Not surprisingly, this word has a special meaning for me, this week as I underwent my stem cell transplant last Tuesday. But it occurred to me as I was thinking about what to write in this week’s bulletin, that the word transplant is not only a gardening, or a migration, or a medical word, but also a Spiritual one. We can transplant our spiritual lives too just as well as our gardens, our travel, or our medical procedures.
Just as a transplanted plant can bloom and grow in a new richer environment, or people looking for new opportunities can transplant and grow in the new lives in a new geographic location, and surgical procedures can enhance the lives of those who receive a transplant, all of us can work to transplant our lives to focus more on the author of all life - Our loving God who gives us all things, and indeed makes all things grow.
As the lovely Offertory Prayer puts it “All things come from Thee O Lord, and of thine own we have given Thee”
Why not use these warmer summer months, not only to perhaps transplant yourself on a vacation, or transplant your garden, but also use these days to transplant your Spiritual Prayer lives, your Mass attendance, and your corporal works of mercy towards enhancing those as well?
On a personal note, please allow me to extend my deep appreciation for the many prayers and texts and letters that I have received, and especially for all of you who attended the special rosary and evening prayer for healing on Monday evening, and all who prayed for me in their homes at that time.
In many ways, hearing about that special service, that has been the very best medicine for me, and it has certainly “transplanted” my spirits!