WEST ROXBURY -- Gathered at the new seat of the Metropolitan Tribunal in West Roxbury, members of the archdiocese’s Catholic Lawyers Guild assembled for a Lenten Day of Recollection.

The featured speaker for the day was West Region Bishop Walter Edyvean. The bishop chose as his springboard the two principal documents that Pope Benedict XVI has issued since the inception of his papacy: his encyclical letter “Deus Caritas Est” and his more recent post-synodal aposotolic exhortation “Sacramentum Caritatis” on the holy Eucharist.

The lawyers heard two mediations, had the opportunity for personal private prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, and the celebration of Benediction. There was also ample time for those who wished to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation before the celebration of Holy Mass.

The bishop focused on the word “love,” it being the common word in the titles of the two documents. Not only is it the common word, as he pointed out, but is also the common and underlying theme woven throughout each text.

The fundamental vocation of each follower of Christ, indeed the most radical or root relationship is that of the individual to Jesus Christ, or quite simply “being a Christian.” It is this fundamental that should shape all other choices of vocation, indeed all the relationships that we develop in our lives, he said.

Bishop Edyvean was invited to give the day of recollection by his onetime student, Father Mark Mahoney, who serves as judicial vicar of the archdiocese and in that capacity is the spiritual director or moderator of the Catholic Lawyers Guild. Father Mahoney expressed thanks to his former professor for his presence and commented how happy he was “that the members of the Guild were able to avail themselves of an opportunity to grow in their faith and to gather some prayerful insights from Bishop Edyvean’s presentations.”