Editor's Note
Goodness? What’s that?
A while back, I was telling a friend about my plans for this issue. “The theme,” I told him, was “goodness.” He raised his eyebrows.
“Goodness?” he said. “What’s that? You’ll need to come up with something a little more concrete than goodness.”
In a way, he was right. The fruits of the Holy Spirit can seem a bit vague in the abstract. It’s when they are incarnated in the lives of faithful people that they take on color and meaning, and most vividly reflect their Source. In June we saw generosity manifested in the parishioners of St. Brendan in Shallotte. In July, Ft. Bragg’s Military Council of Catholic Women showed us one of the faces of charity. This month, we’re featuring four Catholic young people who want to guide other youth in their faith, to be models and teachers of a closer relationship with the Lord.
In Psalm 73, King David’s choir leader Asaph talks about the kind of spiritual journey many encounter in their teens, perhaps especially in today’s materialistic world. Asaph tried to be a faithful Jew, thinking that God would then reward him with good things. Instead, he saw the wicked people around him enjoying wealth and its attendant pleasures while he failed to prosper. He began to wonder if he was a fool. Gradually, though, as he continued to practice his faith, he realized that his goals had been skewed. At the end of the psalm, he understands an important truth:
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
that I may tell of all Your works.
That understanding of goodness is a hard-won lesson the young people in this month’s cover story are committed to sharing with other youth.
Certainly one of the faces of God’s goodness is the priesthood. In the weeks of preparation for this issue, two young men, Michael Spurr and Romen Acero, were ordained to the transitional diaconate, the last step before their ordination as priests. In the same time frame, our Diocese lost a beloved priest, Fr. John Parish. At his funeral, it was clear from the words of those who knew him that the Lord’s goodness had shone through his ministry. In this issue, diocesan Director of Vocations Fr. Ned Shlesinger answers a question from a young reader: “How can I tell if God is calling me to be a priest?”
Thanks as always for your letters. You can reach me at 715 Nazareth Street, Raleigh, NC 27606 or reece@raldioc.org.