Weekly THIS AND THAT for May 16, 2010: What I Will Be Doing Beginning July 1, 2010

This and That:
What I Will Be Doing Beginning July 1st


It was after three months of prayer and discernment with a Spiritual Director at the Trappist Monastery of Mepkin Abbey in South Carolina that I began to have a clearer understanding of where God was calling me in ministry as a priest. After 13 years as the Secretary of Education and 21 years as pastor of two parishes, there was a new need I saw emerging in our Catholic People, namely, the desire for a contemplative presence during prayer. It was with that new goal that I began 18 months of study at the Shalem Institute for Spirituality in Washington, DC. Those studies will come to an end this June.

As a result of the process of discernment and preparation I will be offering Contemplative Retreats to the laity, directing Parish Missions, and running Days of Recollection for parish staffs and other interested groups. On free weekends I hope to help out in different parishes by preaching and celebrating weekend liturgies. Over the past two years, in preparation for the new ministries, I have had several opportunities to offer retreats, missions and days of recollection, as well as contemplative prayer group sessions to see if they were a good “fit” for me. I must say I have found them very life-giving and am excited about doing them full-time.

Some have asked where I would be living after Our Lady of Grace, beginning July 1, 2010. In 1988 I built a small rancher in the Susquehanna Valley just 20 miles north of Bel Air in Pennsylvania. Just this year I was able to add an office/den to the small home where I can do all my preparation, copying and printing. While I will officially be a resident of Pennsylvania, I will maintain a Maryland address.

The contact information is:

Father Nicholas Amato
P.O. Box 40
Whiteford, Maryland 21160
FatherNicholasAmato@gmail.com

Once I see how my weekly schedule shakes out, I am also thinking of offering prison inmates an opportunity to learn contemplative prayer. I have often thought of facing the Lord one day and my asking him, “Lord, when did I see you hungry, ill, naked, or in prison…?” and realized there was an area in my caring for others over the years that needed some attention. It also seems like a great opportunity to give them something transformative in the many hours they have while incarcerated.

In the retreats, missions, and days of recollection I have already given, at the conclusion of our time together the question has often arisen among participants, “How can we do this again?” As a result, what I have begun generating are several avenues for individuals to learn more about what I’m offering in this area, should they want to avail themselves of the opportunities:

➢ An email list of names that every six months will receive the retreats, missions and days of recollection I will be offering. More about getting on this list in a moment.

➢ A blog (frnickamato.blogspot.com entitled “WordsWorthNoting”) that is updated weekly with homilies and other presentations. It has all homilies and “This and That” columns since July 2006

➢ By June 30th there will be available a fully developed Facebook page regarding these ministries

➢ Also by June 30th the ministries will be on Twitter for daily up-to-date photos and summaries of what is going on in the areas of retreats, missions and days of recollection

➢ If all of this sounds like garble or is overload, simply google FatherNicholasAmato and that will get you to my blog.

That, in a nutshell, is probably more than you needed to know about what the future holds for me. The next month and a half will certainly be a bittersweet experience for me as I begin to share our farewells. I do hope there will be times to do that face-to-face. Our Lady of Grace will always be my #1 home and because one day I would hope to rest in peace somewhere on the property, it will also be my final home before heaven.

If you would like to be added to the 6-month emailing list for retreats, missions, and days of recollection, simply let me know by sending an email to me at: FatherNicolasAmato@gmail.com.
See you at Mass soon.

Love,
Father Nicholas