October’s Lovliness: Weekly Message for 10-12-2021

Dear Digital Pilgrims,

This week’s reflection is written by Fr. John Pietropaoli, LC. who hails from Malone, New York.  Fr. John is no stranger to RCSpirituality. He has written Retreat Guides that many of you have loved over the years. He entered the Novitiate of the Legionaries of Christ in Cheshire, Connecticut, in September of 2000. He subsequently studied Classical Humanities in Cheshire and completed his studies in Philosophy and Theology in Rome, Italy. He was ordained a priest on December 15, 2012, and completed a Licentiate Degree in Spiritual Theology in Rome in 2014. He then served as chaplain at Divine Mercy University in Virginia from 2014-2017, and as superior of the Legionary community in Philadelphia from 2017-2020. He is currently serving as a professor at the Legion of Christ College of Humanities in Cheshire. In addition to Retreat Guides and RC Essays, he has written Homily Packs at ePriest.com.

Please welcome him as a new contributor to our weekly newsletter.

To our fellow missionaries:

October’s is a special loveliness. And in his mesmeric “Poem in October,” Dylan Thomas offers an interpretation of that enchantment. As he walked the woods near his home, the rainy weather turned around and the poet “Saw in the turning so clearly a child’s/Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother/Through the parables/Of sunlight/And the legends of the green chapels.”

 That calls to mind Christ’s words on Good Friday. In the Gospel of John, we read that from the cross Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved. To his mother he said “Woman, behold your son.” To the disciple whom he loved he said, “Behold your mother.” In that moment Jesus gave all of us to Mary as her children. And when he had done this, did his heart, perhaps, recall those words from the first creation, when God saw everything that he had made, and declared it very good?

 For it is not good for us to be alone, and by giving his mother as our mother, Jesus offers a supreme gift. Dylan Thomas’s mother took his hand and led him through the woods in safety and in peace; the Blessed Virgin Mary will take our hand and lead us to her son’s heart. Her delight, too, is to be with the children of men (Proverbs 8:31). 

 October is especially dedicated to Mary as the month of the rosary. As we pray the rosary, perhaps we can let something of the season itself sink in, when nature slows its pace and prepares for the strange fruitfulness of winter. Perhaps we can welcome God’s word, in whatever way it comes, and hold it in our hearts. And perhaps we can ponder God’s loving providence as, through the eyes and in the heart of Mary, we glimpse her son and his heavenly Father always at work in our lives and in the world. 

Yours in Christ,

Fr. John Pietropaoli, LC