RBWords - Volume 29 - Number 5: May 2016
Something to Think About
R.B.WORDS – VOLUME 29 – NUMBER 5 – MAY 2016 SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT – I recently asked to preach at the Mass of Christian Burial for one of my Dominican brothers, Fr. Paul Philibert, O.P.. He was a theologian and writer of international repute. He had also served as the third Prior Provincial of our Southern Dominican Province (1988-93) and I had served as his associate for the last year and a half of his term. It was indeed a challenge to preach at such an event, but it all went well. The burial took place at our provincial cemetery at Rosaryville, LA (northwest of New Orleans). I arrived early because I wanted to visit the cemetery. The location is beautiful and under some pine tress on the grounds of what is now a retreat facility. Every time I go to our cemetery, I am made aware of how many of the brothers there were people who had a direct impact on my life as a Dominican friar. My novice master as well as my first ministry superior are both there, along with many brothers who taught me or with whom I lived at one time or another. It is a time of memories both good and (for one or two) difficult. Someday I expect to be with them. When I am able to visit my hometown of Natchitoches, LA, I also visit the cemeteries where my parents and my sister are buried (along with grandparents and great grandparents on my father’s side of the family.) My family and those Dominican friars at Rosaryville remind me that I stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before me. I am steadied on those shoulders by the dear and close friends the Lord has given me. There are so many for whom I pray every day and ask the Lord that I always be grateful. IT’S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT SCHEDULES AND EVENTS The month of May featured the unexpected duty to preach at Fr. Philibert’s funeral. I was on the road because I was preaching a retreat for priests in St. Louis. So, instead of heading for Lubbock, I drove down to New Orleans to spend a couple of days with close friends before going up to Rosaryville. After the funeral, I headed back to Lubbock. I am more or less on a one-event-a-month schedule right now. It has just worked out that way, and I am happy with the pace. The event for May was a retreat for priests from two dioceses in Saskatchewan, Canada. The original preacher scheduled was Fr. Philibert! It was a wonderful experience at a retreat house in Saskatoon. The trip up and back were both long – about 11 hours. I went in one day from an airport where announcements were made in English and Spanish to where they were made in English and French! Both the bishops and priests were wonderfully welcoming and the retreat went well. It had been many years since I was in Canada and never in the western part. The month of June will feature another retreat for priests in St. Louis. Both the earlier one and this one are for the rural diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri. Otherwise I will be in Lubbock. IT HAS BEEN SAID “When God came to us as one of us he was misunderstood and betrayed and part of that misunderstanding and betrayal is our dimming his brilliance because it’s too much for our feeble eyes; our limiting his power because we’re afraid of the unsheathed lightening; our binding him with ropes of chronology instead of trying to understand his freedom in KAIROS. Not that we’ve done any of this to the Lord himself, only to our image of the One we worship, and that’s bad enough.” From THE IRRATIONAL SEASON by Madeleine L’Engle<< Previous Date [Back to List] Next Date >>