RBWords - Volume 35 - Number 7: July 2022
Something to Think About
RBWORDS – VOL. 35 – NO. 7 – JULY 2023
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SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT –
This issue of RBWORDS will be my last from Lubbock, TX and Texas Tech University. On August 4th, I will load up a U-Haul truck and drive across Texas to Lufkin, two hours north of Houston and two hours west of my hometown of Natchitoches, LA. There I will assume the ministry of chaplain to the cloistered Dominican nuns at the Monastery of the Infant Jesus [lufkintxnuns.org]. I am well-acquainted with the monastery and have been a substitute chaplain, retreat master, lecturer, etc. many times over 40+ years at the monastery. I will also have the opportunity to develop some side ministry since there are two parishes in Lufkin and twenty miles north is Stephen F. Austin University. Stay tuned! My family and Louisiana acquaintances are happy that I am moving closer as well. I will be formally assigned to Holy Rosary Priory in Houston, where I was once the Prior, but will not be resident there. In fact, the current Prior is a former student parishioner of mine at Tulane!!!
As Adam said to Eve: “My dear, we live in a time of transition.” Well, I have certainly done my share of transitioning. Lubbock has the distinction of being the place I have lived longest in consecutive years – eight! I have loved my time here and have developed some dear and close friendships with students who have moved or will move from here and take their places in my “pantheon of friends.” Since the foundation of our Southern Province in 1979, I have lived in Tucson, Memphis, Hammond (LA), New Orleans, Columbia SC, San Antonio TX, Springfield KY, Austin TX, Houston TX and Lubbock TX!
The difference this time is age! I am 80 years old, and moving is a big challenge to my impaired ability to downsize. Although I will miss the continual student contact, there will be occasional opportunities where I am going. I look forward to being able to preach at the daily Mass at the monastery (something I have to share here) and getting to know the sisters. And I look forward to seeing family more often than in the past.
Please keep me in your prayers as I move across Texas and transition. IT’S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
It Has Been Said
IT HAS BEEN SAID:
We are blessed to be members of the longest-lived generation in human history. Many of us live within memory of life expectancies in the forties and fifties. Like all who have gone before us, we are in a phase of life we do not pass through. Unlike our passages through childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, and middle age, we can now only pass on. This invites us to live in the present moment and acknowledge that we are as young as our dreams, not as old as our personal calendar.
From VESPERTIME – The Spiritual Practice of Growing Older
By Frank J. Cunningham
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