‘The Guild of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus was established in Georgetown, CT, on March 25^th, 2022. It is 18 months old and already has achieved a lot in a short space of time. But many people still ask me: ‘what it is the Guild?’ This question is not always easy to answer, but one thing is certain: we are not the only guild in town.

Guilds are groups of the Faithful (both clergy and lay) that come together for a common purpose, and our Bishop has in mind the establishment of a number of them, to serve different aspects of the life of the Diocese.

Next up to be established is the ‘St. Luke Guild’ for healthcare workers, which will be launched on October 15th in the Cathedral. Eventually, there will be a ‘Guilds Mass’ every year, for all of the Bridgeport Guilds, and their shields will be displayed in the Cathedral, to demonstrate their link to the Diocesan Bishop and his personal ministry.

For this reason, we can no longer say ‘The Guild’ is doing X, or Y, or Z here in Georgetown, because very soon there would need to be a clarification: ‘which guild are we talking about?’ Our official title is quite long, so for short we have become the ‘Jesus Guild.’ In this, we take inspiration from the medieval guilds of old England, or the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, where the longer official title would be shortened to, e.g. ‘Jesus Guild’, or ‘Jesus College’.

Perhaps you see what is happening here. By invitation, our Bishop is reaching out into the communities to find people of Faith to assist him in his mission. This is not in competition with parish life, but adds an extra dimension to it. Guilds are a spiritual overlay where like-minded people can form dynamic small communities, such as ours here in Georgetown.

There is nothing to be afraid of in this: the spiritual health of the whole Diocese is entrusted to its chief shepherd: and if he proposes we go in a certain direction, we can have confidence that God will favor our obedience. By extension, that also means trusting the process – and not allowing the evil one, the father of lies, to steal our peace by proposing his customary half-truths.

We have the privilege of being the first guild, but we won’t be the last. Let us see how the Lord is asking more of us – and, to borrow an observation from a friend today – he is not asking us to step out of our comfort zone; he is inviting us to expand our comfort zone, so that we can more readily identify God’s leading hand in all that He demands of us.