This will not be a typical post either in length or in topic. Rather, this will serve as a quick update as to what is happening with me now. I haven’t been able to do my usual posts for a couple of weeks, and it may be another week or two before I can resume. This is to fill all of you in on why this is the case.
The reason is rather simple. I’ve been in the midst of a move.
Some months ago, my Bishop and I had already agreed that my status would change from being an active diocesan priest to being a retired one, and that I would continue doing some limited parish ministry for at least a year beyond my retirement date, which is July 1. Changing circumstances and further discernment led me to request that, as of July 1, I would have no parish ministry.
I made that request for two reasons. One has to do with the effects of that kind of regular public exposure on me, given my autism. Those effects have been getting greater as I have been getting older. The other reason has to do with my sense of this call-within-a-call; that the Lord has been leading me to become a priest/hermit, with more and more of my outreach happening through personal prayer and online ministry (including the Harvest, my blog, and Autism Consecrated). There are any number of ways in which a priest can serve the Church as a priest. Parish ministry is perhaps the most common and best-known way, but it is not the only way even for diocesan priests.
The Bishop’s response came fairly quickly. In early June, I was informed that he accepted my request. Moreover, a Capuchin priest now living in my diocese was available for some parish ministry and that he would come to my cluster and live in the rectory where I had been living as of July 1.
That meant that I had four weeks to find a new place to live, to move, and to do so in time to give the new priest a chance to move in before his ministry began.
After looking at three serious options, my prayer and discernment led me to choose the apartment behind the church in Stratton, a small Maine town in the western mountains, not too far from Rangeley and the Sugarloaf ski area. Though it had a few limitations (no washer and dryer, for one), it seemed like the place the Lord was leading me to, and where He wanted me to be in order to begin the next phase of living out my calling. I would have the opportunity to live more fully as a priest/hermit with no public ministry, unless I chose to celebrate a Mass on occasion here or there.
This has been something I have been looking forward to for a long time. This is not because I dislike people or parish ministry as such. Nor is it because of the challenges that being autistic gave me as a priest in parish ministry. The core reason was – and is – my ongoing sense that the Lord has been leading me in this direction for at least the last ten years, perhaps longer.
Nevertheless, any major life change – even a greatly desired one – is very hard for an autistic person. Changing one’s living space also means many other changes in one’s routine. Even though I truly want this, it has also been very draining for me. That is the main reason I have not been as regular with blog posts this past month. Once I catch up on some rest and establish a new routine, I’ll be able to get back to this blog before long.
The Church, as the Body of Christ, needs people of different gifts and aptitudes, just as our human bodies need various tissues and organs and kinds of cells in order to function in a healthy manner. We need people in public ministry. We also need people who are in convents and monasteries. We need people who are called to be hermits. We need married people and single people. It is easier for us to understand or accept some vocations, and more difficult to do so for others. nevertheless, the Church needs them all to function in a healthy spiritual manner.
In an odd twist, the Capuchin priest will not be able to move to my former home after all because of health issues. Please keep all priests in prayer. Even for those who are called to active ministry, the demands and pressures can be enormous.
So, dear readers, I’ll be back at this before long! Keep me in prayer as I keep you in prayer. Our mutual prayer opens a door for the Holy Spirit to enter our lives, and the lives of many more people, in fresh and powerful ways.