Dear friends of Saint John the Evangelist, brother deacons and Reverend Fathers,
I am grateful to Bishop Frank J. Dewane and to our pastor Father John Ludden for my new assignment to the parish of Saint John the Evangelist. I came to the Naples area five years ago as Director of Public Relations and Marketing at Ave Maria University to help open the new university campus near Immokalee. Bishop Dewane installed Fr. Robert Tatman, who many of you know, as pastor and I served as the deacon of the Quasi-parish of Ave Maria Oratory. One year after I took the job at Ave Maria my family joined me here in Florida. The process of moving for a job is difficult, but moving a whole household raises the bar quite a bit. Since I was commuting back and forth to Cincinnati, Ohio every other week, bringing six of our eight children, my mother and Elvis (our dog) to SWFL largely fell into the capable hands my beloved wife Mary. I am most grateful for the love, care and courage of my partner of 32 years. We have moved seven times and to new states four times. Each time saying to one another, “I think we will be here for the rest of our lives.” So we are not saying that any more. But please know that to all of us Saint John already feels like home.
My life in the Church has taught me many valuable lessons, and perhaps the most important is to wait on the Lord, and His Church. I was ordained in 1993 by Sean Cardinal O’Malley, OFM Cap., who was at the time the new Bishop of Fall River, Massachusetts. When he arrived my formation class had already been studying for two and a half years. We expected to be ordained the following year. Bishop Sean decided to let us cool our heels for two additional years so that he could be sure of the men he was about to distribute in his diocese. Sometimes the wisdom of the Church is evidenced in the patience of her servants. Cardinal O’Malley is a patient man.
In the additional two years of formation two of my classmates discerned that they were not called to serve through diaconate. The rest of us got a better and deeper education than we had expected and further developed our spiritual lives. I bring this up because I have enjoyed the ability to preach homilies in the four dioceses in which I have lived: Fall River, MA; New Orleans, LA; Cincinnati, OH; Venice, FL. It is a faculty which I take seriously. In our Diocese of Venice Bishop Dewane requires that Deacons who desire to preach at Mass must take instruction in Venice and be approved by a review board of evaluators. In other words, patience is required. As with the ordination experience, sometimes we have to wait on the Church so that we can be prepared for her duties.
My hope in serving at Saint John is that I will be a useful servant. Having worked and taught at Ave Maria I realized there were many intellectual and theological giants there, and I was not one of them. What I offered the community there and what I offer to the family of Saint John the Evangelist is the perspective of a family man who loves the Church. It is the theology-of-the-kitchen-table. God asks us to do His will every day in the simple, small things that make up our daily life. One of my favorite spiritual writers, Fr. Jean Pierre de Caussade, calls this the Duty of the Moment. The Will of God is what is in front of us at the moment. It is not glamorous. It is washing dishes, cutting the grass, loving a child, or making a living. I have always explained this to my children and my students as, “Line up every day and play every play.” I look forward to doing the Duty-of-the-Moment with and for the Saint John the Evangelist family.
I thank you for the warm welcome that we have received and look forward to being with you for some time to come.
In the peace of Christ,
Deacon Forrest Wallace