Hope and Healing in the New Year
As we begin a new year, each of us is given an opportunity to reflect on the past year and plan for the next. While many events, from NFL playoffs to the normal rhythm of family life, occur in January, the first significant activities on our diocesan calendar are Catholic Schools Week and the Lourdes Novena for Healing held at our cathedral. These events are especially meaningful for me and provide much needed hope for our Church and world.
As we begin a new year, each of us is given an opportunity to reflect on the past year and plan for the next. While many events, from NFL playoffs to the normal rhythm of family life, occur in January, the first significant activities on our diocesan calendar are Catholic Schools Week and the Lourdes Novena for Healing held at our cathedral. These events are especially meaningful for me and provide much needed hope for our Church and world.
Catholic education has always been important to me. My parents made many sacrifices to send all seven of their children to Catholic schools. I was blessed to continue my Catholic education through university and even graduate school. As a young priest, I taught in a parish school and was blessed to spend the next 19 years as a teacher, chaplain and president of Marin Catholic. Now I have the privilege to work closely with Katie Rieckers, director of Catholic schools for our diocese. And in November, I began my three-year term as chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Catholic Education. At a time of growing secularism and religious indifference, our Catholic schools help provide hope as we see our young people growing in grace and wisdom. God willing, these young men and women are learning and preparing to be leaders and contributors to our Church, nation and world.
The Lourdes Novena for Healing at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes is now in its 11th year. The novena has been a blessing to the cathedral community and beyond; many have shared with me and Father Connall, rector of the cathedral, how they have found healing of physical, emotional and spiritual wounds through this novena.
Our diocese is unique; it is the only one in North America dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, and in a time when we have seen so much division in our culture, in our politics and, sadly, even in our families, we need a message of healing.
As the pandemic continues to affect many, especially the medically vulnerable, we need that message of healing.
In a very clear way, these two events signify so much of what Christ brings to us in his message: hope and healing. The Church seeks to share the hope and healing of Christ in each new age. It is providential, I believe, that our year begins with Catholic Schools Week, celebrating our schools and school communities, and with the Lourdes Novena for healing.
I am grateful for your continued prayers for me and the diocese, and I would ask that you join me in supporting our schools this spring during Catholic Schools Week and joining us in person or at a distance in the Lourdes Novena for Healing.
