Religious communities in our tradition usually have “Bishop Visitors.” These are bishops who agree to be advisors, encouragers, and friends of the Community. I serve in this capacity for the Community of Transfiguration in Cincinnati and am here to chair the Board of Trustees and Society meeting which occur annually.
It’s hardly a retreat since I am in meetings morning, noon and night and there are often major decisions to be made affecting the life and future of the Community. Yet, the regular round of Morning, Noon, Evening, and Night Prayers and the Daily Eucharist provide a framework which is in itself spiritually refreshing.
St. Benedict writes of days balanced between prayer, work and study and — while that is not easy to achieve even in a monastery — even the attempt to do so beats the hectic pace which consumes most of our daily lives. We closed our Chapter meeting tonight with this great prayer adapted from Thomas Merton:
Our Lord God, we have no idea where we are going.
We do not see the road ahead of us.
We cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do we really know ourselves, and the fact that we think we are following your will does not mean that we are actually doing so.
But we believe that our desire to please you does in fact please you.
And we hope that we have that desire in all that we are doing.
We hope that we will never do anything apart from that desire.
And we know that if we do this, you will lead us by the right road though we may know nothing about it.
Therefore will we trust in you always, though we may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
We will not fear, for you are ever with us,
and you will never leave us to face our perils alone.
(A great prayer for us as individuals…for our communities…and indeed for the Church at large!)
That We All May Be One 
September 28, 2007 at 2:36 am |
the work of a bishop visitor–especially in recent years, where the job has expanded–is important and hard work. i am grateful to all those bishops (our own, and you, and and all the rest) who undertake this responsibility. it is a wonderful gift to the communities, and to the church, so thanks.
September 28, 2007 at 9:38 am |
One of the things I enjoy most these days…
September 29, 2007 at 11:52 pm |
I think now, more than ever, the witness of religious communities to the church (in America, especially) and the world outside the church is desperately needed. May God bless and multiply your efforts, Bishop Epting! I’m hoping for (dare I use the word in an Episcopalian context!?) REVIVAL in all the Anglican orders.
March 20, 2010 at 7:10 am |
although I misuse nearly all of my day on the internet actively playing online games like zynga poker or mafia wars, I still like to put aside some free time to look through a couple of websites here and there and I’m contented to report this latest statement is really pretty good quality and enormously better than 1 / 2 the various other poor quality trash I read today , anyways i’m off to take up a smattering of rounds of facebook poker
June 19, 2020 at 11:04 am |
Hi,
We’re wondering if you’ve ever considered taking the content from ecubishop.com and converting it into videos to promote on Youtube using Content Samurai?
It’s another ‘rod in the pond’ in terms of traffic generation, as so many people use Youtube.
You can read a bit more about the software here: https://turntextintovideo.com
Kind Regards,
Carin