Some years ago, a group of friends – all of us serving in parishes across the archdiocese – started coming together to hang out, support each other, and talk about ministry. Also, due to the majority of them being leaders in parish music, there was lots of singing! I have some very fond memories of us gathered outside around a fire pit singing hymns and chants. As the sole cleric, I filled the role of a sort of unofficial chaplain and whenever we’d inevitable fall into talking shop, I found myself prompted to ask a question that is still useful today: “how’s your prayer life?” Whether bemoaning a struggle or celebrating a triumph, it has proven to be a helpful reminder to keep Christ and our relationship with Him at the center of all we do.

After the lull of my first week here on the Olympic Peninsula, this week has jumped into high gear. We celebrated two funerals (please pray for Doris and Michael) and two weddings (congratulations to our newly married couples!). Thanks to the hard work of one of our vicars (Father Ed) and sisters from the Eucharistic Missionaries of Nazareth, we were blessed to have a relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis presented at three of our parishes for veneration and blessings! Also, also, we had our first all-staff gathering. Like I said, high gear!

In my conversation with the staff, we talked in more detail about the question of ‘what’s next?’. I also shared my four-fold hierarchy of principles, policies, practicalities, and preferences (alliteration is fun!) and how these would inform our efforts, decisions, and work. We talked shop and started the ball rolling on the work ahead of us. Being a more formal chaplain for this group, I left them with the same question as with my friends from years ago: “how’s your prayer life?”. And I’d like to leave it with you too – perhaps all the more relevant in light of recent events in our country.

With all that is going on in our communities and in our nation – to say nothing of our personal and family lives – I hope you’ll join in prayer with your family, friends, and fellow parishioners. How desperately we need Jesus! Thanks be to God, He is just a prayer away, waiting for our invitation. Let’s be sure we’re taking the time to share our lives with Him, asking Him to minister to us where we most need healing, and open ourselves to His care.

July 8 – In The Lord of the Rings, the ‘big’ characters are (rightly!) the heroes of the story. Gandalf, Aragorn, and Frodo all take center stage for their crucial parts in the accomplishing of the One Ring’s destruction. But Tolkien himself highlighted Samwise Gamgee as the chief hero – it was the normal everyday person who helped make the extraordinary possible. So it is with today’s saints – Saints Aquila and Priscilla. An ordinary Christian couple, they assisted Saint Paul in his work – to the point of risking their own lives for him! Read more at Patheos.

July 9 – Canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000, Saints Augustine Zhao Rong and companions – 120 martyrs in all! – proclaimed the gospel in China over a 300 year period. Despite the danger, they witnessed to Christ and did so across a wide range of ages – from as young as nine years old to as many as seventy-two years old. Faithful to the end, they willingly offered their lives so that Christ might be known to others. Read about them at Franciscan Media.

July 11 – Today is the memorial of Saint Benedict, the ‘Father of monasticism’. For a brief time, I thought I might be called to religious life – and the Benedictines were the only community I seriously considered. Though I ultimately discerned God’s call to diocesan priesthood (and I love it!), monasticism holds a place in my heart and in the heart of the Church as a whole. Here in the Archdiocese of Seattle, we are blessed by the presence and prayers of the Benedictine community of Saint Martin’s Abbey in Lacey. Spare a prayer for them and their confreres around the world! Read about Saint Benedict at the official Benedictine website.

July 13 – Who among us hasn’t fantasized about what we’d do if we came into great wealth? We hope and like to think that we’d do wonderful things and help many people – today’s saint, Saint Henry II, actually did! Made emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1014, he helped the rebuilding of churches, the building of monasteries and contributing to the poor. He even became a Benedictine oblate! Read about him at the Vatican News website.

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Priests celebrating their anniversaries this week