Of You My Heart Has Spoken

by Bishop J. Peter Sartain

Arkansas Catholic, 2005

385 pages, $12

To order: (501) 664-0125

arkansas-catholic.org

Upon arriving in the Diocese of Joliet, Ill., last spring, Bishop Peter Sartain offered the members of his new flock a rare gift: a glimpse into his interior life.

In the six years prior to his arrival here, Bishop Sartain shepherded the diocese of Little Rock, Ark. While there, he wrote a weekly column for the diocesan newspaper, Arkansas Catholic. Those writings, along with several homilies, make up the body of his first book, Of You My Heart Has Spoken. The title comes from Psalm 27, a phrase Bishop Sartain also takes as his episcopal motto.

In these pages — as in person, should you meet him — you will find a man of prayer and deep concern for his flock, a “priest forever” who is well read, well rounded and capable of building a real rapport with the regular folks under his spiritual care. I, for one, felt an instant connection upon learning that my bishop and I wear the same running shoes (Asics), that he winces when he’s out somewhere and has to endure foul language, and that he was terrified and awkward at his first high school dance.

All this might be so much mere politicking if not for the depth of Bishop Sartain’s Christian witness. For example, he prays daily before the Blessed Sacrament — and he has a gift for drawing deeply from his prayer and from his own everyday experiences to propose profound spiritual insights.

“One of my nieces was once rushed to a hospital by ambulance with a diagnosis of meningitis,” he writes. “Thanks to prayers and good medical care, she recovered quickly and was well enough to be released within a few days. I drove her and my sister back home one night, and during the long drive my sister cradled the little 3-year-old in her arms. ‘Hold me, Mommy,’ she kept saying, even though her mom was holding her tight. ‘Hold me, Mommy, hold me.’ Listening silently at the wheel, I realized that when we call out to God, our prayers are part supplication (‘Comfort me, guide me, Lord’) and part proclamation (‘You comfort me, guide me, Lord’). Aren’t our cries to God also professions of faith in him? Isn’t the very fact that we call out to him an indication that we place our lives in his hands?

Some of the bishop’s columns are highly practical. In an essay titled “Parishes Should Be ‘No Gossip Zones,’” he suggests seven steps for squelching gossip. “When angry about a certain issue, some people find it helpful to write a letter to vent their frustrations, much like a whistling kettle vents steam,” he writes of the seventh step. “If that’s the case with us, after writing the letter, wait a few days. If we judge that it meets the test of criteria 1-6 above, and if it offers constructive help, we might consider mailing it. If it does not meet the necessary criteria, or if we are not willing to sign our name to it, it belongs in the trash.”

The columns are grouped into sections on prayer, Christian living and the seasons of the Church. Each reading is only three or four pages long, and the bishop’s style is warm and conversational throughout. I found the selections went down well first thing in the morning. Some of the offerings are light, like a continental breakfast, while others are much more hearty, like a Denny’s Grand Slam. They’ll stick to your spirit’s ribs and sustain you all day.

Bishop Sartain is still writing a weekly column, this time for the diocesan newspaper in Joliet. Here’s hoping that, in several years, he’ll have enough material for another book. As the bishop is fond of saying: “Please God, with your help, may it be so.”

Clare Siobhan writes from

Westmont, Illinois.