Something New

Dear Reader,

I want to make a simple statement as I begin this new blogging project.

The statement is simply that time flies and waits for none of us.

The monumental reality of this simple truth began to settle upon me a few years ago. The settling coincided with the approach to my sixty-second birthday. I will, in a few short months, arrive at the sixty-five-year age marker. The reality of this simple truth is now full blown.

It seems like only yesterday that I was writing my Oblate Offerings blog. The truth of the matter is that a dozen years have passed since I first started that project. Oblate Offerings chronicled my journey as a Protestant minister discovering a new life in the Catholic Church and a vocation as an Oblate of Saint Benedict.

Oblate Offerings has recently been privatized and is no longer publicly available. Selections have been gleaned from Oblate Offerings, as well as from some of my other devotional writing, and will soon be published and made available via Kindle Direct Publishing.

Where liturgical time is concerned, we are approaching the Season of Advent where we will celebrate afresh the birth of our Lord Jesus. Where natural calendar time is concerned, we are approaching a new year. 2018 will forever be a thing of the past. 2019 will usher in a natural calendar year of opportunities.

I discover two imploring questions where this liturgical time and natural calendar time are concerned.

How will we respond to the reality of Christ’s birth and coming to us as the one who takes away the sins of the world?

What will we do with the amount of natural time that we have left on earth?

Aging has a way of causing us to evaluate. It has a way of causing us to examine ourselves and our priorities. We may not appreciate the aches and creaks in our joints. We may not appreciate that our physical vigor is waning. Aging though, I am discovering, is really a precious gift reminding me of my own mortality and the shortness of my time here on earth. Aging, like nothing else I have experienced, causes me to focus on those things that are most important, especially on those things that are most spiritually important.

Advent, and the New Year about to arrive, are both about new beginnings.

Oblate Reflections, as part of the new beginnings, picks up where Oblate Offerings left off. Perhaps, though, with a much more grandfatherly tone.

Grandfatherly tone?

I am coming to see it as the ribbon that wraps this gift called aging.

I do invite you to join me as I look afresh at the spiritual truths that we, as Catholic followers of Christ, and especially as Oblates of Saint Benedict, hold dear to our hearts and labor to integrate into the 21^st Century lives that we live – truths that harbor the potential to change not only our lives but lives close to us.

May we all be born anew this Advent Season and make the New Year one of spiritual adventure. I am looking forward to the adventure!

Deo Gratias – Thanks be to God.

Your brother,

David A. Kralik