Community Sunday – Part One

Sunday, August 24, 2008.  Loni woke up at 6 a.m. Unusual for any day, especially more so for a Sunday. But this wasn’t just any Sunday. This was to be our community opening day. Personally, I felt so inadequately prepared, not only for the day, but for the whole community. Loni had worked late into the night, trying to solidify the talk for this first Sunday. I thought to myself “It got to be either stress or the Holy Spirit that got her up at this ‘unGodly’ hour.” I hoped it to be the latter, as I really don’t want to wake up to a stressed out wife. And with that hope, I prayed silently for the Holy Spirit to take over as I dragged myself out of bed, thinking hazily about the day to come.

The house was quiet, since the girls haven’t came back from their Saturday “Community Breaktime”.  I took the opportunity to survey the house, walking from room to room, taking mental notes of various items needing refilled or cleaned.  It’s strange, even though we opened our house to the community only for a couple of weeks, I felt a certain sense of longing.  Loni and I thought and said it almost at the same time after Saturday morning mass:  “Empty Nest”.  We both laughed at the thought at the time, but now, I felt the meaning.