Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI, is a 76-year old Catholic priest from Canada who has written 16 popular books on spirituality and theology. Fr. Ron has a regular column in the Catholic Herald which is featured in 90 newspapers in five countries.
In 2011 Fr. Ron went for a routine colonoscopy and a cancerous tumor was discovered. The surgery and the chemo treatments afterwards were successful, but three years later the cancer reappeared. He resumed chemo, but his prognosis was not the best. The wonderful news is that Fr. Rolheiser is doing well and is still with us.
Fr. Ron writes: “As you can guess, this wasn’t easy to accept and process. I struggled mightily to make peace with it. Eventually, through prayer, I wrote a creed for myself as to how I would try to live out the rest of my life.” Here’s the creed:
I am going to strive to be as productive as long as I can.
I am going to make every day and every activity as precious and enjoyable as possible.
I am going to strive to be as gracious, warm, and charitable as possible.
I am going to strive to be as healthy as long as I can.
I am going to strive to accept others’ love in a deeper way than I have up to now.
I am going to strive to live a more-fully “reconciled” life. No room for past hurts anymore.
I am going to strive to keep my sense of humor intact.
I am going to strive to be as courageous and brave as I can.
I am going to strive, always, to never look on what I am losing, but rather to look at
how wonderful and full my life has been and is.
And, I am going to, daily, lay all of this at God’s feet through prayer.
Not incidentally, since then I have also begun to water plants, care for a feral cat, and feed all the neighborhood birds.
Thanks to Tim Marshall for the photo.
Tomorrow I turn 80-years of age. Twenty years ago I was operated on for prostate cancer. The fear was that the cancer had spread. It had not. I never have had chemo. I praise and thank God many times every day for this special gift of life….I call it THANKS-LIVING!
Cancer free or not, Fr. Ron Rolheiser’s creed is a good one for me and YOU to read over regularly and to put into practice every day. In fact, at my age, I think I need to sit down and write my own creed for how I want to daily live the rest of my life.
GOD HOLDS YOUR EVERY TEAR, YOUR EVERY HEARTACHE AND YOUR EVERY BREATH!! TRUST GOD!!
