Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

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A Eucharistic Spirituality of Ministry of the Word
Drawing on the Wisdom of Saint Francis DeSales
By Kathleen Hope Brown
Be devoted to the Word of God whether you hear it in familiar conversation with spiritual friends or in sermons. Always listen to it with attention and reverence; make good use of it; do not let it fall to earth but take it into your heart like a precious balm¹.
The catechist concludes her Sunday morning religious education class. Parents meet the children and families go over to church for Mass. As she closes the classroom door and prepares to go Mass herself, she wonders whether today's lesson about the Prodigal Son helped the children in their understanding of God's mercy. She reflects briefly on the conversation she had with her sister yesterday evening, and on her own struggle with forgiveness… The lector pauses for a few moments in the sacristy to rehearse once again her proclamation of Paul’s letter to the Romans, ..."just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him." Since the death of her husband two years ago, those words have taken on a whole new meaning.....

As the presider prepares for the opening procession, his thoughts go once more to the homily he has prepared. "In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places." Room for everyone! This large and rapidly-growing parish, amidst all of the strain and tension that growth brings, is called to inclusiveness. The community needs to hear that everyone has a place in the Kingdom of God ….

The community gathers to celebrate the Eucharist. We come to the Lord's Table to be fed with his Body and Blood, and we are then sent forth to be the Body of Christ in the World. First, though, we gather to listen to the Word, to hear the story of our salvation, to reconnect with our roots as God’s people, to be nourished by the promise of God's love and fidelity. It is the Word that calls us to the Lord’s Table. It is the Word that summons us to break bread as a family, to celebrate the presence of the Lord in our midst, to allow the Lord to nourish us at his table with food for our journey.

The Word gives life, not just in the abstract but in the very humanity of those who proclaim and those who hear. The Word of God transforms, and the church's Ministers of the Word witness to its transformative power in their very beings. The Word of God calls its ministers to a Eucharistic spirituality that has its origins in the Word itself, a spirituality that allows that Word to enter their hearts and take root there.

God’s Word is powerful, creative and life-giving. Ministers of the Word are the bearers of that Word. If their ministry is to be effective, they must allow God’s Word to resonate within them, filling them with a sense of awe and reverence for its power. Theirs is the spirituality of one who has not only heard the Word but been transformed by it. It is a spirituality of openness, humility, and vulnerability. Those who would proclaim, preach and teach the Word must allow that Word to run through their own minds and hearts and draw them into the promise that it holds.

What follows is a vision of the spirituality of a Minister of the Word that has these essential elements: (1) humility; (2) authenticity; (3) prayer; and (4) openness to transformation. The vision draws upon the wisdom and insight of St. Francis DeSales.

1. Humility

Nothing indeed can humble us so much before the mercy of God as the multitude of his benefits, and nothing can humble us so deeply before his justice as the multitude of our misdeeds. Let us consider what he has done for us and what we have done against him. As we consider in detail our sins let us also reflect in detail on the graces he has given us…a lively consideration of the graces received makes us humble, for the recognition of them begets gratitude².
The Word reassures us of God’s faithful love. The Word also judges us, calling us to consider our failure to live up to its call. Humility, as St. Francis DeSales says, lies in allowing the abundance of God’s blessings and the reality of what they ask of us to seep into our consciousness. Humility for DeSales is about truth, the truth of our goodness and of our failings, the truth of who we are and of who we are called to be. He writes that humility should lead a desire to serve.

Profound humility toward God should produce gentleness toward our neighbors. This, in turn, should foster a kindliness of heart³.
The Word calls us beyond ourselves to loving service of our sisters and brothers.

Devotion that is true and living presupposes the love of God, rather it is nothing else than a true love of God. It is not, however, love as such. Insofar as divine love enriches us it is called grace, which makes us pleasing to God. Insofar as it gives us the strength to do good, it is called charity. But when it grows to such a degree of perfection that it makes us not only do good but moves us to do it carefully, frequently, and promptly, it is called devotion⁴.
Put into contemporary language, DeSales is saying that a spirituality that fills us with the love of God is lived out in a life of service to others.

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus realized that the hour had come for him to pass from this world to the Father. He had loved his own in this world, and would show his love for them to the end…Jesus - fully aware that he had come from God and was going to God, the Father who had handed everything over to him - rose from the meal and took off his cloak. He picked up a towel and tied it around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel he had around him…He said to them…What I just did was to give you an example: as I have done, so you must do. (John 13:1-15)
In presiding at this final Passover meal, Jesus provided an example of the loving service to which his disciples are called. It is not so much the particular act of washing feet that is to be imitated, but the overflowing love from which it came. A spirituality of humble, loving service should be part of Ministry of the Word, whenever and however it takes place.

As servants of faith communities, Ministers of the Word allow their own faith to become transparent and place their faith at the service of the community. By their actions and their attitudes, they show that their everyday human lives are true expressions of their spiritual lives. Ministers become vulnerable in their willingness to witness to something greater than themselves. When ministers proclaim, preach, or teach the Word, they allow God’s creative, life-giving Word to happen through them as they become open to the work of the Holy Spirit in their own life and in the life of the community that gathers.

The community looks to the presider to gather them in the name of Christ, to welcome them, to give voice to their prayer. The assembly depends upon those who proclaim the Word to mediate an encounter with God. Children and adults being formed in the faith depend upon catechists to teach the Word in a way that touches their minds and hearts. These are awesome and humbling responsibilities of service to the community, calls to participate in the mystery, the struggle, the very life of the community.

The image of the servant-leader that Jesus held out to his disciples captures the spirit that a Minister of the Word should have. However, the concept of servant leadership does not mean that ministers are the only ones with something to give. Ministers of the Word must see the community not merely as those who are served, but also as those who support and heal and encourage one another, including the community’s ministers. Ministry must never become a symbol of superiority, power, or domination. True servant-leadership is humble, and recognizes that each person in the community has something valuable to give. True servant-leadership recognizes

...this truth, that none of the good in us comes from ourselves…we will of course enjoy it and rejoice in it because we possess it, but we will glorify God because he alone is its author⁵.
2. Authenticity

A person addicted to fasting may think of himself as very devout when he fasts, though his heart is at the same time filled with rancor…another person considers herself very devout because she recites daily a multiplicity of prayers, although immediately afterwards she utters the most disagreeable, arrogant and injurious words in her home and among her neighbors. Still another draws alms out of his purse to give to the poor, but cannot draw meekness out of his heart to forgive his enemies. People such as these are commonly perceived as devout, when in fact, they are not⁶.
DeSales’ thoughts on true and false devotion suggest a definition of authenticity of life as the intersection - indeed, the congruence - of the private and the public, the inside and the outside, the spiritual journey and the human journey. Authenticity means that one’s spirituality permeates the whole of one’s being. Authenticity means that the Word that one proclaims, preaches or teaches has invaded one’s own soul and taken root there.

We find a model of authenticity in the life and ministry of Jesus. Wherever he went, Jesus was recognized as one with authority because there was something trustworthy about him, something in his manner and message that moved people’s hearts⁷. His ministry was born of a deep and intimate relationship with the Father and nourished by a life of prayer. Authenticity for a Minister of the Word means inviting Christ, the Word, to enter one’s heart and transform it. A life of faith, obedience, and service in imitation of Jesus are qualities of a minister that will be recognized by the community and become a source of the minister’s authority to proclaim, teach, and preach the Word. Ministers of the Word stand before the community first and foremost as fellow believers, sisters and brothers in faith. Ministry of the Word involves an active sharing of faith between the one who ministers and the community. The community will sense the minister’s depth of conviction. If ministers are open to the movement of the Spirit of God in their own lives, they enable the Spirit to move the listeners in ways beyond their imagining⁸.

Integration is perhaps another word for the sort of authenticity that ministry of the Word demands. Ministry of the Word involves both the faith and the everyday human life⁹ of the minister; not a faith that is somehow added onto that human life, but a faith that is integrated into the totality of the minister’s human life. To speak of these two realms of life - the human and the spiritual - is not to say that they are separate. Our humanity is the instrument of the Spirit. Through the person of the minister, the Word of God is given a human voice, human expression. The deeper one’s spiritual life, the more convincing and effective one’s witness and ministry.

3. Prayer

Blessed, indeed, are those who lovingly preserve the awareness of God’s presence in the stillness of their hearts; they will be drawing ever closer to God - imperceptible though it may seem - their whole soul filled with the infinite charm of it. By the awareness of God’s presence, in this context, I do not mean sense awareness, but one which has its place in the apex, the highest point of the soul, where the love of God is supreme, where it is chiefly practiced¹⁰.
The Minister of the Word must be present to the mystery of God working in his or her own life, and this presence requires a prayerful spirit. Prayer is that place where the connections between the minister’s journey of faith and human journey are made. Prayer is that space in which a minister becomes authentic. Prayer is that place in which the minister approaches God in humility, and in which the call to ministry is heard. One who ministers the Word is called to be prayerful.

The prayerfulness to which a minister is called is three-fold. (1) Unless the minister spends time alone with God, in loving and silent attentiveness, he or she cannot sense the Lord’s guidance and direction for their ministry. Times of silence and solitude for private prayer are essential in the life of a minister. For a Minister of the Word, reflection on Scripture should be an integral part of private prayer. (2) Times of prayer in community are also vital; it is the community that calls one to ministry and to whom one is accountable for that ministry. Ministry makes no sense in isolation; one is a minister because of one’s relationship to the community. (3) There is also prayerful dwelling in the world in order to be able to make the connection between life and the Word. A sacramental view of the world, through which the minister finds the presence of God in all of creation, gives depth and breadth to Ministry of the Word. This multi-faceted prayerfulness is not only part of the ministry of the Word, but a way of life for the minister.

4. Openness to Transformation

Blessed are those whose hearts are ever open to God's inspiration; they will never lack what they need to live good, holy lives, or to perform properly the duties of their state...if we offer no obstacle to grace - he gives each of us the inspirations needed for life¹¹...
St. Francis DeSales believed that there are many ways by which God reveals his will to human persons. Scripture is one expression of what DeSales calls "the signified will of God." For DeSales, the call to human perfection is the call to unite our will to the will of God. In order to discern God’s will, we take to heart God's inspirations, counsels, and the circumstances in which we find ourselves. We seek to know God’s will in order to be who God calls us to be. This is a lifelong process of discernment and openness to transformation.

Once when Jesus was praying in solitude, and the disciples were with him, he asked then, "Who do the crowds say that I am?” They said in reply, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen.’” Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said in reply, “The Messiah of God.” [Luke 9:18-20]
Few of us would welcome being caught off guard by the sort of questions Jesus poses to his disciples in this passage. In reality, however, our journey of faith calls us to confront the question, "Who is God?" every day. Our human journey likewise confronts us with the question, "Who am I?" If our spiritual life is the integration of our journey of faith and our human journey, our spirituality consists of the ever-changing, ever-evolving interplay between our answers to those two questions.

The Minister of the Word is called not only to communicate God’s Word, but to be open to transformation by the Word. The Word is living and active. When it touches us in the depths of our soul, it has the power to shape our answers to the questions, "Who is God?" and "Who am I?" Openness to transformation means a spirituality of surrender to the will of God for one's life.

The experience of ministry can be transformative in itself. Ministry is an encounter with the living God in our sisters and brothers. Ministers have a privileged place from which to glimpse the power of God at work in the life of the community. If they are open to the experience, it will shape the minister’s own answers to the questions, "Who is God?" and Who am I?"

The sun's rays give both light and warmth together. Inspiration is a ray of grace bringing light and warmth to our hearts: light to show us what is good; warmth to give us energy to go after it. All living things in this world are numbed by winter's cold; with the return of spring's warmth they come to life again - animals move more swiftly, birds fly higher with livelier song, plants gaily bud and blossom. Without inspiration the life of the soul is sluggish, impotent, useless. Once the rays of God's inspiration strike it, however, we are aware of light and life ... our minds are enlightened, our wills are inflamed and quickened with strength to intend and fulfill whatever may lead to our salvation¹².
By their work and their witness, Ministers of the Word call us to the Lord’s Table to be transformed, like the elements of bread and wine, into the living presence of Christ on earth.

1. Francis DeSales, Introduction to the Devout Life, II,18.
2. Introduction, III,5.
3. Francis DeSales, Spiritual Conferences, XIII.
4. Introduction, I.1.
5. Introduction, III:5.
6. Introduction, I:1.
7. Kathleen Hughes writes about Jesus’ authority as a model in her booklet, Lay Presiding: The Art of Leading Prayer (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1991), p. 12-13.
8. Susan Myers addresses these thoughts on ministry specifically to lectors in the Workbook for Lectors and Gospel Readers: Year C, 2001 (Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 2000) p. v.
9. Peter Fink writes about the necessity for integration on the part of liturgical presiders in his article, “Spirituality for Liturgical Presiders” in Disciples at the Crossroads: Perspectives on Worship and Church Leadership, ed. Eleanor J. Bernstein (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1993), p. 49-62.
10. Francis DeSales, Treatise on the Love of God, VII.1.
11. Treatise, VII,10.
12. Treatise, VIII, 10.

Kathleen Hope Brown, D.Min,, is a Regional Director of the DeSales Spirituality Center in Washington, D.C.
She also teaches at the Washington Theological Union.