Tuesday, Second Week of Lent
USCCB; Recently-Appointed Bishops’ Orientation
February 20, 2024
My brother bishops and dear friends,
It is a pleasure to be with you this afternoon as we celebrate Holy Mass. I suppose I was invited to serve as principal celebrant because I serve as Vice-President of the Conference but also because there are a lot of miles on my episcopal odometer. Over the years, I too have been oriented and re-oriented, via positiva atque negativa!
There is danger in having an older guy like me speak to you who are younger than I in age, in the priesthood, and in the episcopacy. The danger is that what I have to say might sound a lot like a rector’s conference. I hope not! That’s not my intent. But I will say this: The longer I live and minister the more I realize how right my rector was! The late Archbishop Harry J. Flynn told us that we would never “succeed” as priests unless we developed a life of prayer – silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. And he defined “success” as holiness, authenticity, and fruitfulness in ministry.
Time Tested Truths Tested
I’ve known that to be true even when I had long hair and sideburns. And you have known the importance of prayer from your youth. Yet, when we become bishops there are new challenges to time-tested truths. One of them is prayer.
As priests we were busy, handling multiple parishes and multiple responsibilities. But the demands placed on us as bishops are expansive and sometimes excessive. And sometimes we place demands on ourselves that are expansive and excessive. For example, in a desire to visit every parish, every school, every social ministry— an admirable desire to get around and to be with God’s People— we can over-schedule ourselves or let ourselves be overscheduled, leaving us little time to pray, to reflect, to read Scripture, to rest, and to exercise—both spiritually and physically. Without prayer, we no less than our priests, find ourselves “running on empty”.
Emergencies do arise. Pastoral need sometimes crowds in on prayer time. Recall what St. Vincent de Paul said; he said that the Lord is not displeased when we take leave of prayer to serve those in need. But this wise and loving saint did not give us carte blanche to abandon or diminish prayer because of pressing responsibilities. So, now for true confessions. I find that homilies and important letters are best written very early in the morning. I also find that if I don’t pray early in the day, my prayer is truncated. Venerable Bede might have said that “at night the mind is ready for contemplation” but in the evening, my mind (and body) are ready to go to sleep. We need to give God the best hours of our day. In my case, that’s early in the morning.
Public Prayer and Private Prayer
As bishops we discover both the challenge and joy of episcopal liturgy – grand liturgies in our cathedrals, carefully prepared, with large congregations. I’m thinking of occasions such as the Chrism Masses and Ordinations. And even now, in spite of all the Church has been through, people are happy to see us when we visit parishes and most of the time, those parish liturgies are grander than usual, and there’s coffee and doughnuts afterwards, to boot. And if we’re honest, that gives us a buzz. When I retire, I’ll miss it!
But how essential that we approach these liturgies, whether grand or simple, with a prayerful heart, indeed a broken, humble contrite heart! For we cannot be good spiritual fathers unless we are good sons, adopted sons of God the Father and brothers of Jesus, our great High Priest. Only when we allow ourselves time and space to be alone with God in the inner room of our soul, to be silent and receptive to God’s love, do we re-discover with wonderment and joy that God the Father loves us as sons, and because he does so, we can fulfill our ministry of spiritual fatherhood. But this only happens when you and I encounter the Father of Mercies in our heart of hearts, our inmost self, that inner storeroom where is kept our thoughts, motives, and plans. In prayer, we invite God to encounter us in the deepest truth of our existence. Then it is that you and I celebrate and minister authentically and fruitfully.
Prayer in Time of Trouble
Perhaps you’ve found that the episcopacy isn’t always a bowl of cherries. It has its joys and consolations but also its sorrows, and sometimes its terrors. In time of trouble or anxiety, we are tempted to reduce prayer to rumination, or to lay out before God our strategic plan, asking him to execute it on our timetable. We might even try to justify ourselves before God, especially when we are blamed, whether fairly or unfairly. At the end of some prayer sessions, I’ve prayed that God have a sense of humor.
When we utter sacramental formulae, whether in Baptism, Confirmation Reconciliation, Eucharist, or Holy Orders, we have no doubt that God’s Word is effective; that it accomplishes the end for which it was sent; that our prayer is heard; that God loves his Church; and that he loves those with whom and for whom we’re ministering. Mutatis mutandis, we need to transfer some of that into our private prayer, offering God the Father the prayer of sons who trust and love him, confident that he knows us best, loves us most, and gives us what we need. This, I think, is the spirit of the Our Father Jesus taught us to say and the words of Isaiah on the effectiveness of God’s Word.
Oremus pro invicem
One final thought. People often say they’re praying for us. And often people ask us to pray for them, sometimes in heartbreaking circumstances. What a beautiful thing to be entrusted with the prayer intentions of another. It is an expression of people’s trust that we really do pray, that we pray deeply, and that we pray not only for ourselves but for those whom the Lord sets before us, including our brother priests, especially those who are struggling. In that spirit, brothers, let us pray for one another. Often, on the bottom of a Christmas card or note, a bishop will write, Oremus pro invicem! We support one another and bind ourselves into a unity of truth and love first and foremost by praying for one another, not only publicly but privately. So, count on my prayers in this still-early stage of your journey as bishops and please don’t forget to pray for those of us who have been on the road for a while. Oremus pro invicem!