RBWords - Volume 31 - Number 1: January 2018
Something to Think About
R. B. WORDS – VOL. 31 – NO. 1 – JANUARY 2019
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
A new volume of R. B. Words begins this month – the thirty-first volume! Where have all these years gone? I began in January 1988 as I left a wonderful campus ministry at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, LA, to prepare to become the Novice Director for the Southern Dominican Province. Since then I have been a novice director, vicar-provincial, pastor in San Antonio, campus minister at Tulane in New Orleans, superior of a formation house in San Antonio, chaplain for Dominican sisters and campus minister at their college in Kentucky, and for the last nine years a full time itinerant preacher of retreats and parish missions. It has been quite a ride. Right now I have the best of my two favorite ministries: campus ministry and itinerant preaching here in Lubbock, TX, at Texas Tech University, where I live and minister with three other Dominican friars. About six years ago I stopped “advertising” and just took referrals for my itinerant preaching. The referrals kept coming, so I’ve been busy. However, the volume has finally started diminishing and I can spend more time here in Lubbock. I’ll be turning 76 in February, so it’s time to do less and enjoy more!
The diversity of locations and ministries has a way of “seasoning” one in the ministry. The individual ways parishes and retreat centers do things is balanced by the familiar routines that one can recognize across the spectrum of parish and retreat life. One doesn’t mess with the meal schedule at a retreat center! Asking certain questions before Mass at a parish will spare the celebrant a blank look when he turns a particular way or interferes with the musicians!
The writing of this newsletter is simply my way of sharing my life in some small manner with friends. Know that you, my Beloved Readers, are the reason for it and I am grateful for your patience and compassion over these years. As long as I can reach the keyboard, I’ll keep trying! IT’S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
It Has Been Said
We do not obtain the most precious gifts by going in search of them but by waiting for them. Man cannot discover them by his own powers, and if he sets out to seek for them he will find in their place counterfeits of which he will be unable to discern the falsity.
From WAITING FOR GOD by Simone Weil