Reaching Out: Weekly Message for 03-30-2021

Dear Friends in Christ,

In early 2015 I was concluding my doctoral dissertation and one day at Mass I had the idea of sharing with others what celebrating the Mass meant for me spiritually, both before and after priestly ordination. After a six year doctoral research project I was ready to do something else. Fr. John Bartunek at the time was coming periodically to Rome to give courses at our alma mater, the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum, and I was impressed by the Retreat Guides he was doing at RC Spirituality, so I sounded him out about whether they might be interested in my idea. At the time I was stationed full time in Rome (doing teaching ministry almost exclusively in Italian) and RC Spirituality was an opportunity to reach out to English speakers all over the world. Digital evangelization reaches people and places that past missionaries couldn’t have even imagined.

RC Spirituality was interested, and the blog Finding the Plug was born, weekly spiritual reflections on the prayers of Mass from 2015-2018. From those reflections, the book Maximizing the Mass was published in 2020 and a parish bulletin column at St. Brendan the Navigator parish in Cumming, GA. Ideas start small, but you never know where and how far they will go; they can have a lot of reach if you help them along. It’s important to explore the source of those ideas because if they are coming from the Holy Spirit it is an invitation to help the Spirit reach others. That could be something like a blog or a book, or it could simply be a word of encouragement that helps someone you know, near or far, to rediscover or deepen in faith. Salvation history continues through each of us, and Holy Week is a good time to see who that history wants to reach through us. Offer your “reach” to the Holy Spirit.

Father Nikola Derpich, L.C.
Author
Maximizing the Mass
fr.nikola@rcspirituality.org