2010 ColloquiumOne of my other roles at church is to help out with our parish’s RCIA program. Yesterday, despite a somewhat tenuous weather situation, we all traipsed down to the Cathedral in Denver for one of the Rite of Election services with the Archbishop. As always, he was a wonderful Shepherd for his flock, helping our [...]
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This is a time of turmoil in my spiritual life. I won’t go into more detail, but it’s something that is causing me to lose a bit of sleep. And what little hair I have left. What to do? My colleague Tony made this observation in a discussion last week: “We can be powerful without being perfect.” It really struck me as an important concept, one that I need to constantly remember on my journey of life. “Life is not about avoiding broken eggs. Life is about presence (broken eggs and all)” – Terry Hershey There’s so many problems, so many things to be fixed. We live in fear of what is and what’s to come. And meanwhile, we spend our lives constantly focusing on the future. Here’s the deal: Your presence is in [...] I’ve observed a number of conversations recently where people are coming up against what appears to be a brick wall of tasks. There’s so much work to be done, an infinite number of problems to be fixed, a huge number of people to convince…. Daunting is a relatively weak word for what it feels like. Jesus has been reaching out to every one of us, every day, with a tremendously simple message. It’s not rocket science, folks, or it wouldn’t be accessible to all. “It is for us to make the effort. The result is always in God’s hands.” – Mahatma Gandhi In our culture, we are very focused on results. Goals, money, achievement – things that represent the crowning results from our work. But you might notice that this leaves little room for God to work in our lives. I had the opportunity to sing Compline with the schola from another parish last night – a wonderful and prayerful experience. But earlier in the week, the director tangentially referred to me as “the professional.” Say what? I mean, I’m a neophyte at this chant, and have only been working on it for a few years. [...] Here’s an interesting idea I get from Clay Shirky’s video above (if you can’t see it, try this link): Many useful things these days are being done purely by volunteers. That’s a huge change from the way we usually think. We tend to focus on what organizations do through their employees, and by money changing hands. [...] I was listening to a wonderful podcast this afternoon, where Katherine Barron and Jennifer Willits were talking about the book, “Choosing Beauty.” But I don’t want to talk about the book. Instead, they brought up an important concept: When you bad-mouth or gossip about someone, what you’re doing is stealing. Stealing their reputation. |
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