Sacred Heart in Enumclaw, I spoke to Gary Crum, who belongs to the non-denominational Valley Bible Church in Sumner. Gary was encouraged by his Catholic friend, Casimer Harzewski to join him in attending the four-part series.
Fr. Bob: "As a Protestant, what has been your past perception of the Catholic Church?"
Gary: "In the past I don’t think my perception has been positive. I have heard a lot of negative things about the Catholic Church."
Fr. Bob: "What is your feeling now, after attending this program?"
Gary: "I realize I don’t know enough about the Catholic Church to make judgments. My feeling now is that there is a brotherhood here it’s a side I never knew existed. This experience has affirmed in me the relationships we are to have with God are the same, whether Catholic or Protestant. I can take that back to my church. I realized that we all have a personal relationship with God, especially after I heard men here witness to their faith. My understanding of the Profession of Faith is that whether you come from the Protestant or Catholic tradition, we are all seeking to do God’s will. This program has brought that out for me. As a result, I realize we are to have a closer relationship with fellow Christians—that is key for me."
It may come as a surprise to some of us, but the Holy Spirit is neither Catholic nor Protestant. And since it is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the SacraMentors program is run, it is important that remain open to hear what the Spirit wants to teach us. What is Holy Spirit saying to us about Protestants attending our program? I wonder if Gary Crum was sent as a messenger to tell us.
Do You Feel Called to Teach?
by Carl D Jones
In our last newsletter we asked the question, "Do you feel called to teach?". Some of you answered the call in the affirmative and joined us as trainers. You indicating you were ready take a leap of faith and let the Lord enter your life in a special way. We are deeply appreciative of your commitment. The following men answered the call this past summer and are working with our current trainers to prepare themselves for their turn as SacraMentor trainers; John Alexy-Edmonds, Bill Barth-Lynnwood, Richard Casmier-Sumner, Bruce Jaeger-Kirkland, Joe Kiibler-Lacey, Tom Layton-Kent, John Miles-Lynnwood, Mike Sepal-Sumner and Dan Walker-Redmond.
We have have many requests for the SacraMentor program and if we are to fulfill these requests we will need more training teams. Therefore, we are now asking the question again to all of you in the SacraMentors program. " Do you feel called to teach?" If you think you would like to share the gifts that God has given you, now is the time as we have scheduled another Train the Trainers series for December 1998 - January 1999.
If you would like to join the ranks of SacraMentors trainers now is the time to let us know. We already have several men committed to the training but have a few spots left to fill. Come experience what the Holy Spirit can lead you to by being a trainer in the SacraMentor program.
The training will take place in a yet to be determined central location, to keep the drive time to a minimum for all. The time of the training will be from 6:30 PM until 8:30 PM on December 8th and 15th, 1998 and January 5th, 12th and 19th, 1999.
You will have the opportunity to hear from and be trained by Fr. Bob Camuso and Lory Misel, the co-founders of the SacraMentors program. You will also participate in some intensive and exciting training sessions with your fellow trainers. At the end of the training you will be placed in a three person training team and you will be ready to create your own talks using our newly revised training manual.
Your first training experience will be to assist an existing team with a series by helping facilitate their series and by giving short testimonies. After this introductory period you will be given your first training assignment and your team will then make the presentations. The men who have become trainers have said that they have learned more than the men they have taught and wouldn’t exchange the experience for anything.
The only way the SacraMentors program will reach all the parishes in our diocese and beyond is for you to volunteer and help teach other men. As all the men who have gone through the training are saying, "I am learning more by teaching this course than I would have ever imagined".
(Top)
"I thank Him who has given
me strength for this,
Christ Jesus our Lord,
because he judged me faithful
by appointing me to his service."
— 1 Timothy 1:12
Do You Have an email Address?
by Carl D Jones
Do you have an email address that we don’t have? If you do and would like to receive email notices of Sacramentums, trainings and other bits of information from the SacraMentors computer send your address via email to carljones@sacramentors.org.
Speaking of things electronic, we will be getting our own SacraMentors website in the near future. It will have the same information as it presently does, only the address will be changed. We are looking into domain names and as soon as we have our name we will email all of you with computers to come check out our new site.
Three More Parishes Join SacraMentors Program
by Carl D Jones
Three more parishes have conducted the SacraMentors series so far this year. We are constantly amazed at how the Holy Spirit is working within the program and are excited that so many pastors are deciding to offer the program for the men of their parish. We will be offering the program to two more parishes before our holiday break and several parishes are already planned for the first half of 1999.
The following is a letter to the SacraMentors of St. Michael, Sacred Heart and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parishes from their trainers.
Dear Brothers:
Thank you for your attendance and participation in the SacraMentor program. You were great teachers! When the Saturday Sanctum concluded with Mass, we simply didn't want it to end. What a wonderful and memorable experience to share with all of you. You have something very special in your group.
We encourage each of you to share this specialness with others by opening yourself up more fully to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, by pray unceasingly, by become leaders in your parish community and trainers for the SacraMentors program. God bless each and every one of you. We will keep you all in our prayers.
Your Brothers in Christ
The following men from the three parishes named above have recently completed the SacraMentors series in their parish and are participating in the weekly Apostle’s Process. The dates and times of their meetings are listed. under each parish name and on page five of this newsletter. The Community Coordinator for each parish is bolded and in italics within each parish listing Please add them to you prayers as they continue to walk with the Lord and discern what their path will be. (note: The webmaster has removed the names from the archived newsletters to prevent their inappropriate use)
St. Michael Parish, Olympia
Sunday, 7 AM
Tuesday, 7 AM & 7 PM
Sacred Heart, Enumclaw
Sunday, 7 AM
Sunday, 7 PM
This parish has an existing SacraMentors group and there are a few men that participated in this class who came from other parishes with existing groups They will continue to meet together for a few weeks and then start participating with existing groups within their own parishes. The who represent communities other than Enumclaw are designated with a letter after each man’s name as follows, (B) indicates Buckley, (FW) indicates Federal Way, (P) indicates Puyallup and (S) indicates Sumner.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Mill Creek
Saturday, 8 AM
Sunday, 7 PM
New Audio Tape Created
The idea of creating audio tapes for individual study has been talked about for a long time by men of the SacraMentors program and now it is finally a reality.
A brand new audio tape,one that is to be the first in a series from Fr. Bob Camuso and Lory Misel has just been developed and is now available to all SacraMentors.
The first tape is titled Giving Up Your Addiction to Being Wounded and Being a Victim. This tape deals with developing our ability to overcome the ego’s addiction to being wounded, the ability to give up being a victim and to learn to thank God for our wounds so that we might learn from them. If you would like an audiotape mailed to you, "snail mail" your request with check (the cost is $12.20 and includes postage and handling) to SacraMentors, c/o St Anne's Parish, 1411 First Avenue West, Seattle, WA 98119 .
Mid Winter Retreat
This coming February SacraMentors will offer an opportunity to get away from the cares of "the world" and experience peace at its first retreat. This retreat is offered to all SacraMentors but will have to be limited in number because of space considerations to the first 100 men to sign up. The retreat is scheduled for Noon, Friday, February 19, 1999 through Noon, Sunday, February 21, 1999.
Fr. Bob Camuso and Lory Misel are planning a powerful weekend that will be a very Spirit filled experience. It will be an opportunity to develop a new and deeper level to your prayer life and to intensify your experience in your weekly Apostle’s Process meetings. E-mail Carl Jones if you would like to attend.
Computer and Copy Machine Donated to SacraMentors
It started out very quietly and simply. Steve Egge, Sumner, had a computer that he no longer needed and asked if he could donate it to the SacraMentors. Since the SacraMentors had been limping along with my old "386" we jumped at the chance to get a better model that had enough space and memory to handle the needs of this growing program.
Through efforts initiated by Steve and with major help of two of his SacraMentors brothers, John Miles and Bill Barth from Lynnwood we now have a supercharged, whiz bang computer that will allow us to have faster, more upgraded and compatible programs with today’s technology.
A short time later Jim Ferris, a brother from Tacoma, was upgrading his copy machine and had a surplus machine that he wanted to donate. While surplus to Jim this machine will allow us to save time and money by doing a lot of our copying projects in house.
We are extremely grateful for these generous gifts. I have only one more request and that is for a service technician to help me set up the copy machine and perform an initial service on the machine. God bless you guys.
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