Each week for five years, I have written articles for my parish bulletins. These articles are not necessarily brilliant theological treatises as most of them have been composed 'under the gun' of a publishing deadline. They are intended to remind parishioners in a couple hundred words about important themes of the Sundays and the Seasons celebrated in the Church, or other important events taking place in the life of the parish.
I have always thought that I am better-suited as a writer than speaker. When I write, I find that I can go over and over and over my texts to make sure they say exactly what I intend them to say... that the words and shading of language say precisely what I am intending to convey to my audience. Maybe I am successful with this, maybe not. I do find that when I write however, I can tend to compress an awful lot of information in a very small space. When I started preaching, I preached from full word-for-word texts which resulted in very packed, juicy rhetoric, but was hard to understand by most people on one short hearing during a homily. In the years since beginning to preach, I have come to learn that it is important to focus my thoughts into more predictable and repetitive patterns of exposition for listeners so they can hang on... I'm still working at that... in any case, this is a discussion for later.
I am encouraged by parishioners who tell me in one way or another that they can 'hear my voice' through these articles I write every week. These articles and the thought processes revealed by them are an important way for people who make the effort to read the bulletin to know their pastor just a little better. Sometimes these articles are 'warm-ups' for me as I prepare to preach the following weekend, other times the articles are like 'deleted scenes' from movies DVD's--good stuff that just didn't make the cut into the final cut of a homily. Sometimes the articles have nothing to do with the readings, but are simply a way to distribute newsy information to parishioners.
These years later, the articles on scriptural and seasonal themes constitute a rather large body of work that I can now share on this blog. Some of what I will publish here will be new text, some will be recycled from older articles. I hope to keep my skills up during these weeks when I am not otherwise publishing or preaching in a formal way.
-- Fr. Tom Donovan
Ok, it's been a month, and I am finally closing on my first thousand visits to the blog. Thank you for your support... oh, and keep clicking that lever and stimulating that pleasure center in your brains. More clicks! Tell your friends! Pass it around!
I have long considered trying to blog, but never quite got around to it. Along with blogging through the years, a number of spiritual directors and other wise folks have said that I should consider journaling as a good spiritual exercise... I suppose people journal in order to understand and honor the trajectory of their lives and spiritual journey. I suppose people journal in order to concretize and articulate the inner movings of their heart. I never found those consolations, as I have always had a tendency to be way too critical of my writing, probably rooted in pride and the tendency of placing form over function... the act of writing over what was written.
