November 2, 2025 // Columns

Spreading the Fire of God’s Love

Ken Hallenius

I am excellent at doing house chores like cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, or picking up the living room. My bride and my former roommates would likely disagree, but when I have a project to do that I’ve been putting off for weeks, that’s when my skills as a master of chores really shine. Instead of doing the important work at hand, I have an incredible ability to tackle that huge stack of dirty plates or to fold the now re-wrinkled laundry that’s been sitting in the easy chair forever.

I’ll confess that this busywork is satisfying, because it’s usually something that I needed to do anyway, so I can feel like I’m knocking yet another task off the to-do list. But that avoids the real question: Is this the most important thing that needs doing at this moment? Is this actually a good use of my limited time?

Productivity experts extol the virtues of using a “time management matrix” that describes tasks as “urgent or non-urgent” and “important or not important.” Folding the stack of laundry that’s been sitting on the easy chair is important, but not urgent. Alphabetizing my collection of Tiny Saints is neither important nor urgent. Feeding the dogs promptly at 6 o’clock is both urgent and important, as they will most certainly remind me via barks and whines.

Recently, I had the privilege of assisting in a discussion session for the diocesan synod that is now underway, with the theme “Spreading the Fire of God’s Love.” In this synodal process, Bishop Rhoades has invited the faithful to reflect on one central question: How is our local Church called to live the mission of Christ today and in the years to come? Throughout the next year, discussions will take place in each local parish to reflect on this question, focusing on five areas: evangelization, catechesis, spiritual and liturgical life, outreach, and vocations.

At the discussion session I helped facilitate in mid-October, the priests of the diocese gathered for prayer and conversation as part of this synodal journey. Sitting together in small groups, they listed the most urgent needs that they see in their individual parishes and the diocese as a whole, reflected on what is currently going well, and looked to the future at areas that still need to be addressed. Each of these conversations was accompanied by regular periods of silent and prayerful reflection.

In my experience, this synodal process was one of deep communion with tablemates from across the diocese. The priests who serve in Fort Wayne-South Bend are a surprisingly diverse group. Many of them were born and raised in northern Indiana, but a great many are from elsewhere, including Sri Lanka, California, Nigeria, and countless places in between. We have pastors who have been ordained nearly 50 years, and parochial vicars whose priesthood is so new that you can still smell the sacred chrism on their hands. They administer large urban parishes, minister as chaplains in hospitals, teach at Catholic high schools, and pastor rural country churches. Yet it is obvious that they each share a profound commitment to bringing the love of Jesus Christ through the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and reconciliation.

It was inspiring to me to listen attentively to the reflections of the priests I accompanied as a table facilitator. As my first experience ever of the synod process, it gave me hope that the conversations throughout this next year will bear great fruit for the Church in northern Indiana. As these synod discussions take place in your local parish, I hope that you, too, will have the opportunity to participate. The journey that Bishop Rhoades has invited us to undertake together is an invitation to examine where we are as the Body of Christ in northern Indiana, and where the Holy Spirit is calling us to go. The synod process recognizes that we each have both a voice and a particular set of charisms given for the building up of the Church.

Like a time-management matrix would do, the diocesan synod invites us to listen attentively to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to discern together what is both urgent and important in the work of evangelization, catechesis, spiritual and liturgical life, outreach, and vocations. As the Letter to the Hebrews counsels, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith” (12:1-2).

May we be open to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking in our hearts, and may we each respond with generosity as we spread the fire of God’s love!

Ken Hallenius and his wife, Julie, are parishioners at St. Joseph Catholic Church in South Bend.