Our verse today from Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians reminds me of the principle in psychology that says I can only educe love out of others if I, myself, have first experienced it. The same is true for liturgy and spirituality. I can only help effect a personal relationship with God in someone else if I first have experienced this myself. While gathering in liturgy is central to all that is Catholic, Jesus must also touch each of us deeply and personally. We are, after all, a faith that embraces a both-and praxis. Fr. Rolheiser speaks to what renowned scripture scholar Fr. Raymond Brown said about those of us who are “High Church,” either by temperament or denomination: “It’s too easy to look at the devotional stream of having a relational nature to Christ as simply as ‘Jesus and I’ spirituality that is excessively privatized, as seeking the wrong kind of security, as spiritually immature, as theological and liturgical immature, and as missing the real center, worship in liturgy. According to the Apostle John, we are dangerously wrong in making such an assessment. In John’s gospel, ecclesiology and liturgy are subservient to the person of Jesus and a personal relationship to him. To teach this, John presents the image of ‘the beloved disciple,’ one who has a special intimacy with Jesus. For John, this intimacy outweighs everything else, including special service in the church. Thus, at the Last Supper, Peter, the head of the apostles, may not even talk directly to Jesus but must channel his questions through the one who has this special intimacy with Jesus. In John, everything is second to this particular relationship. If this is true, and it is, then we who are ‘high church’ have something to learn from our ‘low church’ and more devotionally-oriented siblings: Jesus is our personal savior!”