Essays and Messages

Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., issued a brief summer message to his flock June 21.

On the final day of the U.S. Bishops Spring Assembly, which was held in Baltimore from June 11-13, Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., compiled a summary of the major issues discussed and voted on, and shared his observations of the experience. His report follows:

My Dad was a good man and a hardworking, great father. He loved my mother and his four sons. He was born before the Great Depression, and was raised in poverty in what today we would call a “dysfunctional family.” Yet he remained attentive to his parents, buying coal for their furnace, turkeys for their Thanksgivings and trees for their Christmas celebrations. My Mom once told me he had never celebrated Thanksgiving at home until they were married.

Memorial Day is observed throughout the United States on the last Monday in May. This national holiday is widely considered the beginning of summer, a few weeks shy of the actual calendar date.

I just returned from visiting my Mother’s grave, where I placed some flowers in her memory for Mother’s Day. It is hard to believe that it has been four years since she passed away. These occasions at the cemetery are sacred moments for me, a time to remember and a time to be grateful for those memories. And, although the Lord has called her home, she has never really left me. I feel her presence with me every single day. I hope and pray that all our faithful whose Moms are with the Lord share that same experience, that same feeling.

A message from Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., reflecting on the power of Easter faith over sin, as our journey continues through the Easter season.

This year, 2019, Easter Sunday falls on April 21. That will not happen again until 2030. By all accounts, April 21 is one of the latest dates on which Easter can occur, the latest of which is April 25, which will not happen until 2038. While these are interesting facts from meteorological, practical and planning points of view, the actual date of Easter in the Western Church does not change what Easter means for the Catholic, for the Christian.

They say “life is a marathon, not a quick sprint.” I think that is true although the older you get, the faster the days seem to pass. The same could be said of the holy season of Lent: it is a marathon to Easter!

I am a great believer in the “both/and” rather than the “either/or” approach to life. And, so, for me Lent is a holy season of penance when I feel called, as a Catholic, by the very nature and purpose of Lent, to both “give up” and to “give” something.

Historically, religious orders developed in the Church, first because of some particular need that was not able to be met in the Church at the time and, second, because the vision and charism of some particular individuals were able to inspire others to come together and determine how to meet that need. And, so, religious orders, communities, congregations and societies were born!