Getting Free to Serve: A Priest Shares His Story
Summary
Meet Fr. Charlie Garza. He's a Catholic priest and the pastor at St. Albert the Great in the Austin, Texas area.
Fr. Charlie attended one of our Unbound priest retreats recently and has become a friend.
Listen as he shares candidly about his priestly call, his parish mission, and his desire to see others get set free to serve!
Fr. Charlie on on his call: "Believe it or not, one of the ways the enemy kind of held me back for a bit was through that shyness and just believing that I didn't have what it took to be a priest."
Fr. Charlie on the blessing of Unbound ministry at his parish: " We tried to do a catechesis, even small face sharing groups previously, and it just seemed like we kind of run into some hurdles. And what we found is that there were different blocks, in lies of the enemy, that our parishioners had bought into, unconsciously. So as we started to pray with people with the Unbound model, we found that people started to become more open in their relationship with Christ, but also in the ways that they started to step into true discipleship and serving. So it really helped to open up ways that people received the gospel in new ways. But I would say even more importantly, we're starting to spread and share the gospel in ways that they hadn’t (before).
Fr. Charlie on the Priest Retreat: "I think the blessing of that was that opportunity to let the guard down in a sense of...it's okay for me to receive and see my brother priests (receive) too. It's like, wow, I can receive; I don't have to give in this moment. I remember in my session with you, Matt, seeing the love that you have for me as a brother in Christ. I think that too was something very, very healing for me, because again, sometimes, the enemy has come at me like, okay, well, when are you going to be able to receive, you've always got to give, you've always got to give...so just in that mere fact of being ministered to myself, I would say, was very healing.
Join us today for this beautiful conversation that's not JUST for Catholics or for priests.
Be inspired to get free to serve!
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Release: June 2022
Music by Christian Harper.
Artwork by Rosemary Strohm at Command-S.