So I want to speak about evangelical failure, and by that I don't mean a failure to evangelize,

but rather a form of evangelization that takes place in and through failure.

So there are going to be two parts to my talk.

The first, three actually, the first to directly address our failures, my failures.

And then to talk about failure itself and to put a little bit of a different spin on some

of familiar stories from the lives of the saints and the scriptures.

Pardon me.

And then if there's time, last of all, maybe do a practicum, if the whole thing doesn't end up a

practicum.

So the first part of my talk is on the elephant in the room.

Not so much the elephant as the room itself.

The first reading at my ordination mass was the call of Elijah.

I'll bet it was the first reading at most of your ordination masses.

Except that I remember it really clearly because the lector at most of your ordination masses, except that I remember it really clearly

because the lector at my ordination mass left out the last sentence, which, those of you

remember, it's the part where he says, here I am, send me, which is the whole point of the

reading, right?

Fast forward 14 years, and I smile condescendingly on that young monk who would dare make such a demand of God, send me.

And there have been times when I questioned the wisdom of the decision I made that day.

Knowing how hard the life of a prophet can be, why would any of us volunteer for it?

Now the gospel reading at that mass also played a large role in my discernment.

At a crucial moment during my novitiate, when I was certain that St. Louis Abbey was not for me,

...