Memory Lane (09/09/2025)

Yesterday I was given a great gift, a trip down Memory Lane with a group of men and women with whom I had been blessed to be assigned to guide and accompany. There was a diocesan gathering of the permanent diaconate community, and I was their guest. I had the opportunity to touch base again with these fantastic men and their loving wives, to catch up on their journeys, and to just give and get authentic hugs. It was wonderful.

As I encountered each one, I was in wonder of how the LORD connects us as we journey together. We had spent over five years together, gathering monthly for two full days of prayer, formation, and community building. I was so very proud of the men who went on to be ordained deacons in 2004. And I tried to follow their individual ministries as best I could from afar. It was wonderful to see them again and to speak with them again and to share the journey again, even if it was only for a few hours.

They asked me to speak to the whole group gathered. I shared with them how their journey had impacted my own. I shared that as they began, I had prayed to the Spirit that the Spirit would open their minds and allow the Scriptures, the Church teachings, and the community to inform their faith. I had prayed to the Spirit that the Spirit would open their hearts so that they would seek to conform themselves to the servant Christ. And I prayed to the Spirit that the Spirit would open their souls to that they would accept and embrace the transformation possible through grace. And then I shared how I’d been moved over the years as I saw them seeking to work through the Spirit to inform the minds of others about the Scriptures and teachings, and to conform the hearts of others to Christ and the needs of our sisters and brothers, and to transform the souls of others through love lived out loud for the sake of love of Christ and one another.

I am so very proud of these men and of their loving wives who not only supported them in their discernment and formation but who supported them in their ministries. I asked them if they remembered my warning still, and they did. As long as we’re this side of the sod, we are not “done muffins.” And they laughed in such a way that I knew they were still open to the working of the Spirit on their minds, hearts, and souls. Oh, it was such a wonderful trek down Memory Lane.

And as I spoke to each one separately, I was reminded that each of us carries our own cross along the way. These wonderful, faith rich, hopeful and loving souls were struggling with their own crosses. And yet, they were joyful and still wanting to “put on the apron of humility and serve the LORD.”

As I drove home last evening from the event, I found myself thanking the LORD over and over again for the providential gift of being selected to be their guide, mentor, teacher, and companion on their fantastic journey. And I admitted to the LORD what I had known for some time already, I was blessed abundantly by those relationships and through the ministry the LORD had called me to do.

As I pondered my day on the porch before I retired, I gave thanks for the way the LORD writes straight with crooked lines. I acknowledged that the program for the diaconate and lay formation I was asked to design and direct had opened the door for my eventual position as faculty at Mundelein Seminary and the University of St. Mary of the Lake. Sometimes we have to step outside the boat onto choppy seas in trust.

As we continue our journeys of faith, buoyed by hope, and fueled by love, let us seek opportunities to connect with those who have been part of our previous journey. The Spirit uses those moments, I have found, to remind us of the goodness we may have missed previously, of others who accompanied us and encouraged us as agents of the Spirit. Let us remember, we are meant to make this journey together.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.