The Beginning:
It will be impossible for me to recount for you the beginning of our entry into the lay missionary work of the Children of Mary, without giving you some back story first.
Both my wife, Kelly, and I are converts to the Catholic Faith. We met at a Protestant university and fell head-over-heals as they say.
We both became rather dissatisfied with the status quo of the Christian lives we had led to that point.
So we unofficially dropped out of college and moved to a camp just north of New York City to be missionaries. After three grueling months of working in the south Bronx and preparing meals for loads of handicapped campers we moved back to Ohio to live in "the Blue House" - an intentional Christian community with some of our best friends: another married couple and a single guy. We all worked together with troubled youth through a Salvation Army ministry. Kelly and I worked at a homeless shelter, first organizing the pantry, then playing with the kids.
While at the Blue House, we resumed our education at the same college we had unofficially dropped out of and we both graduated.
Also while at the Blue House, we began attending Mass on Sundays and then once or twice more during the week.
After six months of sharing a house with three other people (actually for a time there were five other people) the community broke up. We are all still great friends to this day... but we're not looking to move back in together.
After a year of attending Mass without being able to receive Holy Communion, we began the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults.
We fell head-over-heals again. We were presented with beauty and truth like never before and realized that the Sacraments offered us the deepest possible union with God.
It was the Eucharist that anchored us. We were already in love with the beauty of our parish church and the liturgy. That kept us around long enough to learn what the Church actually teaches. Once we learned about the Eucharist, we knew there was nowhere else for us to go. There was nowhere else that we could receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus. And we had received a great longing for Him. There was no other option.
Needless to say, that Easter, we became Catholic.
Sometime later, the rigors of academic life had worn us both out, but had taken the greatest toll on my wife who was at home caring for our firstborn son while pregnant with our second. She needed a retreat, but we didn't have any money.
Then I remembered these purple nuns who had come to our RCIA class to teach about Eucharistic Adoration - particularly their big smiles and the joy and peace they exuded.
So I wrote an email asking if I might be able to trade work for the sisters in exchange for a retreat for Kelly.
I received an email back that essentially said, "She can come for free, but since you offered..."
I think the exact words that followed were, "Are you in good health and able to do heavy labor?"
I remember pulling onto the property for the first time to see just what this "heavy labor" entailed. Two of those purple nuns came out and just looked at me for a moment. Then they turned to each other and I heard, "This is Wes?" I'm not sure if that meant, "He's kind of spindly for this..." or if it meant, "I expected him to be much older and in worse shape..." But since they still wore their big smiles, I leaned toward the second interpretation (see how vain I am?).
So I roofed the sawmill for them and brought down one of my former Blue House brothers to help for a couple of days. They fixed us lunch and let us pray the Divine Office with them and asked us all kinds of questions about our story. Quite frankly, they made us feel like the only two people on earth.
The Sisters got a roof on their sawmill, Kelly got a retreat, and the Bakers and the Children of Mary have been dear friends ever since.
The Real Beginning
So that was some of the necessary back story. More may come out sometime later or may be elicited through personal conversation.
Anyway, back in January of this year (2014) we received an email from Mother Margaret Mary saying that she would like to meet with us privately to discuss something that would require prayer and discernment on our part.
We listened as she recounted some experiences she'd had and some praying she'd been doing. It culminated in her inviting us to take up residence on the property and become full-time lay missionaries with the sisters.
Despite her warning that it would take much prayer and discernment, we just short of screamed "YES!!!" as soon as it sunk in that she was really asking us to move to the property.
We'd never told her so, but we'd always joked that if the sisters would just carve out a small portion of their property for us, we'd build some sort of shanty to live in. If you've ever been there, you know what I'm talking about.
It was easier to say yes while we were there than when we were back on our farm. To leave our property that had been such a gift from God. To leave our apple tree. To leave our barn. To leave our house in which we had invested so many dreams. This would be more difficult than we expected.
So, then, we really began discerning and praying and wrestling. One day, Mother told us she had a meeting scheduled with our bishop. This would basically be the deciding factor for us. If he said "No" or "Not yet," we would remain at our farm and wonder what it all had meant. If he said, "Yes," there was no denying God's will in it.
Quite frankly, we did not think he would say yes.
The day of the meeting, I could hardly focus on my work. All I could think about was what the bishop would say. I got a call from Mother midday and she told me the bishop had indeed said yes.
I think I laughed and wept the rest of the day... at the same time.
So here we are.
Pray for us.
Wes Baker
