This is the weekend of the Cornerstone Men’s Retreat. Cornerstone is an organization that I helped organize and build at St. Monica’s Parish in Santa Monica, CA. A group of around 100 men get together for 28 hours and learn to communicate, to relate, to worship life, to feel our feelings. This year marks the fourth annual retreat, so it was 5 years ago that Sr. Catherine called me and asked me if I would be willing to go to American Martyrs in Manhattan Beach and attend a men’s retreat with the possibility to bring it back to St. Monica. There would be 3 other men from St. Monica at the retreat, and we could have the experience and see if it was something that we though St. Monica would benefit from. When she asked the first thought that raced through my mind was “NOOOO”, but Sr. Catherine is truly a saint, and to say no to a saint is like giving up on life. I had learned in program that unless we have a prior commitment, to always say yes. Yet this was so far out of my comfort zone. I am not a devout Catholic by any means, I participate at times because I love the spirituality of this particular parish, and there are beautiful things about Catholicism that I adore, but over all we all know it has its problems. So I showed up, not because I wanted to, but because I have learned that that is what we do, we show up. To this day I am a grateful member of Cornerstone, and the deep level of spiritual fellowship that it has taught me. I have learned to love and respect men, something that was deeply lacking in my life. I have learned that if I am willing to step out of my comfort zone and say yes, marvelous miracles can occur.
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