Words of Wisdom
Each month, Fr. Andrew Carl Wisdom, OP, shares his personal ideas, thoughts, and activities with members of the Society for Vocational Support (SVS). Here is his letter from February 2024.
Look at what my friends Judy and Dick surprised me with while recently welcoming our eight novices, novice master Fr. Dave, and yours truly to dinner: a makeshift sign, complete with festive balloons. All to congratulate me on being chosen to succeed Fr. Dave this coming fall, while highlighting and honoring my recent New Year’s resolution/motto in preparation for that new assignment. At least I now know they read my monthly attempt at “words of wisdom” 😊.
They added a quote on the right side of the poster: “Change is hard but beautiful!” Judy and Dick got it right. Change is hard but beautiful—the rich harvest of Doing Less and Being More. We Westerners spend time “doing” and producing, yet simply “being” gives us life and joy, depth, and a spring in our steps! Simply being present, authentic, attentive, and intentional in life’s daily encounters and events all make a difference in the quality of our lives. Then, miracles appear where they have always been.
Only then do we notice and recognize these moments of simply being as revelations of God’s grace hiding in plain sight. We finally stop long enough to receive them rather than rush by. Then we actually capture “the moment” on the way to the next step of our five-year plan or next item on our never-ending ‘to do’ list. It requires prioritizing being over doing; and, while hard, that change produces beautiful results.
Albert Einstein, himself a rather busy man, famously said, “Life can be lived one of two ways: As if nothing is a miracle or as if everything is a miracle.” In the end, we cannot outrun life, friends, but life just might outrun us. And with it go all those precious moments that make life truly worth living, moments revealing the deep-down, blush-worthy gratitude of the sheer miracle of it all. A humble thankfulness consumes us as we realize God filled our own cup of life more than we ever imagined. Only then we understand God has given us more than we comprehend or deserve. Allow me to share some of those miracle moments I have recently stopped long enough to appreciate.
In the last five years, I celebrated the weddings of two children from the same family on separate occasions. I recently joined them as they gathered at their parents’ home in Minnesota, with their spouses and four children among them. What a gift to see these young people I had watched grow up and witnessed their marriages now beginning their own families. One among them, little Benjamin, loves to park under the couch while perched on the living room floor.
A fun family moment, a uniquely Dominican one, produced this not-very-professional selfie by yours truly while our new provincial Fr. Louie Morrone and I visited our cloistered Dominican Sisters in Gerard, IL. Take a look at their joy-filled, miraculous lives of witness at opnunsil.org.
Watching the late morning light play off our Priory chapel stained-glass windows while recently visiting the Blessed Sacrament produced another moment of being over doing. Religious art, whether in windows, paintings, or statues, reveals the timeless spiritual through the everyday temporal. To stop and thank God for the beauty of creation shining through the multicolored, beveled glass designs of St. Dominic’s life infused my entire day with an awareness of His presence. ...
On a sober, more powerful note, I marveled at young Enrique helping the gravedigger throw the final piece of dirt on his great grandfather’s grave. He wanted to “send his great grand poppy to heaven” after I celebrated the funeral of this member of the Dominican laity.
These extraordinary moments, minor miracles of God ‘s presence, manifest themselves among us each day in the seemingly ordinary events of life, happy or sad; ever present, but we can miss them. God always tries to awaken us to the sacred beyond the secular and routine. Why? That we might taste life more deeply; drink in more of “the good stuff.”
Not a bad perspective to begin Lent. Throughout this season we concentrate on getting our life back to things that truly matter…back to the tender arms of a loving God who offers to hold our lives together each day for the crucial stuff…. not what we accomplish, but what we become.
Thank you for the many ways you allow our novices and student brothers to step away from all the “doing” of life to recognize the remarkable ways simply “being” unveils the minor miracles of God’s presence in their lives. Throughout Lent they and I will remember you in daily prayer.
With deep gratitude,
Fr. Andrew Carl Wisdom, OP
Assistant Novice Master
Vicar for Mission Advancement
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