Florida Catholic | Saints or sinners? Funnels or umbrellas?

Saints or sinners? Funnels or umbrellas?

Ministries conference brings a fresh perspective on receiving grace.

PEGGY DEKEYSER | FLORIDA CATHOLIC PENSACOLA-TALLAHASSEE BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 02.22.08

PENSACOLA | Catholic ministers from all over the diocese learned at their annual conference how to tell the saints from the sinners when God’s grace rains down: The saints are carrying funnels, and sinners, umbrellas.

“We are told that grace falls on the just and unjust alike. It is a matter of whether we are open to it or not,” keynote speaker Richard Johnson told the more than 125 participants in the Feb. 9 diocesan Ministries Conference at Pensacola Catholic High School. The conference was presented by the Department of Christian Formation.

Johnson, who is a part-time resident of Santa Rosa Beach, is a psychologist with a doctorate who teaches and writes extensively on spiritual health, particularly for those in parish ministry and for those who are aging.

“Personality is a gift from God. Of the 6.5 billion people alive now, none are alike. Of all the people who have ever lived, no two are exactly alike. God must like diversity,” Johnson said. “Each of us, with our personalities and our gifts, has been assembled intentionally by God, for his purposes, in this time and place.”

Defining sickness as the work of material forces acting in purely scientific and understandable ways on the physical body, Johnson said that the real need for healing involves learning to overcome illness: that which is caused by our emotional, mental and spiritual response to sickness. Illness, in his lexicon, is defined as an unhealthy condition of body or mind. Sickness is defined as an unsound condition or a specific disease. Illness includes the lifestyle and behavioral responses one makes as a direct consequence of the imposition of sickness on one’s life.

To help the participants understand their giftedness and how each individual’s unique gifts contribute to wellness or illness, Johnson shared a list of 30 healing gifts, the products of beliefs, perceptions, thinking, feeling, decision making and action. Each participant was instructed to select the words that best described his or her most significant gift. Johnson then exposed to participants what the shadow side and compulsive side of each gift was, and how important it is to recognize those shadows and compulsions to cultivate wellness.

Johnson referred to the Gospels, in which Jesus frequently said, “Go your way, your faith has healed you.” “Jesus never says, ‘Go your way, I just healed you.’ In this, he shows us that we have but to reach out to him in faith. The power is inside of each of us. We didn’t put it there; God did. Being in touch with the source, God, puts us in touch with grace.”

In welcoming the participants, Bishop John H. Ricard, SSJ, said they were taking the steps toward faithfully fulfilling their individual ministries. “Preparation is critical, as is constant reinforcement. But remember that we are each always called. We don’t initiate the call; it comes from God. We may not understand at the outset what the call will involve. But if we are faithful in answering the call, we can be assured that God will remain with us, always giving us the gifts, the resources, the grace that we need to live out that call.”

John Scott of St. Ann Parish in Gulf Breeze had heard Johnson speak before. “He’s really interesting. I’ll take it back to my parish, but first I’ll take it back to my wife and we’ll discuss it. I’m involved in hospital ministry and this will really be useful in recognizing where people are — whether they’re happy, worried, whatever — and to be with them.”

Lisa Johnson (no relation) of Nativity of Our Lord Parish would have been happy to go through a much longer session with Johnson. “It was really terrific, but it’s going to take some time for me to process, because these are new ideas. I know it’s going to give me a new perspective on how I interact with others.”

In addition to the session with Johnson, participants had a chance to choose breakout sessions. Speakers and topics included Father Eugene Pathe discussing the importance of the sacrament of reconciliation in the lives of ministers; Tom Baroco leading a session on the use of the music of Taizé in praise, worship and personal reflection; Kathy Coffey on the joy of sacramentality; Thomas Gordon and Patrick Clemens on the Liturgy of the Hours; Jeri Winkleblack Westmoreland on the spirituality of everyday life; Cristina Stevens on ministry to the chronically ill and dying; among others. Johnson also led sessions on establishing a vibrant maturing adult faith formation program in parishes and the spirituality of the middle years.

Mary Pickard, religious education coordinator at St. Mary Parish in Fort Walton Beach, summed up her response to the conference, saying, “God is in our life all the time. All we have to do is listen and appreciate where he’s coming from and be open to where he’s coming from. I teach little children and I often find that children have a better insight as to where God is in their life than adults do. Going to things like this I can appreciate my children and their insights better.”

For more information on Johnson, log on to: http://www.senioradultministry.com/category.aspx?categoryID=2

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