PORTRAITS FROM THE FOLD

Paul Mascovich

There is something about interviewing a man who interviews others for a living that seemed presumptuous. And so I began timidly knowing Paul has spent a lifetime listening deeply to others.  He is a trained psychiatrist, now partially retired.  I was curious how he would do talking about himself or whether pretty soon I’d find he was interviewing me.   In fact our discussion last week was a lovely two way street, a heartwarming give and take.  Of course he is a good listener, but he was also a fascinating guest and the quickest of anybody I’ve spoken to  to jump immediately into talking about the spiritual life.

For whatever reason we started talking about aging.  I asked him what’s good about getting older.  Paul said he likes being older in some ways because people cut older people more slack. His personal foibles are more acceptable.  I thought how true.   

Mostly he likes going at his own pace.  He enjoys his mornings…. taking more time over coffee… meditating each morning.. reading the daily office and lingering over that awareness.  For him it sets the stage for a good day.    His ideal is to keep that awareness with him all day. He acknowledges that he doesn't always succeed  but even when walking around the streets of Petaluma he works at it.  The divine is everywhere says.  His ideal is expressed in the phrase “…on earth as it is in heaven”.  If he can align his best self with the will of God he feels momentarily he has succeeded.  He believes that God wants the best for him and for all of us.  It’s a matter of listening to one’s inner core which he perceives as being the same as the will of God.  Then one is in touch with what God wants fo him and for all of us.

Paul was raised in the Catholic Church.  As many have, he fell away from the church in his teens.  He rediscovered his spiritual life through meditation years ago after reading the Autobiography of a Yogi.  Soon after he and Kathy came  to Petaluma in 2009 they found Saint John’s through Taize and then started coming on Sundays.  He believes there are many routes to a truthful relationship with God.  Each individual has his or her own unique spiritual path. Opening one’s heart through contemplation, prayer, and music is the way for him.  Saint John’s Centering Prayer, the Spiritual Paths group, Taize, and our strong sense of community and friendship provide food for his soul.  As a member of our Vestry he will work to enrich these offerings of our church that are important to him and others who join both in person and online each week.

He and Kathy will be traveling over the next few years to visit their children and grandchildren. They have made Petaluma their base and so he will be with us in person and, thanks to the wonders the internet, he will be zoomingly here at times.  He is a wonderful person to sit down and talk with.   I think he has learned a great deal about the human heart through his work and his practice of payer and contemplation as a pathway to God I find inspiring.  I hope to find a quiet place and more time to talk to him. He is so kind and happy to share all his feelings.  I encourage others to make time to get to know him.  To me he is really a man of God.  And not scary at all it turns out.

—Gail Reid