Celebration Moments

Every Wednesday morning I participate in a Construction Meeting: the contractor, the project manager, the architect, the business manager, and other involved persons take part along with me. It is a weekly opportunity to look at what has been accomplished so far, what is planned for the near future, and in general and specific terms how the project is going. I learn a lot at these meetings.

Among the things that we track during the weekly Construction Meetings are what we call “celebration moments.” These are special events that energize the whole community of St. Edward the Confessor and San Felipe de Jesús: times of rejoicing and giving thanks for the great building project that is unfolding before our eyes. In the past, such celebration moments included the Groundbreaking ceremony on June 19, 2021; the opening of the Narthex on Christmas Eve, and the signing of steel beams that became part of the structure of our Pastoral Center. This week we have another great celebration moment: the installation and blessing of the amazing stained glass window in our beautiful narthex.

This has me thinking: do we track “celebration moments” in the rest of our life? Might that be a special way of cultivating a spirit of joy and gratitude? To be sure, every morning is a celebration moment, as the Lord gives to us another day of life. Every Holy Communion is a celebration moment, as the Incarnate Son of God becomes our spiritual food. And I could list many other such possible moments. Instead, I invite you to make your own list and then keep track of those moments, so that your life will be punctuated by special times of joy and gratitude.

Gratefully yours,

Spiritual Springtime

The first day of spring this year is Sunday, March 20. This reminds me that the word “Lent” comes from an Old English word that means “springtime.” Lent is literally our spiritual springtime, and all the things we associate with spring in the natural world also come into play in the supernatural world: new life, growth, and fruitfulness. In the world of gardening, we know the needs of new life: water, light, nutrients, pruning, weeding, and so on. Our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving could be considered our spiritual “gardening.”

As we seek to cultivate renewed life in our souls, some kind of resolution is useful. At the beginning of Lent, I reviewed the qualities of a good resolution with the students of our school. They responded well to what I said, so I will also remind you: a good resolution is specific, practical, and renewable. Specific means that we focus on some concrete action, and we are clear about when we will perform the action. Practical means that the action is one that we can do without taking away from the duties of our state in life. Renewable means that if we momentarily fail in keeping the resolution, we can take it up again.

The third quality, that the resolution is renewable, is especially important. It’s hard to stick to a particular practice for a full forty days; but it would be a shame to give up just because of a momentary lapse. Rather, we renew the resolution and hopefully we are more vigilant in carrying it out. I hope your Lent has gone well so far, and I pray that all of us will enjoy a renewed spiritual life during this holy season.

Gratefully Yours,

The Synod

In recent weeks, several people have asked me about the synod that has been called for by Pope Francis. The word “synod” means “assembly”; historically, synods, or assemblies, of bishops have been called together by various Popes through the years to discuss issues of importance in the life of the Church. The current synod that people have been asking about is a Synod on Synodality. (“Synodality” is aptly defined as “walking together.”) In this synod, not only the bishops, but all Catholics, are being called to discern how we can best “walk together” in the way of Christ. The three focal points of the discussion are communion, participation, and mission.

How can we participate in this worldwide process of discernment? I refer you to this page of the website of our diocese: rcbo.org/synod There you will find some general background on the history of synods, a special message from Bishop Vann, and asurvey-type section in which you can submit to the diocese your thoughts on our journey together in communion, participation, and mission. Your input will be valuable to the diocese, which will send a synthesis of the input to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The U.S. Bishops will in turn produce a document on the nationwide level, which will go to the Holy See.

As Bishop Vann exhorts us, let’s all pray for this synod, that the Holy Spirit may guide us in our journey together: a journey of communion, participation, and mission.

Gratefully Yours,