I have never liked clutter, whether it is in public spaces or my own private spaces. One of the oldest proverbs we learned is: “A place for everything and everything in its place!” Growing up in a household of seven- my parents and four brothers- we didn’t have a lot of room to gather excess “stuff,” but we did have enough space for our clothes and our books (even the comic books!) Our home was clean and well organized! My mom and dad taught us to clean up our games after we finished playing and then put them in their proper place. Looking back, I learned so much from my parents on how to live a fairly “organized life.”
The rooms at the seminary while in formation were small but adequate. We didn’t have many belongings except for our clothes and books, so there was no space to collect things because there was no space to store items except in the seminary basement, which held our steamer trunks with extra seasonal clothes or bulky items.
Rectory living for the past 55 years has been quite interesting to say the least! I have lived in 10 different rectories, each of which was similar in one way but different in other ways! Each “suite” contained a living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom! Some were very small, and some were larger in size. I adapted pretty well to each situation and made it work. I never had any real big complaints about my rooms. I was always grateful I had a roof over my head.
The common spaces sometimes presented a problem for me. In some rectories, there was clutter (junk) all over the house! I had control of only my private space. I could do very little about the common areas! But that changed when I became a pastor. I was able to “declutter” the hallways, gathering spaces, and offices of anything that was excessive. I threw out tons of items that were just in the way or taking up space. I have cleaned closets and basements and keep the sanitation workers quite busy upon my arrival, of course, continuing to make sure my own personal spaces were kept in order and streamlined of any, in my opinion, excess items!
However, I think that most priests would agree with me that we are, by nature, “collectors” of items. It is something that we just do! So now that I am retired, I have more time to “sort through” my collection of items and get rid of the excess. This summer I disposed of 5 cartons of books; 5 bags of clothing; and 6 boxes of religious items! I felt a lot better after finding new locations for those items which I really didn’t need. It’s an ongoing situation; there is still more to do! But I made a dent in this project during these summer months, for which I am grateful!
The upshot of this decluttering process is to live more simply and, by getting rid of unnecessary items, to make more space for God to enter my life, and that is happening for sure! Thinking about doing this yourself? Try it, and hopefully it will bring you what I am experiencing – less attachment to things and more attachment to God!
Bishop Ray's Blog 
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