Gray Robes

Dear Friends and Benefactors of SOLT,

We have journeyed through yet another Lenten season and reach the Easter celebrations. It is always deeply moving for me to ponder anew the Lord’s full identifying with the human state,

with the ravages of sin, the horror and finality of death. He personally lives through severe dysfunction, betrayal, mockery, abuse, jealousy, and irrational condemnation – elements of life which mar so many lives in some manner or other. The extent of his love to reach us is fully revealed in his passion: a fearlessness in taking that which is horrid and terrifying into his own person, into the Godhead. No longer are sin and its devastating effects foreign to God. He has made them part of his own life, his story.

And because it is his story – a divine story – it has a power beyond the human, beyond the bounds of time and space. He rises. He lives. Our sins become the glue which bind us to him, which he chooses as the meeting spot, wounds in his own flesh where we can find our wounds and failures, our life hidden in his. His rising, therefore, is our victory and becomes a prophetic foreshadowing of the final chapter of our story, a definitive ending: he gives life; he establishes an everlasting reign.

This Easter season corresponds with the final weeks of the semester of studies for our SOLT brothers. It is a happy and grounding reminder that the years of formation for the brothers are about a continual bathing in the passion and resurrection of Jesus. He is the foundation and the catalyst of all their growth. He forms hearts through gentle and truthful assurances and through his constant presence.

I hope you enjoy the dip into the lives of our brothers in this edition of the Gray Robes. We are continually grateful and indebted to your support and friendship.

Alleluia!

Fr. Mark Wendling, SOLT

Juniorate Servant