Do you recognize this quote?

“Send our spirit upon us now, as we, your Church, begin the work of building Saint John’s Center for School and Religious Formation.”

We have been saying this prayer at the end of Mass for the last couple of years, ever since our building project started. But, the more we prayed it, the more I thought, “The bricks and mortar we are constructing will be just a building. The real “center” which matters is every baptized individual who makes use of it. Every time we gather in the church for Eucharist, every time we gather for school, religious formation or parish meetings, we are being built again into this center where Christ uses us to form and shape all who come our way throughout our day.

Here is a powerful story to explain what I mean.
A beauty salon owner was surprised when one of his regular customers came in to have her hair styled. She wasn’t scheduled for a cut for another couple of weeks. He asked if she had some big plans that evening.
“No,” she said, “I don’t have anything special going on. I just want to look and feel good tonight.”
So the stylist went to work. He gave the woman a scalp massage, then shampooed and styled her hair. During their 30 minutes together the two talked and joked and laughed. When he had finished, the woman smiled radiantly and hugged him goodbye.
A few days later the salon owner received a note from the woman. She thanked him for the wonderful time she had that afternoon. His kindness and the fun they shared had given her hope enough to check herself into a hospital and seek professional help for her depression – instead of taking her own life, as she was contemplating that evening. “Thank you for being there,” she wrote, “without knowing that you were.”
The experience shocked the hair dresser. He had known the woman for three years, yet had no inkling she was in such distress. What if he had been distracted, upset or rushed through the appointment? How many of the ten clients he saw each day were in similar crisis without his even being aware of it? He would never know. He vowed from that point on to give extra care and attention to everyone he saw and do his best to make his or her day. The experience not only changed the woman’s life but the salon owner’s perspective, as well. [David Wagner, daymakermovement.com.]

There is not a day that passes when God does not seek to make us centers of formation. In fact, like the beauty salon owner, we often don’t even recognize when and how God does that. We simply come to Sunday Mass, School and Religious Formation so that God in his Church can make us more and more available, week after week, day after day, hour after hour. Our hearts and eyes get opened as we take in the Word of God, eat and drink the Lord’s Supper and become instruction in the ways of Faith, even at times when WE think nothing is happening!

If we do let ourselves be formed, it is amazing how God uses us for his Divine purpose of saving souls, those of children, even our own.

I am personally amazed at the end of a day how often God has used me to touch the lives of others. What is so very important for our own salvation is that we make ourselves available for Christ to use us to touch the lives of others.

Just this last Sunday, a man took my hand as he left and said, “What a powerful celebration, I really mean that...This has changed me...” I felt like the beauty salon owner, I had “no inkling” how God was using me and this congregation to touch that man so deeply. In fact, I was distracted by all that didn’t go well, by all who looked untouched or even a little upset that we went so long!

In today’s society, it is very easy to fall for the sinful and deadly temptation to blow off going to Mass, easy to excuse ourselves and our children from being trained and shaped in our Faith. But what happens to us?

I know what happens to me when my prayer is rushed or forgotten, when I blow off a retreat or a clergy formation meeting, when I cave into self pity. I become less aware, more selfish and less grateful...and certainly less happy. The more I only do what I want, the less willing and even able I am to respond to others when I could have helped. The problem is that I can become hard and harder, less willing to share, less able to hear another’s need. I can easily and unknowingly complain, give less even when I have more and let greed grow in me like weeds in an untended garden.

Fall is around the bend and a new school year is beginning. Let’s make our own vow, like the salon owner did.

If we’ve been missing Mass, let’s renew our commitment to giving ourselves back to God at Sunday Mass regularly. God could use us to touch the hearts of others, even when we don’t “feel” that we are getting anything out of it. Others might well be saved through our being there! My generation was formed to believe that missing Mass on Sunday is matter for serious sin. We don’t have to look far in today’s world to experience that this is still true. Yet, how few see the sin, to say nothing of its serious damage to us and our relationships to one another.

If we are not involved, let’s make great use of our beautiful new building to get involved where, WE, Saint John’s center for School and Religious Formation can be built, be rebuilt and flourish.

Let’s make whatever sacrifice it takes to let ourselves and our children be formed into good and careful instruments of God’s good care for others.

Can you imagine how the salon owner must have felt when he opened that note and read, “Thank you for being there,” she wrote, “without knowing you were”?

Wouldn’t it be something to get a note like that from someone in your life, touched by your faithfulness to our gracious God? I pray that we will treasure every good note that we might receive and be more and more resolved to do our best in every day that lies ahead.

“Thank you for being there without knowing you were.”