Pruning seasons for plants sometimes happen in spring and sometimes in fall. However, Bishop Michael Izen believes that pruning seasons in our lives can go unrecognized.
Bishop Izen told Practicing Catholic host Patrick Conley on the program that will air at 9 p.m. Oct. 4 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM, “For me, our vocations came to mind. It might be a serious shift in your life … maybe it’s not that much, (or) maybe it’s a new opportunity that you’re facing in your current location, but in either case you’re going to have to cut something else off. You’re going to have to lose some things.”
Bishop Izen gave the example of priests being reassigned to new parishes. While this change isn’t a new vocation, priests typically have to say goodbye to families who have become their spiritual children.
“There’s that kind of pruning because we believe the Church is calling you to go somewhere else,” Bishop Izen said. “Now there’s going to be new families or new opportunities. In the lay world, it might just be a new job or a promotion. The promotion, it’s a good thing, and you maybe weren’t even seeking it, but now you’ve got to let go of some previous relationships or previous goods.”
Bishop Izen and Conley discussed John 15, in which Jesus refers to himself as the vine and his disciples as the branches. If removed from the vine, the branches cannot produce fruit, but God prunes the branches to help them produce more fruit.
“We’ve got to stay on the vine,” Bishop Izen said. “We’ve got to stay connected to the Lord. We want to have a close relationship with him. Otherwise, we’re really not going to be doing his work. I thought of the story about St. Teresa of Calcutta (Kolkata), where someone once questioned her about all the time she spends in prayer in the morning and how she’d be able to serve so many more people if she didn’t do that. She said, ‘Well, unless I’m connected to the Lord, if I don’t spend an hour with him in the beginning of the day, then I’m not going to be able to do his work throughout the day.’”
Bishop Izen said Catholics should be aware of what the Lord is asking us to do, to be aware of what is being cut off and why.
“We’re saying yes to something greater,” Bishop Izen said.
To learn more about how pruning seasons might be recognized in daily life, tune into “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. Oct. 5 and 2 p.m. Oct. 6.
The program also includes a discussion with Father Louis Floeder about the challenges the Church faces today, mainly with youth falling away from faith. Also, Andy Kirsch and Gabby Doran bring to life a musical version of St. Faustina’s diary
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the program can also be heard after it has aired at archspm.org/faith-and-discipleship/practicing-catholic or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.
