Dear Saints,

What sets the rhythm for our lives?

If you’re like me, work shapes my schedule more than anything else. Although it’s much more than a professional commitment, the life of our parish - and your experience of it - is my priority. This means that I am usually busy with the parish’s activity, which determines the “what”s, “when”s, and “where”s of my life.

I wonder how many of you, even those of you without school-age children or grandchildren, would agree that the school year determines the way you think about your calendar. So many people’s lives revolve around the September to June cycle that we’re all kind of sucked into it in some form or fashion.

The one factor for me that remains stronger than school (although it’s a close competition) is the liturgical calendar. I live and preach the seasons – Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, with Ordinary Time mixed in – and I am formed by the seasons. I find that my conversations are shaped by the liturgical seasons, and even my mood often reflects the same!

Which all leads me to say that we are right to pay attention to liturgical seasons and the seasons’ special days. As we make our way into Easter’s sixth week, we remember that the Ascension is on the horizon. In our region, we no longer mark the feast 40 days after Easter Sunday, but rather commemorate Jesus’ Ascension on the Sunday that follows. We lose some of the rhythm - but we retain the meaning - of the historical events.

Jesus’ Ascension into heaven is akin to his entering earth’s control room. It is from heaven that Jesus sends the Holy Spirit, that he inspires and animates the lives of his faithful followers. Jesus’ Ascension allows him to be immediately present to his people on earth. This is a gift worth praying for, so let’s join the disciples in the first ever novena, praying for the sending of the Spirit from this Thursday until Pentecost Sunday.

In the Peace of our Risen Lord,

Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ