A heartfelt pledge to be a stable bridge

Pittsburgh has often been called the “City of Bridges.” In gaining access and egress to and from the city of Pittsburgh alone, there are any number of bridges.

Because of the major main arteries that the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers provide to our area, there are also many bridges that connect with the smaller communities of our diocese. The Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge has long stood as an important tributary between rival towns in my own home territory in Beaver County.

As I have had an opportunity to reflect over the course of the last 10 years, I believe that one of my important roles is to be a bridge — between God and his people and vice versa.

I well remember the last piece of advice that I received from my spiritual director when I was leaving St. Mary Seminary and University in Baltimore in 1975 to be ordained to the priesthood. “David, more important than anything that you will say to your people as a priest about God’s word from the pulpit is what you say to God about your people at the altar.” Clearly, I have not forgotten that sound advice. In my celebration of the Eucharist, in my daily prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours and in multiple other ways, I try to take seriously God’s expectation of me to be a bridge.

As I find myself in these beginning days as shepherd of the church of Pittsburgh, I pledge myself to be a good bridge. The upper right panel of my personal coat of arms indicates that fact — a reminder to me personally and a reminder to you about me.

Mary, our model

With that view, I begin my biweekly column in the Pittsburgh Catholic, to be a bridge, to stay connected with you. As I do so, it is my hope to be “bridging the gap” that sometimes happens in your life and mine, particularly in our relationships with God and each other.

When I first went to the Diocese of Green Bay, I chose the title “Bridging the Gap” for my column to underscore the purpose of my messages to the faithful of that local church, and have decided to do the same with you, my wonderful family of the church of Pittsburgh.

During the Mass of my installation Sept. 28, I chose to pray the prayers from the Mass for Mary, model and mother of the church. If anyone was to serve as a bridge between God and his people, it was, in fact, Mary. Her deeply maternal sense gave welcome to our Savior in his taking on our flesh and blood — as a matter of fact, everything human about us except sin. Her deeply maternal sense and our union with her in faith recognizes that she is also the mother of each of us as she is mother of the church. If there ever was a person who was excited about her faith, it was Mary.

Over the course of the last weeks, many of you, either by personal contact or letter or e-mail, have offered your own reflections on my idea that we be excited about our faith and that we not procrastinate in what God expects of us. The enthusiasm with which you have shared with me your own reflections gives me great hope that we all become bridges to one another and to the world in which we live of the magnificent and tender, loving presence of our God.

I am excited about, and look forward to, the ways in which you and I together can be people involved in “bridging the gap” between God and each other. May God bless all of those efforts. May all of those efforts bring us closer to God.

Annual retreat

Speaking of coming closer to God, I want you to know that I will be making my annual spiritual retreat from Oct. 28 through Nov. 3.

As a member of the “baby boomer” generation, I well remember a very famous song by Simon and Garfunkel titled “The Sounds of Silence.” In order to be a good bridge, I need to capture the “sounds of silence” in retreat so I can be a better shepherd for you and a better son of God.

Please join me in prayer during my retreat that I may be continually in tune with what God wants of me as your bishop and what God wants of us as church.

Hopefully, we can all together be about the important task of “bridging the gap.”