“The Beauty of Christ's Teachings are that you learn to Feel before you are Taught to Touch. I wrote that after listening to one of Father Danny Murphy's (1) Homilies. It was a different one then the one I cited below. However I felt that this one expressed the feel before the touch better. This is where he talked about a Priest that lost his beautiful 29 year old Sister to a drowning accident leaving behind her three children. I was not sure if Father Danny was talking in the 3rd person or the 1st person but the story remains the same. This Priest could not cope with the loss of his Sister and started on a path of self-destruction thus leading him to question his faith in God, and his purpose as a Priest. Eventually the burden was so difficult for him that he was institutionalized. While there, he had a couple from his parish that visited him on a daily basis. They would stay for hours, talking with him, praying with him, laughing with him, and crying with him. Eventually after several months of treatment this Priest was healed. He returned to an active status of his Priesthood and today is again saying Mass, preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ, and touching people's souls. Father Danny's sad story of learning to feel is an extreus example of what Priest endure as they have to merge their private lives with their servitude to God and His Church. But all Priest must learn, in some manner, to feel, before they are taught to touch. I cited only one example of Father Murphy's Talks. However he continues to do this kind of shared feelings followed by soft emotional touches at every one of his Homilies that I have the blessed fortune of witnessing.
But think of this, was not Christ, our greatest teacher, himself exposed to learning to feel? Was he not rejected, tempted, criticized, humiliated, condemned, scorned, and finally hung on a cross to die? Christ could have came down as a King and command all that was wrong to be right. Was that not what was expected? But No, he came down as a poor man's son so he could learn to feel as only a common man could. Only then after 30 years of learning did he Touch. So powerful was the substance of his Touch that it is still Relevant 2000 plus years later. As men, are we not burden with our own struggles? Do we not need support to overcome them? This is the purpose and mission of Catholic Men's Ministries of Indian River County Florida. We are here to feel. We are here to touch. We are here to talk. We are here to listen. We are here to learn. We are here to pray, We are here for you. Please consider joining us.