Spiritual accompaniment

Book Review: Preaching the Just Word (Burghardt)

January 21, 2025

I recently stumbled upon this book, Preaching the Just Word by Walter J. Burghardt, S.J. (i.e., a Jesuit). I took an immediate interest in the book because of the author’s name. My last name is Burkhardt. I found out a couple years ago that my paternal grandfather was actually born Burghardt, he started spelling his name with a K instead of G in high school or in his early 20’s – possibly to differentiate himself from his father and/or siblings because there had been multiple levels of “falling out” within the family…. So when I found this book and learned that there had been a prominent theologian named Burghardt (not a common name!), I hoped that I might be distantly related to the author! As it turns out, Walter Burghardt’s parents came to the New York area directly from Poland or Austria in the early 1900’s, whereas my Burghardt relatives moved from Germany to a German enclave in Russia’s Volga River region in the late 1700’s before migrating to the U.S.’s midwest farming region…. So, any unlikely biological connection between me and this book’s author would be very remote. Yet, I decided to read this book.

I am finding this book to be a worthwhile read already, just a few pages in. I’ve always been attracted to the inner mystical aspects of faith (my story is told here). In recent years, I’ve pondered how to attract people to exploring the inner aspects of faith (such as contemplative prayer) in an era that encourages people to live a frenetically outer life and ignore or avoid inward reflection (i.e., “who wants to go inward when this ultimately requires us work through the inner emotional challenges that are an inherent to being human?”). An inner, prayerful relationship with God is necessary to fully and vibrantly being a person of faith – and joyous (“a peace that passeth all understanding!”). Yet, Walter J. Burghardt rightly points out at the beginning of this book that a solely inward faith is wrongly individualistic (a modern-day form of selfishness). A “faith” that is solely focused on a personal relationship with God isn’t fully faith – this would merely be naval-gazing.

Burghardt explains that the ultimate point of the Christian life on earth is to love one another as we love ourselves. We are called to take care of one another in a radically self-sacrificing manner. We are called to live as part of an interwoven web of caring, socially connected to one another.

There’s a balance for each of us to be a person of faith: a joy-filled inner prayer life in which God nurtures a personal relationship with us combined with the necessary and just manifestations of this inward prayerful relationship: we become the people God intends us to be and we radically love and serve the people around us.

Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechis t (and is a member of the Association of Catholic Publishers). Blogging is sustainable via blog readership (i.e. readers/subscribers). If you are a new visitor, it would be great to have you subscribe to follow this blog (thank you!). If you know someone who would like this blog, please share it with them and invite them to subscribe (thank you!).

From darkness to light

January 13, 2025

In the words of (Cardinal) Timothy Radcliffe, “We are all radically incomplete.”

In our incompleteness, each of us have areas of darkness. The fact, though, that all of us are radically incomplete provides comfort – we aren’t alone in experiencing the human condition (in Radcliffe’s statement that we are all radically incomplete, he immediately goes on to say “And we need each other”).

It is in the embrace of God’s love for us that we move from darkness to light.

It is because of all of this – such compelling aspects of our human experience (darkness, love, light) – that there are repeating threads of “from darkness to light” within the Christian faith tradition.

We celebrate the redeemer’s birth at the darkest time of the year (northern hemisphere) – the earthly appearance of the one who provides us with hope and light through the Resurrection (the Risen Christ).

We are now into January: each day is lighter and longer than the previous day. Joyousness. This is how I choose to look at the daily time of darkness and contrasting light at this time of year. In contrast, I met a person several years ago (2013?) who talked about – and focused on – “how short and dark the days are from October through February” (an accurate but dreary assessment!). I, on the other hand, choose to start counting in November who many weeks and then days there are until days start getting lighter and longer (i.e., counting toward the Winter Solstice). Then, I take joy each day after the solstice in having more light that day.

Days are getting longer now – for those of us in the northern hemisphere. When I drive to work in the early hours of the morning, I see the Seattle skyline in contrast to the night sky – a lovely image. I recently made a point of taking the photo of this Seattle skyline shown here before it gets too light in the early morning to take such a photo. In the midst of my dark drive to work, though, I also feel the joy of increasing light and God’s love for us.

A loving relationship with God does bring us from the darkest corners of our human experience to hope and love. Personally, I find the experience of this loving relationship in the stillness and deep surrender of contemplative prayer. And in being good to other people.

Monasteries of the Spirit (poetic ponderings)

January 8, 2025

Last year, I composed a poetic pondering about our human experience of faith. That blog post as well received, so I’m trying another poetic pondering with a look toward our personal faith engagement. (Note: I took the photo above at the centuries-old Clonmacnoise monastic ruins in Western Ireland.)

Monasteries of the Spirit

Monasteries of the Spirit are:

Grace-filled spaces, a place of rest and nourishment
Environments where we can encounter God’s love

Monasteries of the Spirit are also a space of last year’s poetic ponderings:

We move – seemingly unaware of the mechanics our own locomotion – through journeys of the soul prompted by the Holy Spirit
We sing with joy and weightlessness toward the upper mountain heights of God’s love
We wonder when happening upon liminal places

How do we be seek out Monasteries of the Spirit? Through an engaged faith journey:

Regular engaged participation in one’s faith tradition.

An active prayer life with attentiveness to – and surrender to – promptings of the Holy Spirit. These promptings nudge us toward an inner relationship with God through prayer.

May your faith journey be wonder-filled.

What Christians Believe

December 26, 2024

A woman I know started telling her co-workers that she attends church. She hadn’t told her co-workers about this in the two years she’d been working at her job. Her co-workers were surprised that a surprisingly normal and intelligent person such as her attends church. “So,” her co-workers would ask her, “Are you one of those Christians who believes that the Earth is only 3,000 – 6,000 years old?” and other such questions. “No,” she would reply, “Of course not.” She would point out in these conversations that The Big Bang Theory was formulated by a Catholic priest…..

So, what DO Christians believe? While some aspects of this question varies from one denomination to another, Christian leadership did come together in the year 325 in Nicea (a then-Greek city in what is now Iznek, Turkey) to specify precisely what Christian do believe. (I learned recently that ruins of some of the local Nicean architecture that existed at the time of the council in 325 still exists – I’d love to visit and see the remains of the architecture).

Christianity grew out of a historically oral tradition and Jesus’s followers thought in the decades following his death and resurrection that he was going to return in their lifetimes; thus, no one started writing what is now The New Testament for several decades. While it would be tempting to think now – 2,000 years later – that Christian belief in its’ current state has been statically known and accepted since the time Christ was alive, there was a lack of established Orthodoxy in the early days of Christianity. Thus, the need in the year 325 to communicate clearly what the Christian Church believes.

Join A Parish Catechist on Saturday, January 4th (8:00 am Pacific) or January 7th (7:00 pm Pacific) for a Zoom educational session about the specifics of “What Christians Believe” via the Nicene Creed. Sign up (register) here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084CA4A629A3F4C43-54130811-faith#/

Religious liturgical seasons and the faith experiences of individuals

December 14, 2024

With Christmas just around the corner, I have been pondering how to follow up on my previous post about the liturgical year and our faith journeys as individuals (the image above is a visual representation of Christianity’s liturgical seasons). In my last post, I wrote “On a personal level, Church seasons and religious holidays provide opportunities for us to journey deeper into our faith experience. When we truly engage in the processes provided in the Church’s liturgical calendar, what I have heard called ‘the genius of Christianity’s processes’ brings us into a deeper relationship with God. Our own inner workings are stirred in such a way that our spirituality broadens, deepens, and matures.”

There is a deep spiritual beauty in the flow of the church’s liturgical seasons that stirs us.

There’s also a question of whether one’s faith journey is expected to be organized around the liturgical seasons. Is Advent automatically when we should be prompted toward anticipatory hope (i.e., us looking forward to the Saviour’s birth)? While the established liturgical seasons offer rich faith development opportunities for us, each of us are also experiencing our faith journey at times and in ways that are specific to our own lives. For example, I’ve written about my re-conversion experience here; my re-conversion experience began unexpectedly in October, 2015 – during Ordinary Time. Similarly, I meet people who arrive at churches because they feel compelling faith stirrings that propel them into church pews. In the last couple of years, I have journeyed with several individuals who arrived at churches because they felt stirrings in which God was reorganizing their emotional lives in fruitful and amazing ways. They arrived in churches at times when they felt prompted by the workings of the Holy Spirit – not in accordance with a specific liturgical season.

Journeying with people whose inner lives are being transformed by the Holy Spirit is a blessed journey. Individuals having such experiences can’t be identified by looking for some outer clue (i.e., “look for the person where a specific color shirt standing at X location”). Rather, encountering people having such experiences requires talking with people – often, strangers – and listening to what they have to say (and, being attentive in looking for people having such experiences). People often want to talk about these experiences (I did!). Often, efforts to talk about such experiences can involve clunky or disjointed communication. We are all on our own journey toward a deeper relationship with God and it can be hard to articulate our own person encounter with the divine – especially if someone is new to such experiences. What I am finding is that there are ways to “talk around” such experiences – verbally acknowledge a person’s experience (“I recognize that you are having a profound inner experience”) and being present with the person. Reflectively find ways – even if the ways feel superficial – to compare notes on their and your faith journeys. Communicate joy that a person is experiencing a spiritual transformation.

What matters about liturgical seasons and our individual faith journeys? It matters that each of us be intentional about being on a faith journey. It matters that we respond to promptings of the Holy Spirit (those unexplainable inner promptings that come along occasionally). It matters that we be attentive to our inner experiences and look toward an ever deeper relationship with God (it can be tempting in today’s frenzied world to avoid one’s inner experiences). It matters that we learn to better love God and love our neighbor (putting faith into practical action in the aspects of our lives beyond our own internal experience). Engaging with religious liturgical seasons provides a communal structure for deepening our faith experience and for walking with each other in faith.

Coming soon: a new church year. New step in one’s faith?

November 26, 2024

Just as the earth has annual weather seasons, schools have academic years, some organizations have fiscal years, and we individuals have seasons in our lives, the church has a liturgical year – with established seasons.

The church year begins at the beginning of Advent – four weeks before Christmas. The six seasons in the liturgical calendar (each having a corresponding liturgical color) are:

Advent (purple, with one week of pink)
Christmas (white)
Lent (again, purple)
Triduum (red)
Easter (white)
Ordinary Time (green)

The church year lays out a calendrical way to walk through important faith themes.

As we approach a new liturgical year – beginning with Advent – on December 1, how is this important for us as individuals? In watching the Church seasons, we learn about religious themes that have been woven together over Christianity’s history. We collectively travel through faith seasons together. On a personal level, Church seasons and religious holidays provide opportunities for us to journey deeper into our faith experience. When we truly engage in the processes provided in the Church’s liturgical calendar, what I have heard called “the genius of Christianity’s processes” brings us into a deeper relationship with God. Our own inner workings are stirred in such a way that our spirituality broadens, deepens, and matures.

As we enter a new Church year on this upcoming First Sunday of Advent, what aspects of faith can you reflect upon this Advent season? Learning more about Church liturgy? Re-committing to a regular prayer life? Surrendering some aspect of your life to being changed – and improved upon – by God? Being kinder to and of more active service to the people around you?

If you would like to connect with Advent at home this year, print out the Advent calendar provided below for daily Advent thoughts, reflections, and tips.

New book: honor the church volunteers in your life!

November 22, 2024

Churches are many things – religious institutions, places for religious worship, architectural buildings… Churches are also a place of community. Volunteers are integral to the daily functioning of churches and the experience of how church happens.

I have written a book rejoicing in the religious and social contributions of church volunteers. The book is currently at the printer with a scheduled arrival date of December 20, 2024.

Is there a church volunteer in your life? Would you like to recognize them – say, on New Year’s Day? Ordering them a copy of this book is a great way to acknowledge the contributions they make to their faith community and, by extension, to the communities where they live. Pre-orders are being accepted here (you can also learn more about the book at the web page provided)!

Advent is just around the corner!

Kim Burkhardt blogs at A Parish Catechist and The Books of the Ages (and a member of the Association of Catholic Publishers). If you are a new visitor, it would be great to have you follow this blog (thank you!). If you know someone who would like this blog, please share it with them (thank you!).

Book Review: The Sacristy Manual

November 16, 2024

The Sacristy Manual is a how-to read for church volunteers and staff involved in supporting the flow of a church service – liturgists, sacristans, etc.

Really, this book is a good for anyone curious about the set-up and flow of a Catholic mass. Who sets up for mass? What is involved in setting up? What items are needed? What items are kept in the sacristy?

Aren’t masses pretty much the same from week to week? Why a need to prepare? Masses don’t happen in auto-pilot. The doors of the church need to be opened, lights need to be turned on. The liturgical books read by the priest need to be opened to the appropriate pages for that weeks’ readings. The seasonal flow of the liturgy is planned and organized. Candles in the sanctuary are lit (altar servers often do this). Communion hosts need to be set out. Seasonal banners are hung in the sanctuary. If there’s a special liturgy, incense and other special-event considerations need to be prepared. Volunteers are coordinated. Much of the preparation for mass happens in the sacristy.

For anyone interested in a hands-on look at the nuance of mass logistics from week to week, this is a great primer.

Surrendering to God transforming us

October 22, 2024

I was in high school when I was first introduced to surrendering to allowing God to change us. At the time, I was challenged by a particular type of life difficulty. I surrendered that difficulty to God and asked for assistance in having my life change. How I was living in the world did improve. I also developed the rudiments of an expanded prayer life. I still tell the story about my prayer life expanding at that time – I, as an adolescent, grew beyond the basics of childhood prayer (“Now I lay me down to sleep” and literal conceptions of Jesus sitting on a physical throne in the clouds) and saw my prayer life expand incrementally toward more of an interactional relationship with God.

In recent years, I surrendered again to allowing God be present in my life. This time, the surrender was broader. “God change me in whatever ways you want me to be different.” Again, my life is changing. I am experiencing emotional reorganizations that I couldn’t have anticipated – transformations beyond what I would have brought about on my own. More freedom, increased life functionality, some measure of more contentment. Growing commitment to being useful to other people. This came about from a prompting of the Holy Spirit – a moment at a church service in October, 2016 when I felt – and responded to – an invitation to allow God to be more fully present in my life (that story is told here).

God wants to be present in our lives. God wants us to be the people we are meant to be, to be fully alive. In the words of Timothy Radcliffe, “We are all radically incomplete. And, we need each other.” We, with our human limitations, need God’s movement in our lives to become the people who we are meant to be. We move toward being complete when we allow God to be the center of our lives and to act in changing us. Acts 17:28: For in God we live and move and have our being.

Allowing God to become the center of our lives, we cease to be the center of our lives. Ceasing to be the center of our live can feel threatening (“But what about me? I’m all I’ve got?”). It turns out that when we step out of the way, God brings freedom into our lives – we become the people we are meant to be and we become more useful in the world. God loves us!

Accompanying you in your faith journey