Got to see some of my favorite people this past weekend

Several, actually.  Holy Family in Kirkland, Washington had their big family conference this past weekend and had both Scott Hahn and Jason Stellman speak.  Jason is a former Presby pastor who has, with tremendous courage, converted to the Catholic faith–alone in his family–and left behind all job security out of conscience.  He is a huge gift to the Church.  (So if you know of anybody who can use a gifted writer, speaker, administrator, creative visionary, and gung ho Catholic, contact him at his site.)

It was good to catch up with those guys.  Scott was his ebullient, brilliant and inspiring self, delightfully departing from the script to say what needed said rather than what was scheduled to be said.  I love the man.  Also good to see as well was Tom Curran, another tremendously gifted Catholic teacher.  He lives here in the Seattle area and we are lucky to have him.  He’s one of the people I hope to be when I grow up.

I saw lots of other friends and acquaintances there too, but one of the unexpected surprises was running into the wonderful Sr. Mary Eucharista from Spokane:

She’s one of those people who has a genius for making everybody she meets feel like a million bucks. She’s gonna go straight to heaven when she dies, so I try cultivate relationships with people like her in the hope that God will be suckered by her prayers for me and not notice he’s letting a jackass into heaven when I show up at the Pearly Gates. I loves ya, Sister!

The conference was really a shot in the arm and full of all sorts of grace I’m still absorbing. Thanks be to God!