Father MacKenzie
darning his socks in the night
when there’s no one there…
All the lonely people, where do they all come from?
                A friend—and father of a large family—once remarked to me, “It must be lonely being a priest.” The comment surprised me. I have no doubt that his house was much nosier than my rectory, but I can honestly say that I have never been lonely a day in my life.
                Gregarious by nature, I have never lacked friends to call, family to lean on, a dog to pet, a horse to ride and countless meetings to attend! The adage, “If you want a friend, be a friend,” has served me well. Since retiring from parish administration, however, I must admit that a sort of empty-nest syndrome has set in: "Where did everybody go?"
                Of course, living on a small ranch in West Texas is a drastic change from living at the center of a parish with hundreds of households, dozens of committees and daily crises ranging from hospital calls to food assistance. Fortunately, a new book, “From Hero to Servant to Mystic,” by Fr. Scott Detisch, has helped me navigate the transition and better appreciate the contemplative aspect of the third phase in the life of a priest. Conducting fewer meetings does not mean having fewer friends. It means having more time to pray for them.
                These days, that prayer is deeper and richer than ever before. I see the faces, hear the voices and feel the love of those for whom I pray. The spiritual experience is nothing short of invigorating. I also pray for the world which God so loves and which I so enjoy: the windswept plains and deep, red canyons of this region, the hard-working people in the small towns that I serve on the weekends, the hard-core struggles of the inmates whom I counsel at the prison, the gasping of our society-at-large for truth, love, beauty and goodness.
                In short, for this priest, the ill-defined term, “retirement,” has come to mean a well-chiseled silence in which to hear the whispering of God.
                From hero to servant to mystic: a good trail to follow. And a fulfilling way to live.