I’m after a deep, authentic, and healthy Christian spirituality and life. It is my deepest longing. Spiritual formation and growth are my hearts desire. It has been my true north in parish ministry and my earthly pilgrimage. It still is. 

 

Over the years, pastors have become many other things: visionaries, entrepreneurs, community organizers, social activists, social media experts—not all bad.  Leadership today requires these kinds of skills. 

 

Yet there is something  more ancient, timeless: curer animarum, “the Physician of Souls.”  

 

This is the heart and core of my Ordination Vows, to be a spiritual guide, to awaken the souls desire and longing, and to induct others into the spiritual life. This is the central role of the life of a priest. 

The Gospel story of the Rich Young Ruler, Mark 10: 17-31, reveals our deepest longing as human beings made in the Image of God.  My sermon approached it with three dynamics: 

 

1. DAWNING AWARENESS SOMETHING IS MISSING: THE GIFT OF LONGING

2. THE SACRED GAZE OF GOD: JESUS LOOKED AT HIM AND LOVED HIM.

3. ULTIMATE CONCERN – FOLLOW ME

 

As C.S.Lewis wrote in his magisterial book, Mere Christianity:

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

 

May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency.

May you know the urgency with which God longs for you.

 

– John O’Donohue

 

With you on the Journey, 

 

Rob+