Snow Days and "Mensiversaries"
I love a good snow day--and have to admit that the lockdown ruined the snow day. While there is a great value in being able to ZOOM, email and keep on top of things, there is an even greater value in being completely disconnected and hunkering down. The joy of the snow day is the ability to relax without the guilt that can go with it--the "I should go to the store" or "I should stop by and visit that friend" become impossible because the car is going to stay parked and all I can do is walk short distances. Snow days are good for the soul because they are sabbath days.
This current round of snow days happens to mark the passage of six months since Father Daniel and I arrived at Saint Pius, our six-month mensiversary. As I have been asked my impressions and experiences so far, I thought I would share them with you.
What have been the greatest joys of being at Saint Pius? I love the simplicity of Saint Pius. After being in an Area Catholic Community which consisted of four parishes (1400, 800, 350 and 125 families) with 2 pre-K--6 schools (225 and 110 students), a child care center (45 infants--age 5) and a nursing home with memory care, assisted living and HUD housing (82 beds, 24 suites, and 32 and 40 apartments), one parish (about 2000 families) with one preschool--8 school (422 students) is heaven. I also love the sense of community of Saint Pius that is broader than just the families belonging to the parish. Saint Pius is warm, generous and welcoming, but it also sees itself firmly rooted in the diocesan and universal Church. Father Daniel and I have been embraced quickly, and we feel it. Saint Pius is also able to go beyond its comfort zone. While Father Daniel and I have certainly pushed a bit, the pushing has been welcomed by you. Many of the cards and notes that we both have received have said that the Holy Spirit is moving in a new and powerful way in our community--and that is because we have opened ourselves up to this movement by going out of our comfort zones.
What have been the greatest challenges of being at Saint Pius? The newness of it all. While I have been involved in parishes for the 19 years of my priesthood and served as a pastor for the ten years prior to arriving at Saint Pius, there is so much that is different from how the Diocese of Des Moines functions and the Diocese of Saint Cloud. Additionally, I have moved from living with common goods to becoming an independent contractor--as a monk the parish salary went directly to the community who took care of everything so I didn't have a retirement fund, health insurance, car insurance, taxes or the like; as a hopefully-to-be diocesan priest I am neither an employee of the parish nor the diocese, so I now have to think about saving for retirement, managing my insurance and paying taxes. While not reasons to remain in religious life, they are nice benefits. Slowing myself down. My mode of operation tends to be moving from dreaming up solutions to problems to trying to implement them quickly. I know I have frustrated a few people by doing this--it's the need to bring into a bit more discernment into the processes of living in an Apostolic Age.
Where do you see us in the future? Saint Pius will look very different in five years. If we continue implementing our strategic plan, we will undergo significant changes that will speak to the present needs. As so many folks share with me, it is painful to see family and friends become lukewarm to cold Catholic Christians. As we realize that it is too frequent, and we need to become more like the early Church in her methods and way of living, we are going to focus on pushing ourselves outside of the structures into building relationships. Saint Pius will be a communion of faith communities. I am struggling a bit for words to describe this piece because the current terms don't fit. But we need to build support and easy entry into the faith as part of our parish. Making disciples requires that we hear the message of the Good News of Jesus with the ear of our souls as well as walking each other on the journey to living the Christian life. Simply being a member of a 4000 person group is not effective in making or sustaining disciples. In the Acts of the Apostles and the early centuries of the Church, participating in the Mass was the last step of being a disciple--not the first--because it is not easily understood. Saintly bishops and patriarchs spent months and years unpacking the experiences of the Mass with new disciples. They all started with sharing the Good News in groups of two, four or eight. They slowly brought new disciples into the depths of faith. We will need to more intentionally do the same.
All Set for Sunday
The readings for the Sunday of the Second Week of the Year can be found here.
As you have probably figured out, I am not a big fan of the term "Ordinary Time." Further, our way of naming it is a bit more complicated since this is the first Sunday of this present season that gets called the Second Sunday. So, you will see me calling it the Sunday of the N week of the Year--just know it's a pet peeve.
We reflect this weekend on how we hear the call to follow Christ and where that call is taking us. In order for us to hear the call, we should follow the example of Samuel and say, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." and then actually listen to the Lord with the ears of our soul. It takes time for us to discern whether or not it is the Lord, and then what the Lord is saying. But we are called to keep listening, to keep responding and to keep following the Lord's lead. How we do this is by not only seeing where the Lord lives, but staying with Him as Andrew and the other of John the Baptist's disciples did with Jesus. We remain with Him not for an afternoon but for a lifetime.
Our prayer this week is to ask the Lord to speak to us and then to wait for His Word.