Leadership
Are We Inspired and Inspiring?
by Fr. Tom Welk, c.pp.s., Provincial Council
I have always felt sorry for the last speaker on the schedule of an all-day
conference. Participants are tired after a long day and can’t wait to head for
the doors and back home. To spare someone else from having to do this, I
volunteered to give the last talk for a recent workshop I helped plan, along
with representatives from a local hospital. The instructions given me by the
other members of the planning committee were clear: “Tom, please give
an inspirational talk!” I was to be entertaining, exciting and interesting—
something along the lines of a rah-rah type of presentation. I thought to
myself: good luck.
Did this mean I would have to engage in some type of song and dance
routine? Above all, good luck on that! I could possibly give a rather decent
rendition of a song; but doing a dance would be a disaster. It definitely
would not be “inspiring” in the common unders tanding of that word.
The assignment did get me to do some reflecting on what is meant by
inspiration. Looking at the root meaning of this word gives a clear defini-
tion of what is involved. It is comprised of the two Latin words in (into),
and spirare (to breathe). Based on these two Latin root words, the diction-
ary definition of the word is simple and to the point: “to breathe or blow
into or upon.”
What is the source of life? Genesis 2, the second story of creation, an-
swers the question succinctly, “The Lord God formed [humanity] out of
the clay of the ground and blew into [its] nostrils the breath of life, and
so became a living being” (7). In John 20:22 we have the account of Jesus
commissioning his disciples: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive
others’ sins, they are forgiven them; if you hold them bound, they are held
bound.” The disciples are then asked to go forth and bring this same breath
of life into a dead and sinful world.
Unfortunately, what happens in the world around us is rather than
breathing life into lifeless situations, there is a tendency to “suck the last
breath of life out.” We might even use this phrase to describe circumstances
we find ourselves in at times. Who of us has not referred to a challenging
individual or situation as “sucking the life” out of us?
We know that in order to be able to continue in our ministries, we need
to constantly renew and reinvigorate ourselves. This became very clear in
our discussions at the 2017 Provincial Assembly. Obviously, we need God’s
breath of life—not once, but on a continual basis. The big question is how
and where can we find God’s breath of life to invigorate and re-invigorate
continued on page 4
July 2017 • The New Wine Press • 3