August 15, 2011: The Spirit of the Beloved has Anointed Me!
~ by Father Ron Camarda
Something beautiful
Something wonderful happened on the banks of the Saint John’s River.
This past week a core group of about forty people with and without mental and physical disabilities gathered for the 30th week of Faith & Sharing.
The theme this year was:
The Spirit of the Beloved has Anointed me!
“Jesus returned to his hometown and went to the synagogue on the Sabbath as he was in the habit of doing.” This was my 12th year to co-animate the week with Sister Maureen Kelly, OP. It was amazing that the first day of the week was on the Feast of St. Dominic since Maureen is a Dominican Sister. Beloved, it was truly a homecoming. If you get a chance to read some of Jean Vanier’s writings about people living in community with disabilities, you will understand the power in the weakness.
Jesus was then handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage:
“The Spirit of the Beloved is upon me,
for the Beloved has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
Our Beloved God sent me
to proclaim liberty to captives,
recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Beloved.
We lived in community with each other from Monday afternoon to Saturday afternoon. Each day we reflected on and thought about one of the following:
Tuesday: Glad tidings to the poor
Wednesday: Liberty to captives
Thursday: Recovery of sight to the blind
Friday: Let the oppressed go free
Saturday: Proclaim a year acceptable to our Beloved God!
Young college adults who were so self-giving supported us all week. They were truly amazing. This was their 8th week at Camp St. John’s serving as lifeguards, buddies for special needs children and adults, social directors and even cleaning of bathrooms and so much more. They are all under the direction of Rebecca Aleman and you can see the amazing work they did at www.dosacamps.com. This website has heartwarming pictures and videos that will put a smile on your face.
Faith & Sharing came to the Diocese of St. Augustine 30 years ago with the encouragement of Bishop John Snyder. He lived through the week. From that week, our diocese added 8 to 10 weeks of Camps like “Camp Promise”, “Camp I Care” and “Camp Special”. In addition, L’Arche Community (formerly called Harbor House) is a direct result of Faith and Sharing.
Bishop Snyder and Bishop Galeone are still active in these summer camps. The Bishops of the Diocese of St. Augustine have rejoiced every year and celebrated at least one Mass at Faith & Sharing. This year was no different.
Bishop Felipe de Jesus Estevez was installed as our 10th Bishop on June 2nd of this year. He celebrated the Eucharist with us on our last night of Faith and Sharing. It was heaven on earth. He then shared a meal with us provided by one of the many groups that volunteer to prepare and bring us meals.
On Saturday morning, Chaplain Gene, chaplain of MacClenny State Hospital, led our final animation. Unfortunately, MacClenny people could not attend this year because of being in lockdown. My brother Gene was amazing. He told us he couldn’t go a year without being at Faith and Sharing. That is how we all feel. This was his 9th year with us Catholics!
If you would like to help us out financially, we could use the help. We stepped out in faith to allow many who couldn’t pay the full amount. We believe that God always provides for His little ones.
I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
Have a most blessed week and a truly anointed year with our Beloved God!
Love, joy, peace,
Father Ron Moses +
P.S. Our wonderful Bishop Felipe de Jesus has reassigned me this past week. I am living in Atlantic Beach again and will be filling in at various parishes and ministries throughout the diocese. I am excited about this adventure. I am most grateful to Father Dan Cody and the people of St. Joseph’s for the past amazing 40 days as their parochial vicar. You will always be in my heart and love. Trust in Jesus.
God is good!
All the time!
Father Ron Camarda is a retired Naval Chaplain and author of “Tear in the Desert,” a powerful book containing his memoirs of life and death at the Battle for Fallujah. Father Ron appears on EWTN and recently won the Silver Medal from the Military Writers Society of America.
