Greetings in Christ, all; a blessed and holy Lenten Season to you!
I wanted to share a couple personal notes with you this week.
The first has to do with my new position as Dean. I’ve received some calls and offers to help and I want to say straight off that I’m so grateful…thank you! At this time, the Diocese is still figuring all of this out so I’m not really in a position to ask for help or even know what kind of help I will need. I’ve been faithfully reading the material they sent me and I’m working on some plans, but for the most part, I am waiting until our Dean Initiation Meetings (there are three on the calendar) to find out how this is going to play out.
Some of you have expressed worries to me about my ability to do this but for whatever it is worth, I am excited. I do believe that an overhaul is desperately needed in our diocesan structure and this is a brave and strong step in that. Thank you for caring for me and about our Parish; it means the world.
The second thing is a very weighty matter: my weight. (I could not resist, sorry).
A few of you have lovingly expressed concerns about my weight. I am significantly heavier than when I moved here and at some point, I stopped paying attention. Over the last couple years, a lot of priests my age have been in the hospital and some have died and it breaks my heart. I want to serve for as long as I am useful and I know I sabotage that when I do not take care of myself. I have felt a call from the Lord that it was time to go to war on this front for a couple weeks and some of the wonderful people I work here with sat me down and shared their concerns. I was deeply touched and challenged.
So, with the help of the wonderful folks who work here at Holy Family, I’ve had some meetings with professionals and people I trust and so far, this Lent has been a real blessing in changing the way I eat.
My usual pattern was to either not eat all day and then go nuts at night or to eat badly when I do eat: choosing speed over health. Obviously, neither of these are a good idea.
Since Lent started, Fr. Le and I have all begun participating in a meal plan with a company that ships us meals that we basically assemble and eat. It’s going really, really well and I am excited. We are eating healthy food in healthy portions and all three of us (Dad included) have noticed a difference in how we feel already.
As in the previous section, I’m so touched by your care for me and I ask for a couple things:
First, I am so grateful for all the pies and cookies and desserts, but I’m going to ask us to hold off on those. I find that I just eat whatever is there, bad or good for me and y’all make such crazy delicious desserts that I just plain get after it. I pray I do not sound ungrateful.
Second, please pray for me. I feel a good deal of shame about how much weight I’ve gained and I worry that I’m not disciplined enough to follow through on this long term. When you think about it, if you would pray for me that would mean a lot.
Thank you all for being such a beautiful people to minister to. I believe myself to be among the most blessed priests in the whole world.
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