Fr Ben Garren

Dear Siblings in Christ,

The Academic Year is upon us. Most of our elementary, middle, and high schools have all started classes, and the University of Arizona and Pima Community College are getting ready to begin. So many hopes and dreams being placed upon these students by their families and society and so many nascent identities striving to navigate life. And here we are on the feast of Saint Rose of Lima. A daughter born to two Spanish officials during the colonization of Peru in the late 1500s.

Why can our children not just be sensible? Rose, nominally, had everything a young woman could ask for. She was nicknamed “rose” for her beauty and had her choice of suitors. She had a ready life of wealth and means before her and need ask for nothing. Amidst all this we find her locking herself in her room, cutting off her hair, using cosmetics to mar her beauty, refusing to eat meat in any form, rejecting basic comforts for austerity and difficulties. A series of events so many parents have to watch their children go through and wonder… what in the world are we supposed to do now?

Rose might be the Saint we celebrate today but I want us to meditate on her parents. In the midst of all this they did the most important thing possible… they listened. As their child defied all expectations, went about all variety of dissident behavior, and flatly refused to fulfill their hopes and dreams for her… they listened. They allowed her to slowly take up a life dedicated to prayer, withdraw from the majority of normal social expectations, and eventually supporter her to take up life as a religious in a convent. So many around us beginning a new school year need us take a few moments to listen just as Rose’s parents listened.

Let us actually listen to what the youth and young adults in our lives are saying about who they want to date, whether or not they want to date, how they want to fix their hair or make up, what they actually want to do with their lives. Allow them to exist outside of our hopes and dreams for them. Let us all give a chance to listen to ourselves, to ask who we are beyond the hopes and dreams others have placed upon us. By listening to ourselves and those around us we can better love ourselves, others, and bring ourselves to more fully love God.

Pax,
Ben