Saint Sabina Graduating Students get real life experience

Church member falls ill during worship, revived by CFD

 

By Chinta Strausberg

 

Though Father Michael L. Pfleger was going through his own personal storm of grieving over the death of his middle son Beronti, 32, who died yesterday, Sunday he told the 2012 graduating Saint Sabina Academy students, who watched as paramedics revive a church member who fell ill, that the “Holy Spirit intervened.”

Pfleger told the students they had witnessed a real live lesson on just how “fragile” life really is and why they must put God in the center of their lives.

“There was a greater communion that took place here this morning,” Pfleger said referring to Opal Smith, a Saint Sabina member who earlier fell out during the 11:15 a.m. worship service.

Pfleger’s staff quickly made a 911 call and several Chicago Fire Department paramedics quickly responded. As the choir sang, Pfleger asked the church to stretch out their hands and pray for healing for Smith. While the choir sang, the students looked on in disbelief as paramedics administered an IV then carefully placed Smith on a stretcher and took her to the hospital.

Pfleger told the students to depend on God and to understand the “life’s circumstances that happened before your eyes….” He told the students they must understand that God “is the only one” they can turn to when it’s their time to go through their storms in life. He encouraged them to learn how to “lean on him, to cry out to him…to depend on him, make us the blessing unto one another….and then nothing can stop you, nothing can hinder you, nothing can get in the way of you….

“I don’t care what you’ve learned in eight-years at Saint Sabina, but if you’ve not learned that, you’re not going to make it because you will come into times where maybe your family, your friends, your education or your knowledge can’t do one thing for you…. The only one who can take care of Sister Opal is Jesus, the only one who can save her is Jesus….”

Pfleger said Smith has a relationship with Jesus and told the students “you had better have a relationship with him so that you can call on him yourself because he is the only one” they can call on for help so when it is their time to go through their life’s storms “they can handle this.”

To the male graduating students, Pfleger told them “don’t let the devil deceive you into thinking that you’re so tough…that you got to handle this…. You can’t handle you…. You’ll never be that strong. “ He said they must learn that Christ is the man they can call on when they are in need.

“Life will cause you to fall out, not by your choice…. If you know him…, he’s got you. He’s got your back….. Understand the things you better have more than anything else in life is a relationship with him and if you do, there is nothing in the world you’ll face that you can’t overcome. He is more than an over comer in you and the he in you is greater than the he in the world,” Pfleger told the students.

Referring to an earlier sermon by Julie Welborn, a member of Saint Sabina who holds a Master of Divinity from the Catholic Theological Union, a Master of Arts in Communication from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts in Theater from the Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., Pfleger said, ‘I don’t care what you think, what you’re angry about or what you haven’t done, there is one who can handle it, who can heal it and who can take you forward.”

Pointing a finger at the students who wore their graduation gowns, Pfleger gave them some advice: “Don’t let anything in your past, your present or anything in your future lock you up. Do you hear me eighth graders? That diploma, that gown, don’t mean a thing if you don’t know him, but if you do I swear by my testimony of my life, God will bring you through it and give you the victory in every, not some, but every situation in your life. Do you hear me, young men”?

“There was a greater communion that took place this morning,” Pfleger told the church. “It’s called a communion with the Holy Spirit, a communion with each other. I refused to be locked into ritual when the Holy Spirit intervenes. When the devil comes and rises up…,” God can overcome, he said.

“Let us wrestle with what we heard, what we seen and witnessed today so we come to understand who you really are and who you call us to be in him…cause us to wrestle that let us know you are the only one we can turn to….

 “Let us not be the same as we leave here, but let us be stronger in faith than we’ve ever been…,” Pfleger said. “Go in the faith you proclaim here…for the rest of the days of your lives.” He asked the church to pray for the students for their future academic and spiritual growth and to “go in faith and proclaim healing.”

Earlier, Welborn, who this fall will begin work on her doctorate at the Catholic Theological Union, told the students life is full of barriers, storms and questions like what do you do when people walk away from you, when people walk on you, when you lose the job you love, when a bullet hits a person you know, when someone dies prematurely…? What happens when life pulls the rug from beneath you?

Speaking on the 2012 theme of both Saint Sabina Church and the Saint Sabina Academy, “Mission Possible: Your Destiny Awaits you,” Minister Welborn told the students to “wake up.”  “Nothing is impossible with God…God is the finisher…..God has need of you….. God brought you unto this earth to do something…. Do you really want to have a relationship with him?

“I don’t care how you got here….. The bible says you are fearlessly and wonderfully made”?  She told them that they were not mistakes and that they are a blessing…. When the rubber meets the road and it will, keep living…” but always has God as your pilot.

“What happens when mission possible seems impossible”? she asked. Saying her brother died when he was 30 and Pastor Pfleger’s son died at the age of 32, Welborn told the students “time is short…. If you don’t do it, it won’t get done.” What drives missions,” she asked explaining, “people, places and things. “

Welborn asked six students to come to the altar and others to sit down. She warned: “Be careful who you sit with….know who you’re walking with, standing with and sitting with….””

She told of the time when she came home, her mother was cooking fish. She didn’t eat the fish, but her clothes began to smell of fish. She was on her way to a meeting. Welborn admitted she was “stinking up the meeting. A stench that started in my kitchen” but ended up affecting “not only me but everybody around me.”

“Be careful where you go and whom you are spending time with,” she warned. “Watch were you go. Watch who you hang out with…,” she said explaining life is about choices. She told them to believe in themselves. Pray and talk to God and ask God to be their father. “Don’t be afraid of the Holy Spirit…”

“The enemy wants to trip you up and make you not like yourself. Once you know who you are and once you are courageous and bold and know that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you, I don’t care what hand you are dealt, but when you have a partner your partner can make up a difference and God is your partner….”

“Saying it’s hard, she asked the students, “Let’s take a stand and take a step…. As you are getting ready to close this chapter at Saint Sabina and move forward to something greater, he knows everything that is about to happen.

“Join with him and let him play your hand…. I can’t promise you it won’t be difficult… but I can promise you no weapon formed against you will prosper. I can promise you that nothing you do, nothing you say, will separate you from his love and at the end of the day, that’s all we need,” she said as the students went back to the altar for a collective prayer.

Joined by Cinque Cullar, Minister of Youth, Welborn who led them in prayer. Welborn asked what things tripped up their lives. In response, some of the students felt no one loved them, others admitted they did wrong things and wanted to be better. Their bold confessions got them some hugs from both Welborn and Pfleger who asked them to let God order their steps throughout their lives.

Chinta Strausberg is a Journalist of more than 33-years, a former political reporter and a current PCC Network talk show host. You can e-mail Strausberg at: Chintabernie@aol.com.