Detroit with the Oblates of St Francis de Sales

So I am in Detroit for a few days with the Oblates of Francis de Sales. The purpose of my time here is to help them with the province assembly. This is the Western Province (or the Toledo-Detroit Province). They have men and works across the USA from Niagara Falls to Oakland. The Eastern province, with whom I stayed last year around this time, is mainly centered between Philadelphia, Wilmington Delaware, Childs Maryland, Washington, and the Carolinas.

The Oblates have asked me to present some spiritual reflections on St Francis de Sales, and my first instinct was to give something similar to what I delivered last year. However, I received early instructions to concentrate on themes of priestly vocation. I was also given examples of contemporary USA theologians and pastoralists that the group seems to be using for their pastoral planning.

All this has put me at a bit of a loss as to how to proceed, but last week in a telephone call, Fr John Graden, of DeSales Resources and Ministries, told me that I should just go about delivering what I usually do with the Salesian Family and not worry about the references to contemporary theologians. "Give them a taste of the life and experience of Francis de Sales. We know him as a spiritual director; you Salesians know him as a missionary and pastor. We know the writings," he continued, "but you know the stories. And it is stories that our guys need to hear at about right now."

Well, okay. Let me hope that I can deliver something useful here. It is still an hour before breakfast and I am a bit nervous about what I can present to them, but my script is ready, the materials photocopied, and in less that three hours I'll be in front of the group to launch their province convocation. Wooooo! However did I agree to this?

Dear St Francis de Sales, you will have to make your presence felt through me… okay? Just for these three days. :-)