Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I struggled mightily to come up with a topic for this week’s bulletin. And to be honest, I’m sort of winging it even as I write it. There’s a lot of reasons why this sometimes occurs. At times, there’s not a ton happening in the life of the parish at a given moment and there’s not an easy topic to choose from. At other times, I feel like there might be a good topic, but I’ve written about it previously and as such, it’s hard to retread the same material again. In other moments, my mind is focused on other things and it’s hard to be eloquent and well-written in such situations. But at the end of the day, a letter for the bulletin is needed and going through the process to write one is instructive to other moments of life and ministry in general.
Without getting too deep in the weeds, there’s an argument that what these letters are, along with the homilies I give, what is referred to as creative non-fiction. It’s clearly not fiction that I’m writing here, there’s no made up stories or fanciful plots happening on the page. But it is creative in its own way, given that I’m not responding to some kind of prompt or chronicling events like a biography or news article. There’s a particular development of a certain theme and the elements of it add up in a creative way to a conclusive whole. But like any creative endeavor, sometimes it comes naturally and easily and at other times, it’s slow-going and laborious.
It’s tempting in those harder moments to say, “Forget it! Nothing’s coming to me and I’ll pick things up some other time.” I’ve done that with other creative pursuits, but truth be told, that usually results in eventually abandoning such projects and hobbies over time. What weekly
bulletin letters and daily homilies have taught me over the years is this: there’s an ability to still accomplish what you need to, even if you’re not feeling very good or creative in a given moment. What’s been even more instructive is that some of my best work has come when I wasn’t feeling very creative at all.
Without too much navel-gazing, I hope in writing this particular letter in this particular week, is not to lament my lack of inspiration, but help demonstrate and encourage us all that we can be effective at a given task, even when we’re not exactly feeling it. That while it helps to be in the right mood for a project, it’s not necessary. That sometimes, just showing up and doing, is more than half the battle, despite our mood. And fidelity to those things that are entrusted to us, even when we’re uninspired, is a worthwhile skill and habit to develop in all of us.
I hope my letter this week is not overly introspective or boring. And that despite not feeling it, it’s still worthwhile to read.
Peace and Goodness,
Fr. Dan
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