by Keith Call
Unlike many of my coworkers, I’ve never thought of myself as having the gift of language eloquence. If I have any gifts at all, I have always felt they related more to numbers than to words.
My hope in sharing my journey is that there are others out there who can relate. As a child, my family attended Mass on Christmas and Easter. After joining the Air Force, I was blessed to be married in my hometown Catholic Church to my wife of 38 years whose family was far more invested in our faith. We have 3 adult children that my wife, unaided, insured were raised by attending Mass weekly and receiving all their sacraments. Approximately 10 years ago our youngest daughter went off to college which motivated me to join my wife at Mass weekly so she would not go alone. I often recall saying that it was the best hour of my week. But going to mass on Sundays was about it for me. While I always had an interest in learning more about our faith, I never took the time to take the next step.
In 2015 I moved to Arizona. I came to Phoenix four months ahead of my wife as she stayed back in New York to sell our home. In those 4 months, I had many free hours and chose to use this time to take the next step on my journey. I walked alone every evening and set myself a goal to listen to the entire bible on audiobook as I walked. 100+ hours later, that goal was completed.
With that completed, I focused my energy on looking for employment. We often hear that God works in mysterious ways. Although working for the church was never in my thoughts, I applied for and was hired to be St Timothy’s Business Manager. Having never managed a non for profit, this was going to be a challenge. I felt the timing of this opportunity had to be part of a bigger plan on my journey.
Last year, Fr. John invited me to join the Parish Leadership Team. This newly formed team would go to one and then a second conference designed to help Parish leaders reach the next level in key areas of parish life and be more intentional about their mission. Joining this team now appears to be another next step in my journey. This group of 6 meet several times a week. These meetings are very structured, and a large part of these meetings include time in prayer. Prior to joining this group, I had never prayed out loud let alone in front of coworkers or friends. After stretching myself and doing this for over a year, prayer has now become much more “normal” in my day. These meetings also include time to read the Bible and then openly discuss how the Word may have spoken to us. Interestingly this reminds me of those nights when I walked alone and listened. I would often call my wife in the evening and tell her about something I heard from the Bible and how it made sense to me as I related it to something current in our life.
Working and praying with this team has been both challenging and rewarding. I am pushed but in a good way. I now pray every morning, several times throughout the day and of course in the evening. Ten years ago, I was the guy who went to church on Sunday, tithed and went home. What I was doing in my mind was checking the box. While l feel I am barely on the onramp of this journey, I now feel comfortable with prayer and speaking to others about the fruits that come from being part of an active parish with a prayerful life. For those who may be where I was 5 years ago, I welcome and challenge you to work on making prayer a part of your daily life. The goodness and benefit are far greater than a numbers guy can put in words, but I trust you will feel it and be thankful for taking that next step.
If you don’t know where to start, here is a simply suggestion that helped me: start by taking a few minutes during your day to offer God a prayer of thanksgiving, a prayer for someone else, and a prayer for yourself. I have found this to be simple but fruitful way to build up the habit of prayer.