My Least Favorite Time of Year: Weekly Message for 08-13-2019

Dear Fellow Digital Pilgrim, Pax Christi:

Summer is my least favorite season.  If you read my book, Summer Meditations, you will encounter some of the formative experiences from my childhood that probably created this distaste in my subconscious.  But even if you don’t read that little volume, you now understand why I am glad that summer is finally on the downswing and autumn is about to come out of the wings.

Even though summer is my least favorite season, I have to admit that August has some very special liturgical highlights.  The Feast of the Transfiguration, which we celebrated last week, is one of the great ones. And if you haven’t yet watched our newest Retreat Guide dedicated to that topic – Anchored in Light: A Retreat Guide on the Transfiguration of the Lord  – I can highly recommend it.  In that retreat guide, we not only delve into the spiritual significance of the event, but we also touch on some of the feast day’s fascinating historical background.

This week we are gearing up to celebrate Mary’s Assumption on August 15th, which begins a powerful Marian week culminating in the feast of the Queenship of Mary on August 22nd.  

As a devotee of the Rosary for more than twenty-five years, both of these Marian mysteries mean a lot to me.  I have unpacked some of their beauty in God Is Faithful, our Retreat Guide on the Assumption, and River of Wisdom, our Retreat Guide on the Rosary. 

As summer ends and another school year begins (with all the agitation and controlled chaos that can bring), you may find either or both of those Retreat Guides (available in video, audio, and PDF) useful to support your prayer life.  

And, in the end, that really is the most important thing.  If our prayer life is growing, God will be able to guide us along that path of holiness and happiness much more easily.  So even as summer wanes, we want to keep giving you a hand to make sure your prayer life doesn’t.

God bless you!

Yours sincerely in Christ,

Fr John Bartunek, LC