Every year we priests of the Archdiocese of Denver gather at Keystone in the mountains for our annual convocation. Here are a few gems of wisdom that I jotted down at our recent 4 day convocation. I found these thoughts as applicable to me, but also, I think, applicable to all of us as well:
- “When you are willing to bear the burden of being displeasing to yourself, then you become worthy of being a dwelling place of the Lord.” – St. Therese of Lisieux
- Today, university “students meet professors who intellectually rape their students” by seeking to destroy their religious faith. The students are imbued with relativistic thinking that avoids dealing with the deepest questions in life, like: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose in my life? And who is God? Because students are encouraged to study simply for the sake of their future work, there settles in a real lack of love for the truth and for meaning in life.
- One desolation with You, Jesus, is better then a thousand pleasures elsewhere.
- When stuck in prayer, try saying some favorite prayers over and over again until something kicks in.
- Instead of having the laity help us in our mission, we priests should move toward seeing us priests as helping the laity with their mission to be witnesses of Christ.
- Our relationships have to be cleared of anything that takes away hope.
- God doesn’t call us to be nice guys, but to be good men. Being “pastoral” does not mean being nice; it means dealing with what must be dealt with.
- Purification means being open to criticism.
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