More Thoughts on Sabbatical

Sabbatical 2008

What’s a sabbatical all about anyway? The root word of sabbatical is Sabbath. The Sabbath according to Rabbi Abraham Heschel is not simply a day when God rested. He says that God continued to “create” on the seventh day. On that day God created the ability to “reflect upon, to wondeer at, to savor the work of the past six days. It seems the creative work of the past six days was incomplete without the crowning creation of the seventh day of Sabbath.

A sabbatical, while being a time of rest, is also a creative time of reflection, imagination and balance. A person returns from Sabbath (sabbatical) not to be the same old person but to return to “parish life” renewed with new insights and energy. That’s the theory behind sabbatical and that’s the reason for the Lilly Corporation’s grant of church renewal. If your church is going to be renewed; renew your pastor! That’s what I’m about over the next few months.

I delivered the homily at our parish celebration of Holy Thursday this year. It was a wonderful celebration where we focused in on the core of what we’re about as Catholic Christians: Eucharist and Service. During the homily I outlined what we’ve been through over the last 18 years I’ve been here in Fond du Lac as pastor of St. Joe’s and now priest team moderator of Holy Family. We’ve studied our individual parish schools and began FACES. As individual parishes we worked together on collaboration, strategic planning, followed by merger studies. As the new Holy Family Parish we studies ministries and facilities. In the past years we’ve worked on building designs, capital campaign and actual building and dedication. What’s been core in all of this? Eucharist and Service, of course as celebared in our Holy Thursday liturgy!

What does this have to do with sabbatical? I’ve been involved in quite a bit of rather important issues of planning and parish development over the past years, but it’s quite different from anything I ever dreamed I would be doing as a pastor. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be working with a parish of four priests with 16,000 parish members, four churches, three closed churches, a merged parish and school system, a large staff, etc. I think you got the picture. After all that it’s time for a personal renewal in Eucharist and Service and time to reflect on the core of what my ministry is all about. Let’s get back to the basics of Priesthood. This is my personal sabbatical goal.

It’s also time to help Holy Family in our next phase of growth. We’ve got a fantastic new building, now where do we go from here as a parish? What’s our next phase of parish growth?