Compassionate about the poor Bill Mulcahy (Brisbane) Bill's previous articles
March 8, 2012 Called
to be a "Man Alive"
www.spiritofthebush.net
I
remember clearly the gathering. It was 11:20am, 22nd January 2009. I
was attending a professional development session with about 60 Catholic
schoolteachers from my local area. Fr Richard Leonard SJ spoke in the morning
till morning tea then we sat back down to hear from John Brady. Wow! Amazing!
John spoke about his time as a School Principal, and his work as a man of faith.
Then he said those words: ‘Stand with the Poor’. Stand with the. …What!
What is he saying? What does this mean? I grabbed his email address because I
needed to seek answers. These words were on my mind 24/7. They bothered me. They
bugged me. They haunted me. They WERE meant for me, I later realised.
Some 4 weeks later I decided to attend my first Men Alive Weekend, a weekend for
men to become energised and alive in their faith. I had these stirrings, strange
inner stirrings. Not within my head, but within my being. And guess what! On
Saturday about 11am, in walks the next guest speaker. John Brady. Same talk,
same shirt, and same words: ‘Stand with the Poor’.
I was
bothered. John was my God botherer. I still didn’t fully understand but I knew
that I could no longer go through the motions I had been used to travelling. But
being present with some 80 men, listening, praising, singing was awesome. My
biggest challenge though was the 3 hour period of designated silence of Saturday
afternoon. This was a new experience for me. I fidgeted, I read but I began to
communicate, really communicate. I needed to search what “Stand with the
poor” meant and why? I didn’t like feeling uncomfortable, this saying
consume me so I asked God ‘what do you want me to do?’ ‘Show me the path
to follow’. I also came across a song Open
my Eyes that I would play and meditate on.
The
transformation of me began. Yeah it was the same Bill, but also a new Bill that
looked at things so differently. I began to hear God, not in a voice or spoken
word, but in stirrings, in prompts, all from within me. I guess that these
stirrings were always there but I wasn’t looking for them. I began
appreciating God in my everyday life, in people, in places, in things that I
looked at in new ways. I looked to Jesus as my role model and to strengthen me
for the every day crosses we bear. I began to feel alive as I began to love the
gifts and graces readily available from the Holy Spirit. I knew I was a good man
(husband, father, teacher, brother, etc.), but I knew now I could be better. A
better man. I was becoming a Man Alive.