I’ll See You At The Movies!

Friday, August 11th, 2017

Here we are again in September! How’s your sunburn? 

 

It is without fanfare and is more of an announcement than a farewell, that after two years I am closing down the Reflections blog. Fear not! I’ll be back every other week but under a new title and focus.

 

The Reflections blog was created three years ago by our friend and former pastor, Fr. Leonard J. Gilman, O.Carm. It was an opportunity for us to build non-event based content for our new parish website. In addition to the meditation podcast with the God’s Garden visual prayers and the stellar Presence blog from Deacon Lex (which will continue!), the Reflections blog offered parishioners an opportunity to engage their faith in different ways.  We envisioned a way to reflect on each Sunday’s Gospel message. I look forward to moving in a different direction now that I have journeyed my way through two liturgical cycles.


Reading the blog in its entirety—my first post was on September 8, 2015—I was overwhelmed. I enjoyed Fr. Leonard’s posts and devilishly admit that he was a stronger writer than I first presumed. Shame on me! I really enjoyed many of his insights and look back on them quite fondly. I also loved Fr. Ashley Harrington’s single reflection on the publication of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si.

 

There were some cringe-worthy moments where the blog deadline as opposed to insights seemed to influence the quality of the post.  I’m really happy with some posts and writing them each week served as a way to scratch the itch of guiding a Bible study and perhaps revealing a too-public journal. I had  hoped through reading and praying over the Gospels, to quote the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, “to explain myself to myself.”

 

I never thought anyone was really reading the Reflections blog and I am very touched to see that you actually are! I’m so humbled that it took off as well as it did. It was a pleasure whispering into your ear a little and, whether you agreed with me or I exasperated you, or both, I hope you know it was sincere.  

 

It was an honor to take up the Reflections blog and I realize the young pupil who took up the master’s pen did so much—I got married and moved twice.  I smile when I think of all those friends—Fr. Leonard, RJ Sy, Sister Trinity, and my dear mother—who are no longer here and I’m proud of the ones who are still serving God though not at OLMC—Mike Bruno, Eileen Heffernan and all those Academy alumni.

 

Finally, I want to acknowledge the enormity of the gift of Roxanne Kougasian who has edited nearly every single Reflections post (including Fr. Leonard’s). Her deep intelligence, gentle prodding and deep literateness and love of literature were pillars for us to stand on.  Her intelligence is vast as is her ability to reconstruct a butchered sentence that I wrote on a regular basis! Thank you, Roxanne. 

 

The next iteration of the blog will focus on spirituality and culture.  If you keep reading (and it is my hope that you do), you’ll be able to share my thoughts on the larger culture—arts, literature, film, politics and current events—through our Catholic lens. What is the new blog about? Well, in the same way my wife answers the question You guys like the movies, what should I see? she says, “See everything.” So, in short, the new blog will be about everything. Sounds pretty Catholic to me.  I’ll see you at the movies.

 

I’ll be seeing you (next week!),

 

Elliot

Event Signup Forms
View Signup Forms