Column
by
Archbishop John G. Vlazny
|
Archbishop's
Column by Archbishop John G. Vlazny |
In early January I made my annual retreat
with the bishops of Region XII. We
were hosted by the Redemptorist Fathers
and Brothers at their retreat center
in Tucson, Ariz. Our director was Father
Larry Gillick, a Jesuit priest from
Creighton University in Omaha. They were
truly grace-filled days
Nowadays we often hear people talk about
the delights of “comfort foods.”
Well, Father Gillick suggested that we
approach our retreat with the
expectation that these would be days of
“comfort time.” In fact, that is how
he encouraged us to regard the time we
spend each day in prayer. I must
confess that, like many folks, I am often
concerned about how I am “doing” in
prayer. As a seminarian, I used to look
around the chapel and typically
thought everyone else seemed to be praying
a lot better than I was. Father
Gillick reminded us that the most important
activity during prayer is not ours. I
t’s God’s. We need to make ourselves available
to God and let him take care
of our needs. With such an attitude about
“comfort time” with God, I suspect
many of us would spend a lot more time
praying!
Next week on Feb. 9, Ash Wednesday, our
annual Lenten journey begins. The church provides these 40 days on the
liturgical calendar each year to dispose
both the catechumens and all the baptized to celebrate the paschal mystery
at Easter more worthily. Many have described
Lent as a 40-day retreat, particularly for those preparing for the
Easter sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation
and the Eucharist. These sisters and brothers who will be received into
the church on Holy Saturday night need
to make themselves more available to God for his comfort and blessing
throughout Lent. We do too.
The traditional hallmarks of our
Lenten observance have always been prayer, fasting, reconciliation and
almsgiving.
Most of us understand the importance
of self-discipline, the need to seek forgiveness and the importance of
sharing
our bounty with those who are in
need. But do we really know how to pray? I always thought I did, but this
year’s
retreat offered me some new and precious
insights.
During times of prayer it’s probably
more important to listen than to speak. What we hear in prayer from our
heavenly
Father will inevitably lead us to
holier and healthier relationships with others. Prayer is a time for being
simple and
unguarded in our demeanor so that God
can calm our scattered thoughts and troubled hearts with his comforting
and
healing touch. It can be said that the
quality of our prayer truly never will be accurately assessed. On our part,
prayer should be much more of a passive
activity. Let God do his thing. We must make ourselves available and be
at
peace.
Sometimes prayer is made more difficult
for us because of ongoing tensions in our lives. These tensions are not
always unrelated to the convictions about
true discipleship that Jesus places before us. Think about it. Which
statements of Jesus do you sometimes wish
he had never uttered? “Love your enemy?” “Go sell what you have and
give it to the poor?” “Couldn’t you pray
with me for one hour?”
I often hear from people who are
troubled about the teachings of the church. They try to separate them from
the
teachings of Jesus. It doesn’t work.
But the good news is that God always gives us time to deal with the tensions
between gospel living and the way
we are. Jesus calls his disciples to conversion, turning away from our
neuroticism
to the virtuous life of discipleship.
Most of us live with the tension of wanting to hold onto Jesus but also
wanting to
hold onto our own way of doing things
too.
When we pray this Lent or at any time of
the year, let’s come to prayer honestly. We all need to know and admit
our
tensions. Don’t surrender easily to what
Jesus asks. Genuine conversion comes only with struggle. Sometimes, in
retrospect, we see that some of our greatest
tensions result from behavior that Father Gillick described as typical
of
“pouting little kids.”
Once again this Lent we will observe an
Archdiocesan Ember Day, a special time of prayer and fasting. This time
it
will be Wednesday, March 9, during
the fourth week of Lent. We continue to pray for the healing of all victims
of child
sexual abuse, particularly in those circumstances
where one of our priests was involved. We also ask God to help us
protect our children in the future and
be faithful to our Church’s evangelizing mission. I ask you as well to
add a
prayer for an increase in vocations to
the ordained ministry and the consecrated life. I had a wonderful pre-Lenten
retreat on the priesthood with more than
20 men of this archdiocese. The Lord continues to invite men of faith to
servant ministry through Holy Orders.
May their response be both positive and generous.
On the first and second weekends of Lent,
both Bishop Steiner and I will preside at Rites of Election across the
diocese. The catechumens and the candidates
for continuing conversion will gather to begin the final leg of their
journey to the Easter sacraments in common
prayer. The catechumens will become our 2005 elect for Baptism and
discipleship. During this wonderful “comfort
time” of 2005, we, the church of Portland, pledge to keep them in our
hearts and in our prayers as we journey
together throughout these 40 days to our great Easter feast.
For all of us, may these be days when we
do indeed turn away from sin and become more faithful than ever to the
challenging Gospel of Christ.