New Column: "A Word in Season" debuts on Patheos.com

After 2 and 1/2 months writing over at the blog "Summa This, Summa That" I'm being launched into a weekly column over at Patheos, "A Word in Season." 

This new weekly column will celebrate the richness of the times and seasons in the Church. Its purpose is to explore themes related to the liturgical year including prayer and scripture, the lives of the saints, the Catechism, and the deep history of Catholic Tradition. In the coming year, it will also look at the changes coming to the Roman Missal.

The premiere column starts here:

Ever have one of those moments, as you go through life, when someone comes along and says just the right word at the right time? It’s usually when we needed it most!

Or did you ever have a song play the radio, or in the shuffle of the iTunes library, and you just knew that somehow that song was meant just for you?

A moment of inspiration can make all the difference, for it contains a small blessing.

Tucked deep in the Revised Standard Version translation of the Old Testament book of Proverbs, there’s a gem that captures the joy of such a moment:

 …an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is! (Prov 15:23 RSV.)

When I consider this proverb, I understand the goodness of “a word in season”. It can come from God, or through persons, or circumstance. Christians experience this blessing in a very personal way, and a very corporate one.

In my Christian life, I have had many private “God moments” when God reaches out to me through his Word in Sacred Scripture, in prayer, and through the sacraments. But it doesn’t stop there.

I’ve found God’s Holy Spirit acting within my social milieu! I’ve experienced encouraging words from loved ones, from books, from articles I’ve read on-line, and yes, even in random pop songs. Each time, God clearly communicates his joy, hope, comfort, healing, guidance, or peace.  

God works ceaselessly in a variety, and often, surprising ways, to aptly “speak” to me about my own pertinent situation… compelling me to continually seek him in every season of life. 

Though I’ve been slow to admit it, God’s timing is always perfect. And I marvel at the relevancy of the ancient’s prophet’s words describing God’s message to me today: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD.” (Is 55: 8-9 RSV.)

What’ more, a spiritual friend once counseled: God’s timing is never late. And it is to this universal sense of “God’s Time” that I wish to explore the corporate experience of “a word in season.”

There’s a dynamic seasonal patterning to Christian life, just as there is seasonal change in nature.

The Good News is never dormant.

Come over to Patheos for the rest!