Fr. Yuri Kuzara, C.PP.S., is in ministry at our Sorrowful Mother Shrine in Bellevue, Ohio, where the schedule is fairly light in the early months of the year. A fallow time in our lives can be a time of great creativity, he says.
By Fr. Yuri Kuzara, C.PP.S.
The time from January to March at the shrine does not provide much to write about. Yet this off period can be very productive. Productive in two ways: it allows reflection about past events, and more importantly, time to dream and imagine. To daydream!
Daydreaming can be good and healthy. Imagining conceives fresh ideas; energizes one to read the signs of the times; drives away faint-heartedness and discouragement; challenges and encourages persons to explore, saying yes to new horizons and adventures; heroically encountering them with renewed gusto and at times a bit of apprehension, as in Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak.
Daydreaming gives birth to a plethora of new creations and advancement of innovative ministries through common collaboration with others. It can be challenging and encouraging.
I’ve been thinking of the shrine’s upcoming 175th anniversary in 2025. These thoughts take me back to where the wild things are, daydreaming and collaboration. As a Community, our members are very talented. We have good imaginations, and we can dream. The same may be said about Companions, our lay associates.
Now that we are the United States Province, let’s enter into that adventurous and wild land, led by the Holy Spirit (not some wild creature), and collaborate to make the Sorrowful Mother Shrine’s 175th anniversary a celebration of honor and thanksgiving to Our Lady for graces received by so many throughout the years.