The View Up Here

Regardless of our vocation – married, priesthood, religious, or single – the daily grind and the pressing worries that ever more hound us day and night can wear us down. Even when we love our families, our work, our ministry, our community, we can still become like a well that’s gone dry.  And something must be said about our post-modern obsession with multi-tasking. Is that really how humans were meant to live? I don’t think it would be over the top to say that it is inhuman, even with all the tools we now have which allegedly assist with this frenetic, attention-splitting lifestyle. In fact, it seems with all the conveniences and communication technology available to us, we are multi-tasking and doom scrolling ourselves into states of severe anxiety, depression, and poor health in which we lose sight of faith, hope, and charity.  We lose sight of who we are. We lose sight of Christ. A remedy for this lifestyle, found in ancient Christian tradition and modeled by Jesus, is t...

Normally around this time, I do a wrap up of the year in my own life and estimation. Although I don't remember if I did one last year. Anyway, I'm resuming the tradition.  After spending the Christmas holiday with my family, I arrived home last night to find a pile of Christmas cards awaiting me in the mail box. I had anticipated this and was delighted to open cards from friends and family in other states as well as right here in Elmira. What I wasn't prepared for was a letter tucked into a card from my friend Fr. David, a Trappist in Utah. His letter held some sad news, including the death of their Guestmaster, lay brother Michael. Michael was my first contact at Holy Trinity Abbey, where I spent many a retreat weekend during my year in Salt Lake City, and we had quickly become friends. I will always remember his New Jersey baritone, "We all love you, honey. We're praying for you."  So last night after doing laundry and watering my plants, I made my ...