Mr. Clinton R. Lefort

Affirmation: God's Love for You Mr. Clinton R. Lefort

A Life Experience The initial experience of this love of God, which I had not thought too much about came from one initial experience when I was about ten years old. I was a baseball pitcher then and living in my hometown of Lake Arthur, La. I was attending the public school and used to spend a lot of my free time in my hometown park. One day as I was walking along inside the park I had what has come to be my own "mystical experience." What was so wonderful about this experience was I was experiencing this within throwing distance[1] of Our Lady of the Lake, my hometown Catholic Parish, where I was baptized, confirmed and received my first communion. I'll give you just a little background to my experience and how God had prepared me for it. My parents raised all of my family Catholic. I had five Sisters and two Brothers. We attended Catechism at St. Maria Goretti Catholic School, but at the time I was still attending Lake Arthur High and about to make the transition to Junior High School. I didn't consider myself a loner, since I had plenty of friends, but I was searching for meaning in my life other than the usual thrills a kid my age had as a teenager. My Mother would always tell me "God has a plan for you." I heard this enough times and still believe it today, but at the time I had this experience I'll tell you about I was wondering what it all meant. My Mother was the sweetest and kindest person with a great faith and someone I learned to love and trust deeply despite all the teenage hurts and difficulties I was going thru at the time. Another element that helped me to accept the experience I'm about to tell you is that my Mother often told me when passing in front of the Church at Our Lady of the Lake that God was present there. I understood that to mean God being present in his Church as well as present in his sacraments, as baptism and the Eucharist. I had already made my first communion and confirmation at the time. [1] I say throwing distance, since the only thing that separated me from Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church was the baseball field and a parking lot across the street.