Reading and Discussing the Bishop's Pastoral Letter
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OVERVIEW OF LETTER AND POST This letter has a few simple suggestions for every Catholic in the diocese. Together they have the potential to start a grassroots spiritual movement of persons and groups. This movement would consist of persons who reflect upon the letter and discuss it with others, then deepen their friendship with God through fifteen minutes of contemplation each day and develop groups where they can discuss their unique stories as Catholics and their unique missions of service both in the church and in the broader society. This post provides a condensed version of the letter consisting of my underlines. Interspersed are boxes like this one, containing notes intended to initiate conversations with others. These comments also tell my story and sketch my mission. Hopefully this example will encourage others to study the whole letter, then share their underlines, notes, unique stories and missions. The bishop addresses each of us, inviting personal initiatives. He respects our ability to discern what the letter means personally, to choose with whom to share it, to decide how to best spend fifteen minutes each day in prayer, and to create support groups where we can tell our stories and discuss our missions in the church and the world. If all this encouragement of personal initiatives materializes, my conclusion as a social scientist is that a grassroots spiritual movement will result. It should flourish, unlike many parish and diocesan programs that flower then fade after a few months or years. |
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“Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul. Each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality. If these seeds would take root in my liberty, and if His will grow from my freedom, I would become the love that He is. and my harvest would be His glory and my own joy." first chapter from Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation, available free on internet. I first read this book when I was in high school. It became a lifelong guide for the contemplative dimension of my life. I did not have a vocation to be a Trappist like Merton, however I did spend two years as a Jesuit Novice because like Ignatius I felt called to be a contemplative in action, to find God in all things. The book was a gift of a math teacher at my public high school. It began a lifelong friendship of two amateur theologians. As a mathematician his interest was systematic theology, as a social scientist my interests were historical studies of liturgy, scripture and spirituality. Although our friendship was a contemplative community of only two, it played an important role in my life. After retirement, I formalized my study of theology by earning an MA in spirituality from the University of Notre Dame in 2008. |
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My parents were best friends. When my father, a steelworker, was advised by his doctor to take up fishing as a hobby, my mother joined him. Together they built a cabin near Lake Pymatuning as well as creating a beautiful home and gardens. After I attained financial independence in graduate school, my parents became my best friends. I was a member of a mostly voluntary pastoral staff at a parish in Toledo in the 1980s. We asked ourselves "why we were Catholic?" My faith came from my parents more than from religious education or even my extensive theological reading and study. Their faith, hope, and charity became my faith, hope and charity. Even their virtues, especially mom’s compassion for others and my dad's deep respect for others, became my virtues although expressed in very different ways than they had expressed their virtues. The contemplative dimension of my mother's life especially her deep love of beauty was very evident very early. My father was less expressive. However, in the decade after mom's death, I came to appreciate the mindful way he worked and related to others. Although my mother has been dead for 30 years and my father for 20 years, they live on in me. Our family trinity of loving persons continues to guide and motivate my contemplative lifestyle ask well as care and service toward others. |
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When I was a child during the Marian Year of 1954, my best friend and I build home altars. We were altar boys; we pretended being priest and server practicing our Latin responses at our home altars. Surely there must be ritual prayers suitable for home altar celebrations. Searching for prayerbooks I discover the Short Breviary, a form of the Hours in English for women religious. The Church already had liturgy that anyone could do not only in church but also at home and elsewhere. My journey with Hours has been at the center of my friendship with God. I graduated to the full Roman Breviary in English during High School. At the time of Vatican II, during my college years at Saint John’s University, Minnesota, I put aside the Breviary to chant Vespers, either in Latin with the choir monks upstairs or using the Gelineau psalms downstairs with the brothers. From an anthropologist, I learned that Native Americans became very ritually creative because their children sang and danced on the peripheries of their rituals. I resolved to allow the Hours to take their course of development over my lifetime. The Hours have taken many different forms in the history of the Church. The cathedral offices of the early church were very different from monastic offices. The Benedictine office of the Middle Ages was a hybrid of the two. The mendicant orders developed the Breviary so they could take the office anywhere. The Jesuits abolished choir to give themselves even more flexibility. Today the virtual Divine Office means that anyone with an electronic device can celebrate the Hours anywhere, anytime with anyone. My mission is to help Catholics discern a place for the Hours in their lives by means of a beginner's blog. My experience with the Hours has changed many times over the years; therefore, I am encouraging beginners to use fifteen minutes a day to experiment with various forms of Morning and Evening Prayer, e.g. communal recitation, singing or listening to the chanted Hours, or using the Word on Fire monthly booklets. My blog, Saint Gabriel Hours, gives beginners a common set of experiences thereby creating virtual communities. Following Ignatius, the blog emphasizes quality of prayer more than quantity. Finding God in all things by integrating the Hours into our lives is also emphasized, e.g. celebrating the Hours during daily physical exercise or walking at the Beach.
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I am not surprised that Pope Francis and the Bishop are encountering difficulties describing our apostolic role as laity. When I was a voluntary parish staff member it was natural to call what I did ministry. When I served persons in the public mental system it was natural to call what I did service. But they were actually highly similar activities involving my gifts as a planner, researcher and social scientist. In recent decades some theologians tried using ministry for everything; others tried using service for everything. Both those ideas failed to gather consensus. More recently discipleship has become a popular word to describe our roles as baptized persons. But discipleship is about following when in fact baptism requires leadership in the world. Vatican II has a word for the missionary activity which flows from baptism. It is called the apostolate, and there is a whole Vatican II Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity that has largely been ignored. Why? Most of us do not think of ourselves as apostles, or even priests as apostles, although we recognize the bishop as a successor to the apostles. Apostolate sounds very churchy. The average person would have wondered what I was talking about if I had described the work that I did to empower persons with mental illness as an apostolate! When I came to Lake County, I had the opportunity to write a grant for an innovative program for persons with severe mental illness. The many talented persons with mental illness who were volunteers in our agencies had a lot of ideas that I thought should be taken seriously. The proposal was called a Leadership Development Program. It was modeled upon a local program designed to promote leadership in the non-profit sector. What gave me confidence that consumer volunteers could provide leadership in the public mental health system? My experience with voluntary parish staff members at the Catholic parish in Toledo was the inspiration. If the word leadership could inspire consumers in the mental health system then perhaps it is the best word to describe what we do both in the church and in the world because of our Christian initiation. The baptized are anointed as priests, kings and prophets, i.e. as leaders. We could describe what we do as Servant Leadership. Greenleaf’s book says that everyone in an organization is a potential leader. and that we are all at various times both leaders and followers. Followers that prefer servant leaders are as important as the servant leaders themselves. I like many of the ideas in his book. However, a better word is spiritual leadership which is not to be confused with religious leadership coming from either office in the church or from church teachings. Spiritual leadership comes from our charisms. “For the exercise of the apostolate, the Holy Spirit Who sanctifies the people of God through ministry and the sacraments gives the faithful special gifts also (cf. 1 Cor. 12:7), "allotting them to everyone according as He wills"(1 Cor. 12:11) in order that individuals, administering grace to others just as they have received it, may also be "good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (1 Peter 4:10),to build up the whole body in charity (cf. Eph. 4:16). From the acceptance of these charisms, including those which are more elementary, there arise for each believer the right and duty to use them in the Church and in the world for the good of mankind and the building up of the People of God, in the freedom of the Holy Spirit who "breathes where He wills (Apostolate of the Laity, Chapter 2). Therefor the apostolate is about charismatic leadership. However, for most people charismatic leadership means extraordinary individuals and gifts which was not the intention of Vatican II. When I promoted the leadership of consumers within the mental health system it was in terms of the common good. Using their talents was good for them and for the mental health system. A few of my fellow Catholics might have recognized that what I was doing was in accord with Catholic social teaching; some of my fellow Christians might have seen it as being in accord with the Gospel. Talking about either of these in a public policy discussion would have been distracting. Being able to talk about empowering consumers in the context of small faith sharing groups would have been very helpful. If there were a Commonweal Local Community composed of colleagues from the mental health system (Catholics, other Christians, or Nones) and talented consumers (most of whom have had little opportunity to be religious), most would readily agree that what I did in the mental health system was to promote the common good through the use of my personal talents and gifts and that spiritual leadership rather than religious, or servant, or charismatic leadership is probably the best way to describe what I did. |
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On my Saint Gabriel Hours blog, FIFTEEN MINUTES a day in prayer is emphasized for three reasons. First, Saint Ignatius told his fellow Jesuits who were striving to find God in all things that spending fifteen minutes in quality prayer was better than spending several hours in meditation where they might be tempted to become self-centered. I have spent a lot of time reading social studies of the Bible but have not found them useful either in my relationship with God or others. On the other hand, my knowledge of the history of the liturgy has been very useful for both. Second, one of my graduate mentors, Robert Boice, later in life wrote Advice for New Faculty Members, based on his research that showed the best way to write articles, prepare lectures, and develop relationships with other faculty members was to use small chunks of time, e.g. fifteen minutes. His book contains mindful principles of how to do any project; they maximize the use of small amounts of time. I think of them as a contemplative way to accomplish projects. Finally, in a recent book Friends: Understanding the Power of our most Important Relationships Robert Dunbar claims that the average person is capable of having only about 150 meaningful relationships at one time. These include family members, work colleagues, and freely chosen friends. He lumps these altogether as “friends” in contrast to “acquaintances," people whom we simply recognize. Dunbar describes four concentric circles of friends. We spend 40% of our quality relationship time with an inner circle of about 5 very close friends, averaging 8.5 hours a month, a whole workday, but an average of only 17 minutes a day. We spent 20% of our relationship time with about 10 best friends in the next circle out, averaging 2.1 hours per month, perhaps a couple of lunches or a dinner. We spend the remaining 40% of quality relationship time with a circle of 40 good friends, averaging only 20 minutes a month. We see most good friends for an hour or so several times a year, e.g. at professional meetings, or sports events, or during holidays, and/or maintain relationships by using e-mails and phone calls. Finally, we can maintain contact with the other hundred people of the social network through events like Christmas cards, weddings, funerals. In what circle does God fit? If our relationship consists only of going to church for an hour each Sunday (amounting to only half a workday a month), God is a best friend but not among our closest, most intimate friends. If our relationship consists of going to church about once-a-month God is just a good friend among a hundred others. However, if a person decides to pray only one of the Hours daily (about 17 minutes) God becomes a close, intimate friend! Finding a place for the Hours tailor to one's life might be a very good strategy. Certainly, the Hours promote Trinitarian prayer! |
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While I have been in both RENEW and bible study, my best experience of a faith sharing group was in Toledo in the 1980’s as a member of a mostly voluntary pastoral staff. The parish had been reduced from two priests to one pastor. We had a woman religious as pastoral associate and a deacon. Lay ecclesiastical ministers were not yet available. A diverse group of talented volunteers took up the slack. Our social justice minister was an African American public-school teacher. Our youth minister was a union shop steward. A couple who gave marriage encounters led our RENEW program. The women’s group was led by woman whose life had been profoundly transformed by her daughter’s suicide. Several staff members had experience in Cursillo or charismatic groups. I was recruited for my skills as manager and social psychologist to help make this work. The contemplative dimension of our group was very important. Our meetings started with about fifteen minutes of prayer. We each took turns using our own spirituality to share our prayer lives. Our public-school teacher shared the stories that she had used with children to help them discover themselves and relate to others. The Divine Office led me to construct a brief service of hymns, readings and liturgical chants with commentary. We encountered each other at the depths of our own very different prayer lives. Our volunteer accountant was reluctant to lead prayer. Eventually he shared with us his inability to pray. A few minutes into his sharing we recognized that the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican was being repeated. His inability to pray was the best prayer of all. In the language of Servant Leadership, the pastoral staff functioned as a first-among-equals group rather than a hierarchical group with the pastor as a CEO. In my experience as a senior manager at both the agency and board levels in the mental health system that also tends to happen when a very diverse and very talented group assembles around a CEO is willing to step back and let everyone do their jobs, and where members do not second guess each other. A blessing of this model is that not much time is spent in staff meetings. |
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What is missing from this section? There is nothing about the Liturgy of the Hours. The time has arrived to liberate the Hours from the breviary of the priest and the choir stalls of monks into the daily lives of the People of God. The good news of the Saint Gabriel Hours blog is that we can pray the Hours (Morning and Evening Prayer) anytime anywhere with anyone. All we need is an electronic device connected to the internet or the Word on Fire monthly booklet that reads straight through like a book. No need for elaborate instructions to find the right text. Saint Gabriel Hours provides the complete text recited by a small group, the same text completely sung by a cantor, and a hymn for the Word on Fire booklet. It also provides an additional hymn choice, and alternative music for the psalms, the Gospel Canticle, and Lord’s Prayer. That is about an hour worth of choices to allow each person to customize their fifteen-minute Hour. However, it should fostering community among those who use the blog so users can talk with each other about their choices and experiences. Vatican II encouraged laity to pray the office with the clergy or in common and even by themselves. Why have priests not encouraged the laity
to pray the Hours? The answer is simple.
Without the blog, I would not be encouraging others to pray the Hours.
When Bishop Barron decided to provide a monthly booklet for the same reason
it became obvious to me that we are entering a period like many times in the history of the Hours when how we pray them will change dramatically. We need a grassroots movement rather than a top- down movement to do that. Priests have the obligation not only to pray Morning and Evening Prayer (which each take
about 15 minutes), but also the remainder of the Hours which adds up to about
an hour day! I use my treadmill about an hour a day, thirty minutes each morning and evening. I could pray all the hours. However, I
prefer to pray just Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer using my website to
first listen to the group reciting the hour and then singing it with the cantor
and/or the other sung alternatives. Saint Ignatius advises us to meditate deeply
on the same things rather than moving on to different topics. Priests would be spending fifteen
minutes each in prayerful mediation of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. Then they should be sharing parts of the Hours in group meetings or personal counseling thereby
encouraging the laity to join in praying the Hours. Those who do this should be dispensed from
the rest of their daily obligation. Creating a community that prays the Hours is more important than praying instead of them. There have been many ways of praying the Hours. Some monastic communities prayed 12 psalms in the morning and 12 psalms in the evening, signifying 24 hours. They did this by listening to a cantor while basket weaving! They rose at the end of each psalm for silent personal prayer inspired by the psalm.
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According to the website, “Commonweal fosters rigorous and reflective discussions about faith, public affairs, and the arts, centered on belief in the common good.” CLCs “gather in their local communities for critical conversation on the issues that matter most. Each community determines their goals, set-up, meeting times, and the readings best suited for them. Commonweal Local Communities therefore are a grassroots spiritual movement. Any subscriber can start of community since Commonweal allows non-subscribers access to five free articles a month. Commonweal encourages non-subscribers to become CLC members. Most CLCs meet monthly but they could meet weekly or discuss several articles. At the present time the Cleveland CLC is considering reinventing itself by emphasizing multiple meeting groups (a network of communities), initiatives of individual subscribers, inviting friends who are non-subscribers, hospitality toward guests, and a variety of models for communities in the network (university/liberal arts leadership, what makes for a fulfilling life, human/social/cultural capital, deanery, parish, household, circles of friendship, etc.) Pope Francis “I dream of a ‘missionary option’, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation.” This dream should apply to all aspects of culture and society, While each group should determine for itself what matters most for any particular year, surely discussion of the Bishop's Pastoral Letter should be on the list this year. How might CLCs serve as faith sharing groups that allow members to share their unique stories, and discuss their unique missions?
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After Saint Ignatius had his life changing experience from meditating upon the life of Christ for thirty days, he wanted to talk to people about their spiritual experiences. He encountered great difficulty because we all have our unique stories and unique roles in church and society. He solved the communication problem by creating the Spiritual Exercises so that everyone had a common framework for sharing their spiritual experiences. That started a spiritual movement the created the Society of Jesus creating a new spiritual (way of following Christ) that spread through the Church and beyond. Many things can be used to create a spiritual framework that enables people to talk about their spiritual lives, their relationship to God and to others. The Hours of the Office in one frame. The four- week psalter of Morning and Evening Prayer could be used as a framework for thirty-day retreat with virtual sharing accompanied with weekend sharing. Reading and discussion Commonweal articles is another spiritual exercise that could be done virtually or in person to create communities in our homes, our ministries, our parishes, neighbors, workspace and civic organizations Finally, but not least if we all spend a lot of time thinking about the bishop's letter and talking about with one another as a common framework we can begin to talk about our very different spiritual experiences, very different talents and gifts, and our very different roles in both Church and Society |
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I lived in Toledo during the 1980s. After only six months in a parish, I become a member of the mostly voluntary pastoral staff. During my four years on staff, there were many opportunities for involvement at the diocesan level. My pastor and others encouraged me to apply for diocesan positions. I had several interviews but decided my vocation was to continue to serve persons with mental illness. Since I thought there would be plenty of opportunities to use my talents at parish and/or diocesan levels after I retired. In retrospect my deep involvement in the Church in Toledo was facilitated by the priest shortage, the lack of paid lay ecclesial ministers, and the small size of the diocese. The diocese of Cleveland is more like an Archdiocese. In this letter, the bishop refers to five groups at the parish level: pastors, deans, pastoral staff, lay volunteers and the People of God. Most of the pastoral staff are paid lay ecclesial ministers rather than volunteers. Most volunteers are recruited to help the pastoral staff. I have met only a few diocesan staff members many years ago. My parish involvement has been limited to being a choir member, a facilitator for both RENEW and bible study, and four years on pastoral council. During my time on council here, I observed that staff, both paid and volunteer, were overwhelmed with work and needed help. I watched closely. Each time new initiatives were made, new people did show up. Many did not return when they saw the same people would be in leadership roles. They wanted to be leaders, not just helpers While the pastor routinely outlined new programs with council, members rarely had any suggestions. That did not surprise me. In the mental health system, agency boards who have authority to hire and fire the executive director rarely second guess staff. Greenleaf argued that boards need to focus upon serving the broader community rather than advising the staff. Pastoral councils would be better used if they focused upon the impact of the parish upon the community, such as the poor, the elderly, and those with mental illness. Their recommendations should be aimed mostly at what the People of God can do in their own lives and in the community. New initiatives of the parish directed to these areas should be done mostly by volunteers rather than by paid staff. Some of them should be given substantial authority equivalent to pastoral staff. The deanery plan seems to be an excellent combination of the accountability required in canon law with a deanery planning process. However, the structure of the deanery committee is such that the planning process will mainly be shaped by the priests, deacons and paid lay ministers in the parishes not by the People of God. I am concerned that planning will be focused internally on improving the administration of parishes rather than asking how the poor, the elderly and the mentally ill are being served. What is missing is a deanery pastoral council. There used to be a diocesan pastoral council. I never knew what was going on there, and I don't know if it still exists. Deanery pastoral councils seem to me to be a place where many talented People of God could have real influence on our parishes, the deanery and ultimately the diocese. Their mandate like that of pastoral councils should be refocused upon the people whom we serve, rather than upon the means by which they are served. |
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The Vibrant Parish Life study of 129 parishes with 46241 respondents ranked “Masses that are prayerful, reverent and spiritually moving” first in importance out of 39 items. However, it was ranked as 24th in being well done. “The parish as a supportive, caring community” was ranked second in importance but as 20th in being well done. Parish leadership that listens to the concerns of parishioners was ranked 7th in importance but 29th in being well done. I am sure that parish leadership can list many occasions when they have listened, but they forget the many more when they have not listened; those are what people remember. Mental health system My interpretation of the study is that people have very high standards for liturgy and community probably because most of us have experienced great liturgies and instances of caring communities. In comparison most Sunday liturgies and parish meetings seem mediocre. People still flock to church at Christmas and Easter when we have great liturgies. However, Evangelicals who emphasize inspiring services each Lord’s Day rather than church seasons end up with a higher average attendance. If you pray
daily, come worship with us this weekend. More Catholics, about twice as
many, pray daily than go to Mass weekly. We should have large signs in front
of the Church and on our websites affirming their daily prayer and inviting them to the Lord's Day Eucharist. This
initiative should dovetail with encouraging people to pray fifteen minutes each day. For most people daily prayer is likely brief such as grace before meals.
Come early, stay late. When I was on pastoral council many complaints were heard about people coming late to Mass and/or leaving early. I responded that we don’t give them any reasons to come early or to stay late. So naturally people are going to plan to arrive just on time, and therefore many are going to be late, Similarly, many people are going to want to avoid the rush to the parking lot after Mass. The times before and after Mass are perfect for various types of prayer, and for small group meetings. Why travel back to the parish at some other time when you are already there for Mass? Pastoral staff members and volunteers might complain that these times are already taken up by their other activities. However, the pastoral letter expects much initiative from the average Catholic in regard to prayer and group meetings. We need to lessen our dependence upon voluntary and paid staff. Therefore, all that is needed is space. |
Television, Time Use, Lent and the Divine Office In the above post on the PrayTell liturgy blog back in 2011, I argued that we should fast from television during Lent and use the time to good things for others and praying the Divine Office. Total leisure time had increased from 1965 to 1995. However increased television time not only absorbed time freed up from paid and unpaid work it had reduced the number of hours spent socializing, reading and listening to stereo. One explanation for its rise is that Television is easily available for view anytime in small chunks whereas many other activities, e.g. church activities require large chunks at specific time. Divine Office.org had recently become available as a podcast so that meant that we could pray the Hours anytime in small chunks of time. When the pandemic arrived, my best friend and I decided to live together since she is immunocompromised and both of us lack family supports in the area. In our search for resources for the Hours we discovered Saint Meinrad which celebrates Vespers. It was also our place for Sunday Mass at the height of the pandemic. They continued to sing the Mass and Office without masks; they completely isolated themselves because of their elderly monks. More recently we discovered Saint Cecelia in Boston whose Sunday Mass draws thousands from across the country and even around the world. Hundreds of people from across the country now come to their retreats. Contemplative community The virtual dimensions of our parishes should rise like steeples and bell towers in cyberspace announcing the presence of Christ not only to our neighborhoods but to the whole world. Our choirs should be recording the hymns used at Mass on YouTube so that people can prepare for the Lord's Day Eucharist not simply by reading the readings at home but also singing the hymns that will be sung at Mass. We should be challenging young people to help us create videos of the psalms, and canticles of Morning and Evening Prayer which interpret them for our lives, and make them available for us to share anywhere, anytime with anyone. These will become the chants, illuminated manuscripts. icons, and paintings of our contemporary communities proclaiming the Gospel to all who experience them. |
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The pandemic profoundly reshaped my life and mission. We spent three years in social isolation. Seasonal isolation is the new norm. Given our age and health conditions, this is the beginning of being increasing home bound in late life. Our house rather than parishes is now the center of our worship and community. Virtual reality in the form of the virtual SAINT GABRIEL HOURS and virtual Commonweal Local Community blogs offer an opportunity to serve not just homebound individuals but to serve the virtual dimension of personal lives and households. Virtual means that we can serve people not on locally but across the diocese and the country without leaving our home. While fifteen minutes of the Hours and Commonweal Local Communities as faith sharing groups will likely appeal to only a minority of Catholics, many prayer and small group options are need since the bishop has emphasized that each person needs to find their own best solutions. My mission makes it easier for them to do that without even leaving their homes. The cooperation that is needed from parishes is very simple, a small notice in the bulletin, and links on the parish website that take up little staff time. No meetings are necessary. My websites are free. They cost me little beyond my time. I have no need of donations. Parishes are welcome to develop programs that use my materials without charge. I am available for consultation by e-mail or phone, but I don't come to large meetings. My willingness to work with parishes depends mostly upon the extent of their commitment to virtual ministry and service. |
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We can accomplish any endeavor by using small amounts of time in very mindful contemplative ways as suggested by Boice. We can improve our relationship with a spouse, a child or parent, or a boss or colleague, or write a paper (or a post), or respond to the bishop's letter, or develop our prayer life with God, or develop a support group. However, Boice's principles are not meant to be a total time management system. He suggests a maximum of three projects at a time; I completely agree. Done properly spending fifteen minutes a day on any project can be life changing. Try using fifteen minutes a day to contemplate the bishop's letter. Read slowly and thoughtfully. Underline and jot down notes as you read. Study and question your own experience, especially while re-reading the letter. Where have you found God? Especially in what relationships? Parents? Children? Friends? Neighbors? Colleagues? Those whom you serve? In what places have you found God? walks on the beach? sunsets? books? music? Who are in your most intimate circle of relationships? family? friends? colleagues? Who are in the next circle of your best friends? What about the circles of friends in your history? Doing a lot of sketches and outlines is another Boice principle. With whom might you want to share the letter? How might you go about that? How might you use fifteen minutes a day to improve your relationship to God. How might you use fifteen minutes a day to create a better support system. How might you use fifteen minutes a day to tell your life story and articulate your mission? Don't do this letter project alone. One of Boice's most important principles is "let others do some of the work." Share your project of reading the bishop's letter with others, e.g. your underlines, your notes, your life story and mission. Likewise plan to share the project of deepening your friendship with God, for example finding the place for the Hours in your life, with others. Similarly plan to share your project of creating a better support system, for example starting a Commonweal Local Community with others. Using the framework provided by the bishop's letter and understanding how other people are reacting to that framework might be very helpful. |