About bulletin articles

   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

A few things to get started...

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.

Readers may know however, I have been turned completely inside out in the last couple of months.  At this point, pride is the least of my concerns, making a new attempt at blog-journaling, perhaps, a less self-conscious exercise.  Being broken open has helped me get in touch with a creative core in my soul that needs to find a way out.

I don't intend (at this time) to speak explicitly about my crisis here, except to say that the official statement from Bishop Paprocki at www.dio.org sets the record straight and puts down all of the harassment, defamation, and libel found around the Internet and from the harmful rumor, innuendo, and speculation from people who think they know the story from 'someone who heard...'

Going forward, I am finding that I really do have a lot to say that can be molded into, I hope, creative and edifying blog reflections and discussions.  In doing so, I am going to pull no punches... a large part of this is about my own healing... physical, mental, and spiritual.  In addition, this blog is also allowing me to 'heal' my Internet reputation which has taken such a pounding in the last month.  I am going to be very narrow on the comments I will accept on this blog at this time... you will need to be registered and all comments will be moderated.  Sorry.  There is no freedom of speech here, except for me.  This will, hopefully, loosen up over time as I get better at the mechanics of blogging and as the storm around me subsides a bit more.  I do invite your references and cross-postings on other blogs, as well as +1's and other good deeds that will raise the stature and presence of this blog.

-- Fr. Tom Donovan

Hidden wounds...

   The inspiration for the title of this blog comes from a meditation by St. Bernard of Clairvaux which I was introduced to by a friend who I'll call the "spiritual godmother" of this blog. This meditation has focused a lot of the thoughts and prayers which have sustained me in the midst of my recent personal crisis.
   St. Bernard is said to have asked Jesus what his greatest unrecorded suffering and the wound that caused the most pain upon the cross. He received the reply, "I had on my shoulder, while I bore My cross on the Way of Sorrows, a grievous wound which was more painful than the others and which is not recorded by men." A hidden wound... one that I have always overlooked. This wound, the wound of carrying his cross and bearing the weight of the world is rarely depicted in the figures of Jesus passion upon the cross or upon the resurrected body of our Lord.
   We all bear hidden wounds-- wounds that we hide from the world, and wounds that even, at times, we hide from ourselves. In asking the Lord to reveal his hidden wound, we are shown once again how deeply he loves us as his own beloved sons and daughters. We find yet again how precious the trail we follow when we take up his cross and follow him (cf Matt 16: 24-26). We find how his love is anticipated in our lives before we recognize even the need for his grace and mercy. We find the courage to find and expose our own hidden wounds to him for the healing that only he can give.
   The reply to Bernard continues: "Honor this wound with thy devotion and I will grant thee whatsoever thou dost ask through its virtue and merit and in regard to all those who shall venerate this wound, I will remit to them all their venial sins and will no longer remember their mortal sins."   And so, my discussions here are intended to not only be an apostolic outlet and a mode of healing in my own life and ministry, but a way of venerating this most precious wound that caused our savior to suffer so. My readers are invited to stand with me at the foot of the cross and to look at how God reveals his love for us, even in what is hidden and yet to be discovered.
   And so, a prayer, often attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux:
O loving Jesus, meek Lamb of God, I, a miserable sinner, salute and worship the most Sacred Wound of your shoulder on which you beared your heavy cross, which so tore your flesh and laid bare your bones as to inflict on you an anguish greater than any other wound of your most blessed body. I adore you, O Jesus most sorrowful; I praise and glorify you and give you thanks for this most sacred and painful wound, begging you by that exceeding pain and by the crushing burden of your heavy cross, to be merciful to me, a sinner, to forgive me all my mortal and venial sins and to lead me on towards heaven along the Way of your Cross. Amen.