January 17, 2010

Dear Bellarmine Parishioners,

The Lenten series is listed in the Bulletin today: "Called To Be Neighbor." I look forward to it, crossing social boundaries, African-American and Hispanic, rather than boundaries of spirituality and religion. The evenings will still be deeply connected to our practical living as Catholics and as Christians. This takes place again in the Conaton Board room, on Mondays in Lent. I’m grateful that our parish team who have been working to understand the tenacity of racism in American society were willing to take on the planning of this series, start to finish.

You probably read last week in the Bulletin that Karen Brandstetter will be on leave for awhile. With the medical team and family consulting together, Gary has decided to work through his needs for care with Hospice of Cincinnati, largely in the home. He’s especially glad not to be in line for Emergency Room procedures any longer. This places a new kind of shared responsibility with all the family members, and so Karen’s being on leave makes more sense than her managing both this job and the home front. Jeff Campbell is able to help connect any of you to service needs the family may have. Call him or stop by after Mass if you can be available. As to filling in for Karen in the chapel, her role has not been so much a set of tasks as a sharing of leadership with the rest of the staff. We very much miss her compassion, insight, and history with the parish. And we intend to put out a call for help in starting up new Small Faith Communities, as early as February, so some groups might assemble to start in Lent. Karen usually led the way on this. We’ll let you know as other needs come up.

And then there are these continuing events. The Year with Thomas Merton continues at St. Monica-St. George church, three nights in a row, January 24, 25, 26. Lawrence Cunningham, the speaker coming from Notre Dame, is a leading scholar on the importance of Merton, and a teacher of Chris Pramuk who presented the Keynote in October. These topics interest me a lot, especially the first one, on autobiography as the source of theology. (The sacred scripture of our own lives.). The second and third talks concern Merton as a spiritual teacher for our time, and then "Contemplation in a World of Action," one of his seminal topics. Those who planned the series wanted to set up one section of it to allow some in-depth learning, and a chance to get to know the speaker over three nights. No charge for these evenings, though a contribution would be accepted at the door. They will be also be selling $20 tickets for the Friday-Saturday retreat coming up in Lent, February 26-27, on forgiveness in relationships. There are a few flyers in the vestibule marked "CONTINUING WORKSHOPS."

And you might want to follow one or more of the five Mondays on prayer and Catholic worship, begun last week at All Saints church. The format is easy to get involved in, with singing and ritual and some time for personal story-telling in the pews. Last week was the first of five evenings about Sunday Mass, the way it is put together, and how it can change people over time, as they understand and open up to it. The guiding principle is this: how we pray will also tell us what we really believe, and that will give us a nudge about how we shall act in the world, after Sunday is over. The evenings are fairly well self-contained, so come at 7 p.m. tomorrow if you want to get aboard. The topic will be the Liturgy of the Word. All Saints (next to Moeller High School) is a good setting for this, a flexible environment with a good sound system.

I’m not suggesting that the main thing you should do this winter is go out and about attending workshops, listening to experts. These are leads. If they help, you’ll find the right balance. But the main thing is to be here, as you really are, here and now. Such amazing things go on right here in our own pews, that quality of hunger and hope I feel around me all the time, and the deepening web of friendships which make room for God to move in and speak. The presence of God, the bread of life, the sign of the cross that marks us in good times and difficult times. Sundays keep me confident, keep me listening to my life, prompt me to look more patiently at people, more compassionately at the world. They make me laugh with you, and at myself, and go home lighter in heart. Most of the time! And I know I’m not alone in this.

Sincerely,

Richard Bollman, S.J.