"A Word in Season"

Ever have one of those moments, as you go through life, when someone comes along and says just the right word at the right time? It’s usually when we needed it most!

Or did you ever have a song play on the radio, or in the shuffle of the iTunes library, and you just knew that somehow that song was meant just for you?

A moment of inspiration can make all the difference, for it contains a small blessing.

Tucked deep in the Revised Standard Version translation of the Old Testament book of Proverbs, there’s a gem that captures the joy of such a moment:

. . . an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season,
how good it is! ~ Proverbs 15:23

When I consider this proverb, I understand the goodness of “a word in season.” It can come from God, or through persons, or circumstances. Christians experience this blessing in a very personal way, and a very corporate one.

The first time I heard Pat Gohn speak was at a writer’s conference on Long Island. She had come down from Boston to give a presentation on social media for Catholic writers, and I was so taken with her talk–she was smart, funny, transparently faithful, charming and wise–that I knew I wanted to work with her, someday. I wrote a little about the conference here and mentioned “the mighty Pat Gohn of the Among Women Podcasts.

Yes, I became an instant fan, and when I began managing the Catholic portal at Patheos, I wheedled and pleaded with her to join the Summa This, Summa That blog, as her availability would allow. Once she was there, it quickly became apparent that Pat Gohn did not need a group-blog; she needed and deserved a weekly column!

So you can only imagine the pleasure I take in announcing that the except above comes from Pat’s new column–perfectly entitled “A Word in Season”–which will appear each Thursday, at Patheos!

The focus of Pat’s column is going to be especially helpful for adult Catholics (and curious non-Catholics) who sometimes wonder why we do the things we do, pray the prayers we pray, and celebrate the faith in such a distinctive way; she will be following the Catholic calendar of seasons, saints and feastdays and illustrating the dynamism of Catholicism, and she’ll be doing it in her own crystalline style!

So, do go read her premiere piece. As we head into the blessed and beautiful season of Advent and once again prepare our minds and hearts to explore the never-fully-plundered mystery of the Incarnation, we are going to find ourselves very grateful, I think, to find A Word in Season via Pat Gohn.