The title of my 19 July 2006 post was "How Occasional?" Well, for the next eight years I posted on many, many occasions. Initially, the answer to the question was "Quite frequently." For the last five years, my blogging, while still quite frequent (about 10 times per month, on average), has tapered down to a much more manageable level of effort.
It's funny how important cultivating this small cyberspace has become for me. Do I sometimes think about hanging it up? Sure. As I tell forlorn deacons on occasion: If you don't think about quitting the ministry and walking away once in a while, you don't really care. After all, the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference. Far from being indifferent about what I do here, virtually speaking, I remain quite passionate about it.
I don't blog for popularity. Over the years, the popularity of Καθολικός διάκονος has ebbed and flowed, waxed and waned. I figured out in the early years of blogging when my posts were really not read by anyone, that blogging is a vehicle of personal growth for me. If you were to read Καθολικός διάκονος start-to-today (something I definitely don't recommend), hopefully you would see steady growth and evolution. That alone is enough to make blogging worth the effort.
I am grateful that there are people who find value in what I post. This certainly encourages me to continue blogging. After all, I do see my effort on Καθολικός διάκονος as something as an extension of my ministry.
At the end of past years, I have selected and posted links to what I think have been the best posts of each month. Especially given that besides the Friday traditio, reflections on the Sunday readings, and my homilies, I haven't posted much this year, I am going to post links to all my posts that aren't any of those three.
January- "Not being afraid because God is with us"
"Anniversary reflections on being a deacon"
February- "Addendum: angelic ministry is diaconal"
"Evening notes for the Second Sunday of Lent"
March- "Jesus on the Cross: facing our fear of death"
"Faith is decisive"
"Talk About the Passion"
June- "Belated thoughts on Corpus Christi"
July- "Thoughts for a Saturday"
August- "Deacons Are Catechists"
"Keeping God's Law"
December- "Pooping in St. Paul's and the Incarnation"
"Traditionis custodes and deacons"
I don't mind saying that 2021 was for me a far more difficult year than 2020. Without a doubt, the most painful aspect of this year was the loss of some dear friends, people my age, who seemed and still seem far too young to die. These are people whose absence from the world makes me more than a little anxious, more than a little sad. I have tears in my eyes writing about this.
In trying to explain 2021 to my wife last week, the best description I could come up with was that it felt like I was walking uphill all year. No wonder my knees hurt.
While I realize that how we reckon time is somewhat of an arbitrary imposition, years matter to me. I always find some hope in the dawning of a new year.
Last night, we went to the grocery store at dusk. The skies here along the Wasatch Front have been gray. It's been cold and snowy for the past two weeks. An actual winter! I am enjoying it a lot. As we walked through the parking lot toward the store, out on the Western horizon, just above the mountains that rise to the West of the Great Salt Lake (such as it is now- not so "Great"), there was a streak of bright orange. Above and to the sides of the glowing streak were incredibly black clouds. Catching a glimpse of that sunset, quite unconsciously, I said out loud: "That's what hope looks like." Hearing me say something, my wife, asked what I'd said. I replied with "Oh, nothing, really. Thinking out loud."
Happy New Year, dear reader! I will catch you on the other side. May 2022 be all you want it to be and more. I give you my humble, diaconal blessing.
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