Bob Jensen

Ponder this: Spirituality

Some of you all know that I am taking a few graduate courses in theology. Last weekend, I met my online cohort in      person at Gonzaga and spent a wonderful time in conversation and movie-watching, among other more academic pursuits.

The last reading assignment was Dr. Leonard Doohan’s book, Spiritual Leadership. His premise is that leadership in general needs a conversion, a change from a focus on technique and behavioral “rules” to a more transformational style that can only exist in a leader with deeply held values and mature spirituality.

Go ahead, try this: define spirituality.

One cool distinction I learned is the difference between spirituality and religion: spirituality concerns itself about the big questions while religion offers up the big answers.

Doohan offers a lot of definitions of spirituality that I will leave with you to ponder. Do so, as we consider joining another faith community that may express its spirituality very differently than we do. Spirituality is:

• a transitory manifestation of perennial values
• faith birthed in the ever-changing circumstances of modern life
• rooted in a faith experience and a deep resting place for the heart
• taking a positive approach to creation (an embodied faith)
• developed in the presence of others

Kathy Wickward
(for vacationing Father Bill)

 

A Christian Mission In Guatemala

We were a weary but thankful group of missionaries that stepped off the plane last week after 11 days in Guatemala. Without telling the full story of our trip, I can say that the beauty of the country and the resilience of its people impressed me. We stayed first in Antigua, a town that has kept its Spanish colonial character, then at the home of Rudy Angel and Mayra Merida in San Sebastian, and finally at Lake Atitlan near Agua Escondida, hosted by Dr. Will and Diane Boegel (formerly St. Jude’s parishioners).

While staying at Rudy and Mayra’s, we spent time meeting with the full parish council of the Union de las Aldeas Corpus Christi, then with some of the individual church communities – Serchil, Canoe de las Piedras, Canaque, Barancas, and Ixcamal. This year we were blessed to take part in a field day designed for the children who receive therapy through A Mi Rey, a new foundation that Rudy and Mayra established to help families with children who have disabilities receive therapy closer to home. We met with Seres, a youth empowerment organization, at Ulew, their demonstration farm near the volcano Fuego. We also learned about Dr. Will’s many ministries through Opal House.

Mission work outside of the United States is a great perspective-builder. We sometimes forget how easy it is to accomplish our goals here. We sometimes forget what deep poverty looks like. St. John the Baptist’s projects continue to make a difference in the lives of the people we visited – clean water, secure homes, stoves that vent outside of homes. I felt blessed to be able to meet with our brothers and sisters at our sister parish and appreciate the opportunity you have afforded me to do so.

Kathy Wickward for Fr. Bill

Take Mass With You On Your Next Vacation

As a child, summer vacations meant camping trips around the northwest. In planning the trips my parents would make sure that on Sunday, we would be near a Catholic Church for Mass. Sometimes they forgot to check if there was a summer schedule, and a few times we had to wait a bit for the next Mass to begin.

When traveling, the Church asks us to make a “reasonable effort” to be able to participate in Sunday Mass. If near a town, it would be reasonable to see if there is a Catholic Church and what their Mass schedule is.

Attending Mass while on vacation is an opportunity to experience both the universality of our faith as well as the uniqueness of each parish community. If there was no church nearby, it would probably not be reasonable to spend the entire day getting to a church. In that case, one could spend some time in prayer with the Sunday readings. It could be a wonderful experience for the family being the domestic Church. If it takes more than reasonable effort to get to church while traveling, one is dispensed from the obligation to participate in Mass.

Vacations are important. They allow us to get away from the ordinary and experience some of God’s creation as well as family and friends in new ways. Now that we are emerging from COVID, travel seems a little more reasonable. However, one would not take a vacation from Mass anymore than one would take a vacation from eating or breathing. When traveling with children, it gives parents a wonderful opportunity to teach how important Sunday Mass is, and when its not possible to get to Mass, how important family prayer is.