Live Adventurously

Last Sunday, on the first Sunday of Advent, the priest during his homily charged us all to "live adventurously."

I wish I could remember more of what he said, but frankly, I can't. What does stand out for me that night was that I had three friends with me at church.

It hasn't yet quite been a year since I started attending Dignity masses here in DC, and most of that time I've gone alone (like it seems so many others do). Lately, however, LI has been going with me--in part to continue to strengthen her spiritual connections, but also to be there with me (which is just totally sweet that she wants us to be able to share "it"--god, church, spirituality, faith...).

We were joined by two more of her friends last Sunday, which made the start of Advent feel that much more of a celebration. Just like me, they knew about Dignity for quite some time, but just had not gotten around to attending mass. I don't know that they'll come back regularly (they usually attended MCC services regularly), but I was glad to be there and part of their journey in checking it out.

What was really fun was that the four of us then went out to dinner after mass. Unlike in my childhood when dad would take us through the drive-thru at McDonald's after mass as a sort of reward/consolation/motivation for having gone to mass, dinners out after church for me now have been about making the time and space to reflect on the mass, and the week in general.

This dinner was just that. :) It's been really cool, actually, to know so many others who are spiritual and attend services regularly as part of their faith. For so long I'd felt out of place in queer communities identifying as Catholic. Since going to Dignity regularly, I've become more and more outspoken about my religion and its significance to me [you regular blog readers might have noticed that ;)].

I think I re-connected with it just when I needed it. Fun how things work out like that...