Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: October 16, 2016
Thanks to everyone who assisted my prayers with your prayers during my retreat week-before-last. It was a very good time for me, spent in solitude and lots of lectio divina. I’ve begun to discover that I need to get away from wi-fi and cable and even the distractions of cookbooks and stocked pantries to really do the kind of spiritual focusing I need. Anyway, it seems to have worked this year!
This past week I’ve also been away, in Houston for the annual convention of the Canon Law Society of America. That is the national professional society of specialists in Church law in which I have been active for three decades now. This year’s national CLSA President is a good friend of mine, Father Bruce Miller, the Judicial Vicar of the Diocese of Alexandria, our neighbor to the northwest. He’s leading the Society in very exciting times for canon lawyers, since Pope Francis has been eagerly modifying various parts of the Code of Canon Law and urging more flexible approaches to streamline Church processes and advance ecumenism. Most people would probably find it all pretty uninteresting, but for us it’s important to stay current. Plus it’s always good to see friends and colleagues from all over … we don’t get to visit classmates from school and many friends from other dioceses nearly as often as we’d like.
You know, the past couple of weeks have reminded me again to resist the temptation to be too-focused just on the day-to-day business that’s on the calendar. Yes, my primary priestly responsibility is to the community of St. Joseph Parish, but I also have other priorities as well. Retreat time always reminds me that I always have an even more important task – to save my own soul! – while being as good a priest and Christian, friend and neighbor as possible. Connections with colleagues in ministry from beyond my parish and diocese remind me not to become too provincial in my perspective. All of us, after all, have been challenged by Jesus to “go out to all the world and tell the good news” (Mk 16:15), not just to those close by or already comfortably familiar to us. He orders us to “put out into the deep” (Lk 5:5), and not to stay in just safe, shallow waters.
So, each of us, every now and then, needs to ask ourself if we’ve gotten too-comfortable, or too-lazy, or even too-stagnant in the way we’re living out our faith. While some of us seek thrills and new experiences, most of us leave the scuba tanks, the parachutes and the mountain-climbing gear to others! The same thing is true in religious matters, and so we need the challenge: am I leaving too much of the Church’s work to others? Do I give enough of my time? For that matter, do I give of my treasure, to the point that it hurts, that it’s truly sacrificial? Are Sundays days of religious rest and renewal, or merely self-indulgent for us? For everyone, these are good questions to ask occasionally!
Our special Morning of Reflection for liturgical ministers will be next weekend, on Saturday, October 22, from 9 am until 12 noon. (Don’t worry, I’ll reschedule it if the Ole Miss-LSU game ends up being scheduled that morning!) Father Christopher Decker and I will help us all be focused as best as possible on the weighty responsibility of leading our congregation in its formal prayer. Will you be attending? I look forward to seeing you here!
And don’t forget that a new Pictorial Directory for the Parish is in the works. If you and your family come to sit for a picture you’ll get a free Directory but also a free family color photo portrait as well. Picture taking will take place next month, so you’ll soon be informed how to sign up for this.
Yours in the Lord,
Father Paul
