ST. PAUL’S SPIRITUAL ENHANCEMENT SERIES – SESSION 8, January 20, 2021, “The Gift of Obstacles to Our Friendship With God” By Tom Leavens
On January 20, 2021, the eighth session of the St. Paul’s Spiritual Enhancement Series was held over Zoom conferencing. Our guest speakers with Joe Amato were Tom Leavens, Ann Marie Dodd & Pearse McDonnell. The theme of the evening was, “The Gift of Obstacles to Our Friendship with God.”
This session was like four friends sitting around a dinner table sharing great life experiences that brought each of them to where they are today (except it was over Zoom). Joe’s hope was to create a spark with all in our Cursillo Community by revisiting this pivotal talk from our weekends. He challenged each of the speakers to be honest & vulnerable.
All four members of this session shared two key connections—all four made Christian Awakening weekends in high school and each give the Obstacles to God’s Friendship talk on Cursillo weekends now. You would think that Joe would go easy on them—but not Joe! All four answered questions about the biggest obstacles in their current lives and in their faith. They discussed obstacles like control, self-worth, anger, fear— and how it all gets in the way of their relationship with God. The evening concluded with the song, “You Are Loved,” by Josh Groban, the reading of the classic, “The Master’s Touch” (included in this newsletter) and a beautiful prayer written by Pearse (also included in this newsletter).
If you were unable to join us that night, I highly recommend watching it. The session has been posted on our YouTube channel (“St. Paul’s Cursillo Community”) at the link below. Take some time to watch our previously recorded sessions as well and please share it with others!