Starting something new

"Be willing to be a beginner every single morning."
--Meister Eckhart

Transitions are always difficult.  In fifty years as a friar, I have moved 18 times.  Every move, even across the street from one friary to another, is stressful.  But like certain foods, some stress is good.  It is good to decide what one needs to take from one place to another. It is good to let go of notes, books, stuff that one hasn't looked at or referenced in years.  In fact, I have a simple practice each year around the feast of St. Francis.  I look in my closet and grab anything that I have not worn in a year and give it to a local clothing bank.  Not only does this practice clean out my closet, it cleanses my spirit, and let's me try to live Meister Eckhart's challenge to be a beginner every morning.

These days I am sorting and packing for a move to a new friary and ministry in Connecticut, and I am trying to do it consciously and intentionally, i.e. prayerfully and gently.  I am trying not to rush; I am thinking about the friars with whom I will soon be living, and I am taking time each evening to be grateful for my last nine years of life and ministry in Boston, as well as beginning to prepare retreat and mission talks for my new ministry.  


This last task will be the focus of this blog.  As I hear something challenging, read something intriguing, meet someone fascinating, I will share it here in the hope that it will lift your spirit and occasion some response that I can reflect on and even use in my new ministry.  Simple enough, I think, and hopefully interesting enough to get you to follow this blog regularly.