CP W4 D3 Jesus Calls the Disciples - Community (Mark 1:17-18)

Jesus simply said "follow me" and Simon and Andrew immediately left their nets and followed him. Why? I guess it was because they sensed and accepted Jesus as their spiritual mentor. That's an interesting term, and the book asks us to ponder it. What or who is a spiritual mentor? I usually think of a spiritual mentor as a priest or monk or some other "holy person", but as I reflect back over my life, I realize I've received much more spiritual guidance from just normal people in my churches over the years than from any "guru". In reality we are all spiritual mentors to each other.

THIS is what we mean by COMMUNITY, and community is what we are frequently seeking. It's that place where we are all accepted and nurtured - yes in our families, but we also seek it in many other ways. The writer of our book shares their huge experience of the church as a community of support after their father's death, and we've experienced essentially the same thing when Billy died 10 years ago. I remember being shocked at how much our church community grieved with us, and how essential they were to getting through those first few months.

It's funny how so much of what we seek in this world is related to that feeling of community - and how often the ways we seek it come up short. Pretty much everything that we see in advertisements (from soap bars to automobiles) promises us love and acceptance if we only buy their product or service. They almost always fail to deliver.

Yet, that safe nurturing place that we seek does exist. For me, our J2A group is a great nurturing community. I hope most of you feel safe when we're together and that we can accept and support each other in our journey together. This community extends to the broader parish as well. (Seriously, where else would we feel safe enough to try sharing our talents in a talent show? We know we'll be accepted even if we screw up.)

So think about it... we are all "spiritual mentors" to each other. Take a moment and pray for a few people from our class. They might need our prayers today - even if we don't know it.