Revitalize!

I’m really enjoying God’s gift of yearly cycles.  During the summer, especially, is my time to refresh, re-energize, and re-commit.  This is possible because so many things slow down during this season as people focus on vacations and family.

Sometimes the summer “break” feels a little weird because our kids are grown up and I’m running my own business, but that’s a topic for another day.

For the last three years, I’ve gone to the Sacred Music Colloquium.  It’s totally consuming and draining, but my spirit is renewed for the coming year.  I’ve been able to work with so many deeply talented and spiritual people, and have ideas I can take back to my parish.

It’s also a time to connect with each member of our Schola one on one, to see how things are going for them.  Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to call this week, though, as most people were out in connection with the upcoming holiday.  That’s OK – we’ll connect over the course of the coming month.

I’ll be looking at doing another parish chant workshop this year, as that was so well received last summer and helped double the size of our schola.  I’ve got some wonderful ideas to work with that came from the instructors and attendees at the Colloquium.

It’s also a time of reflection and planning for our upcoming RCIA year.  I’m excited that we’re going to take a day to focus on this next week, to see what needs to be adjusted.  We’ve been doing this during the summer for many years, and it’s always a great exercise to get the RCIA team aligned and focused on the most important thing:  Bringing people to God.

What could be more important?