Dear Friends,

Forty years ago this Sunday July 12nd,I was ordained a priest. I feel so blessed with all these years of ministry and all the lives I have touched—people who have nourished my soul and my heart in return. I am truly blessed! (We will have a celebration on Saturday September 26 at 2pm—save the date!) I remember returning from Rome where I was studying theology to be ordained in my home parish in Detroit, Michigan. I remember being asked to spend the summer filling in for our Marist priest chaplains at Mass. General Hospital so that they could take their vacations.

I remember being asked by a patient I was visiting, "How long have you been ordained?" And when I responded, "Two weeks." She burst out in glee, "Oh, a baby priest!" I remember patients asking other chaplains, "Who is this priest that is asking me how I feel about what I am going through?" I remember cherishing being a hospital chaplain and having people open up their hearts to me as I accompanied them through these significant moments of their lives.

I remember celebrating the weddings of my siblings, the baptisms of their children, the funerals of my parents. I remember being director of our seminary and helping our candidates discern their call to priesthood. How striking that I now spend most of my time at the hospital teaching and supervising men and women beginning their call to serve as spiritual care-givers, rabbis, priests and ministers.

I remember celebrating the Children's Masses in the parish and having adults come up to me and say, "I get as much out of these Masses as the kids do—more than when I go to the regular Masses." I remember as pastor of the parish going to the little league games and neighborhood parades because that's where the people were. I remember the day I said "goodbye" to the parish when my superior told me not to tell them why I was leaving "because they weren't ready to hear that" and how I maintained my integrity by saying that I couldn't do that after building community with them and being intimately involved in their lives these past years.

I remember marrying Jean and feeling that now my life was complete as we lived and loved and ministered together. I remember the deep joy when she was ordained and we could now co-minister in an even deeper way. I remember saying to my students, "Tons of people called me 'Father,' no one ever called me 'Daddy' and now we have these five beautiful grandchildren calling me 'Grampa'." One of the students burst out, "You will have thousands of spiritual grandchildren through all the lives we all touch because you have had such a profound influence on us." I am truly, truly blessed!! And now we are blessed to have all of you in our lives as we nourish each other at Spirit of Life.

As you seek to live with deeper freedom in your life, we invite you to come and pray with us at Spirit of Life. We are a Catholic community where every voice is heard, and women and men are unafraid to acknowledge the equality of women and men; and to embrace feminine as well as masculine... and beyond... images of God. We invite you to join us at Spirit of Life. As a community, we try wholeheartedly to "be Christ" to one another, to tend to the needs of one another, and to those in need in our world. Together, we celebrate our belief that we are being transformed by God's grace as we gather together in prayer. We warmly invite you to come and gather with us at our Table, and join in our experience of the "kin-dom" of God. We are an inclusive, open, affirming and interactive community, deeply committed to being a people of "justice and joy."

Wishing you the gift of extending freedom to all whom you encounter in your lives,

Find more about past weekly reflections and podcasts in our ARCHIVE PAGE.