What Paddy Shot At

As I begin this, I am sitting at the computer at my sister, Maggie’s house in Dunkirk, Maryland. We have just returned from BINGO at the fire department in North Beach. I have spent the day with the girls.

I had the 8:00am Mass at the parish and then I drove down here to Maggie’s, where Marie was visiting. We went and picked up Jordan (15 year old grand-daughter) and Philip (12 year old grandson) of Maggie’s and we all went to the Aquatic Center in Prince Frederick. It is a beautiful building with two full size pools, a diving area, a warm water pool only for adults, and a hot tub. It was a lot of fun and while I wouldn’t call what we did exercise, it was refreshing and Philip especially enjoyed showing off his diving skills for the old folks.

On the way home, we stopped at Ledo’s as you should always have some food and drink to replenish what you lose when you exercise.  When we got to Maggie’s, I explained that senior priests have to have a nap – especially on the days they have early Mass and so I went to sleep.

Then we all went to BINGO and Mary Beth and Phil Hauhn, (Maggie’s oldest girl and her husband – parents of Jordan and Philip) came and joined us. I also got to see and talk and have pictures with Geri Size. She is a regular at the Bingo and Marie told her I was coming. She worked for years at Seton High School in Bladensburg. Her husband, Al was a fireman in DC and for years was our barber at St. Bernard’s rectory. He would come and set up in one of the front offices and we priests would line up. He was also great company. They moved down here to Calvert County about 10 years ago. It was a real treat to see Geri.

Maggie won a camera and a turkey. Marie won a turkey also. The Hauhns didn’t win anything and either did Uncle Maury but we all had a great day and time.

I’m staying overnight here and will get back to the parish for the 5:30pm Mass on Wednesday.

Today, I drove over to Villa Julie near Baltimore to pick up Sister Natalie (formerly Sr. Anne Christine) SND and we went to Villa Assumpta, which is the motherhouse of the School Sisters of Notre Dame and has recently become the residence of a number of Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur who need nursing assistance. For the last few years, those sisters had been in a wing of the infirmary of the Daughters of Charity up in Emmitsburgh but that recently changed. Sr. Natalie and I went to visit Sister Gerry (formerly Sr. Geraldine) Meyers. She worked at St. Bernard’s in religious education and broke her leg in October and is doing rehab at the Villa. We also went and visited Sister Claire Corr, who told us proudly that she was 94 ( others say she is 95 – but I feel it is a woman’s perogative to shave a year or two off!). When a paish has a Notre Dame nun working in their parish, one of the elderly sisters becomes the parish “prayer”.  In my time as pastor of St. Bernard’s, we had three sisters ministering there and Sister Claire was our “prayer”. I use to write her and saw her occasionally to assure her of our gratitude and our feeling the effects of her prayers. It was great to see her still vibrant and prayerful. We visited for over two hours until it was their lunch time.

Then Sister Natalie and I went to lunch at The Peppermill on York Road. After returning her to the Villa, I came home in time to expose the Blessed Sacrament at 3. 

Then I came and wrote yesterday’s blog and I’ve been trying to catch up at my desk and prepare a homily for today – the readings are not inspiring me! – at the 5:30 pm Mass. 

Then we have supper and at 7:30pm, we are having 5 priests join us – for a total of 9 confessors for the parish penance service.  I really enjoy confessions but I think I will be glad to hit that bed around 10pm.

Yesterday was a full day for me and I didn’t get back to my room in the rectory till 11:58pm. I tried to go on line and put in some brief comment but my phones in the rectory were off line and so were my computer and my tv. Finally at 12:15am, I gave up and went to bed.

However, I did want you to hear about Sunday. I had the 10:30am Mass in the gym. It is always a delight to me as we have at least 100 families with lots of little kids and a fairly good number of adults who come regularly. At the Saturday Mass, I preached about St. Joseph and what a model he is for all of us but I decided to tell a story and make them laugh and then talk about St. Joseph and how just as he bent his will to God, we sometimes struggle with that, and there will a parish penance service on Monday in which through the intercession of St. Joseph we could really get ready for Christmas.

So I began my homily by telling them that  I spent the night before my Confirmation at my Irish grandparent’s house. In those day the bishop only came every five years of so and so while I was only in third grade, my sister Maggie was in fifth grade and the bishop was confirming everyone from third to eighth grade. Since we lived in a one bedroom, one bathroom apartment, my parents sent me to stay at my grandparents so we’d all have room to get ready.

Just before I was going to bed, my grandmother asked what saint’s name I was taking, I said, “St. Tarcissius”. I think she said, “Mother of God and who in heaven’s name is St. Tarksillius?”

The year before as we preparing to receive our First Holy Communion, St. Anne Bernard had told us about this wonderful little boy saint, who, because he looked so young and innocent, was used to take Holy Communion to those in prison during the first few centuries of the Church when Christians were persecuted and put to death for their faith. I thought he was the perfect Saint’s name because if the Communist ever came to America and put Catholics in jail, I would have volunteered to bring them Communion.

My grandmother called her daughter- in- law( my mother)  and said, “Frances, do you know  what Saint young Maury is taking tomorrow?? Tarkalissus!”. My mom asked to speak to me and she said, “What is your Saint’s name?” I said, “Saint Tarcissius. I told you about him and you signed the paper!”  She said, “When you are the mother of four children, you sign lots of papers!”  Now you really have upset your grandmother, so why don’t you take Vincent, like your father did? I’ll explain to the Sisters”.

It was years later that I learned that my Irish grandmother had though that Tarkalissus or whoever he was, was a Polish Saint and that my Polish grandmother had influenced my decision.

After much discussion about Patrick, and Edward, my Mom suggested St. Joseph. I really didn’t know much about him but I gave in to please my Mom. Over the years and especially in the seminary, I came to know and love St. Joseph on so many levels. Also God has sent many special Josephs and Joes into my life.

And so I suggested that St. Joseph, whom we had heard about in the gospel, was a person, who loved Mary, intended to marry her and raise a family but that when he knew she was having a baby and he had nothing to do with it, that he would just quietly end the plans to get married. But an angel came and reminded him of what Isaiah said in our first reading and then told him that God wanted him to take Mary into his home. All his plans changed and he bent his will and his future to God’s will.  Often we find it very hard to bend our wills to God and those time are often times of sin. We have a great opportunity to pray, reflect, bend our will, and start anew our relationship with God and others. Come to the parish penance service on Monday.

On leaving, lots of people asked what time the service would be – and many wanted to know how to spell “Tarcissius”

At noon, I had the priviledge of baptizing Patrick Brian Joyce, 7 year old “all boy” grandson of the cousin of Mary Carroll Pendergraph Smith,  another dear friend from St. Camillus days as well as a classmate of Marie’s from Notre Dame.  It was a great ceremony in our chapel topped off with lunch at Ledo’s on River Road.

Then I came home for a short nap and headed over to pick up Fr. Trancone and go to Patty Petrone’s house in Mitchellville.  Her sister, Rose; her daughter Molly, and Meg Woodbridge Mills  (All St. B’s people) had us over for mastacuelli (I don’t think that is spelled correctly), a delicious pasta that their mother, Mrs. Petrone had made for me many times when she helped out as a cook at the rectory when I was pastor of St. Bernard’s. She passed on the “secret recipe” to Rose and now we are developing a tradition of her preparing it for Fr. T and me during Advent. We also decorated cookies (and ate a few) and we both came home with tins of cookies and pasta for later! And hard to believe there were hours of laughter and stories that caused me not to get  home until just before Midnight  – And now you know the rest of the story why there was no posting yesterday!

This morning I went to St. Pius X Church in Bowie around 11:15am. They were holding a wake there for Anne Kehoe, the daughter of Jim & Liz Kehoe from St. Bernard’s days. I had done a wake for Liz when she died last year and they asked me to help with this.

At 11:30 all the people sat down. There must have been about three hundred. I went to the pulpit and told them that what we were doing today was of long tradition for us Irish Catholic. I told them I had read a wonderful essay by the Jesuit priest, Dan Berrigan entitled: “Amusing antedote concerning the deceased were now in order” I suggested that people do some thinking about Ann and the many gifts she had and how she used them.

I told a story about how she never wanted to inconvience you and that driving to the restaurant after her Mom’s burial, she rode in my car. She was undergoing treatment for her cancer and at one point, she apologized but said she thought she was going to throw up. Fortunately, I had a bag from Mr. Donuts and I pulled the car over and she was ill. She kept saying how sorry she was and I and the rest of the people in the car kept assuring her it was not a problem. But she was a strong person who didn’t like to “give in” to the illnesses.

Then I invited people to speak. Her brother and her sister gave wonderful and more than amusing stories about their growing up together. Other friends spoke of her courage and one man, the father of a friend of her children told us how Anne joined him and some other parents in forming a rowing team. She wouldn’t let her illness slow her down.

Around noon, after a few others had spoken, we began Mass. The presider was Fr. Larry Swink, the associate at the parish, who took Communion to Anne and gave her the Sacrament of the Sick. I preached about the reading that the family had chosen. They were about eternal life and I reminded them of what Elizabeth Edwards had asked of her children – That they would not allow the press to say “she had lost her battle with cancer”; but rather that “her battle had been to live a full life and she had done that”.   I said that Anne had done the same. Once I came to the house to see her and she wasn’t there. I visited with Karly, her daughter, and her grandson. When she came in she apologized for not being there but she said when she woke up that morning, she didn’t want to stay in bed and so she just went for a ride to the grocery store. I told her I didn’t mind at all as that what I wanted to hear.

It was a faithfilled celebration of a very wonderful family and community. At some point in the future, we will take Anne’s ashes to Arlington to be buried with Liz. Please keep them all in your prayers.

I had the 5:30pm Mass and preached on St. Joseph. This just man who loved Mary and bent his will and plans to the plan of God as soon as the angel came to him. What a goal to have: to always want to do what God’s will is.

Later this evening, I went to Sergio’s restaurant and met Fr. Jerry Trancone and Jim & Gail Battle. We had such a good time and laughed till I really thought they might ask us to leave. The Battles were great parishioners and friends from St. Bernard’s and I hadn’t seen them in a long time. It was fun to “catch up” even though they are now grandparents (and their wedding seems like only yesterday)!!

Advent has been such a good time to reflect on the wonderful people that God has “peppered” my life with. How good is the Good God!

Today I was going to go to Baltimore and pick up Sister Natalie and go to visit two retired sisters that we know; but the snow changed all that. We were going to have a school Mass at 9:00am but we had a “delayed opening” and so the Mass is changed to 10:30. I, as St. Nicholas and the other priests are giving out the rest of the gold coins (chocolate inside). So sister and I will go next week.

I put out the Blessed Sacrament  for Adoration at 3pm and then repose the Sacrament at 5:15. Then I presided at the 5:30pm Mass.

The Gospel today was the beginning of St. Matthew’s gospel. The one where “Abraham was the father of Issac” , Issac was the father of Judah, …..Abijar was the father of Sheitiel …….etc….. for 42 generations. I told the people that the priest who taught us preaching use to say, “Just make sure that you pronounce the name the second time just like you had the first” No one really knows the correct pronunciation. It has helped me to get through it without laughing for 38 years.

I just returned from our special priests’ dinner out. Fr. John has a person who wants to treat us to a special dinner out at an expernsive restaurant. So the four of us went to Ruth Chris’ Steak House.  We didn’t have drinks or desert and it still was expensive but the food was delicious and the company was perfect. We laughed and occasionally picked on the newly ordained (18 months)! and now that I am home, its off to bed early.

On Saturday, I will preach at Ann Kehoe’s funeral out at St. Pius X. Please keep her, her family, and especially her Dad, Jim, whose wife we buried last year. They were great friends and parishioners at St. Bernard’s.  RIP

I have “recovered” from  my hermitic call.
Actually I got on a train and went to NYC. I met my friend, Patrick Berry, who flew in from Chicago and we went to a couple of Broadwary shows. We use to do that almost 40 years ago when we were seminarians and it was always fun. So was this trip.
We saw a revival of “Promise, Promises” with Sean Hayes, who was Jack on the tv show, Will and Grace. We had seen it years ago with Robert Morse and it hasn’t lost any of its charm.

We also saw a farce, called La Bete, in which the fellow who played Dr. Niles Crane in “Frasier” was one of the main characters. He was superb. The whole play was spoken in iambic pentameter.
Only in NYC can you see such things. It was very cold but we got to have dinner with Bill Donohue, a good friend from my days at GC, who is now an assistant superintendent of schools. Although we couldn’t get together, I did talk with Joan Beall’s grandson, Christopher and hope to see him next time.
Of course, we went to Rockefeller Center and saw the tree, we looked at the windows on 5th Avenue. We even went through Saks as I was looking for a hat – having forgotten mine at home-. They were having a sale and my hat would have only cost $168. I put up with the cold until I saw a dollar store and bought one for $6.00. It kept my head warm.
We went into St. Pat’s and saw the manger and the decorations and lit a candle at Nuestra Senora de Guadeloupe, who was surrounded by beautiful flower tributes.

On the way home on the train, outside of Wilmington, Delaware, it began to snow and by the time I got off in New Carrollton, it was a couple of inches. I got on the beltway and it took about an hour and a half to go a distance that usually takes about twenty minutes.

But I got home OK and after checking my emails and looking over a pile of Christmas cards, I think I’ll go to bed.

I just finished the 8:00am Mass. I told them this feast was important to me because I learned a good lesson from it.
I explained how on Dec 14th of 1972, – it was my first year as a priest – that although we had snow and wind, I went over to the church for the 6:30am Mass.There were two women there. One was the housekeeper from the rectory, Mrs. Dolan and the other was the mother of 11 who had trudged through the snow to come to Mass.
After Mass, I congratulated her for making the effort as the housekeeper and I, who lived next door, weren’t that interested in coming out into the cold. She said, “Oh, I just love St. John of the Cross. I was hoping to hear some words of encouragement about him. Oh! your homily was nice and I’m sure I got something out of it. ”

Since I had preached on the readings for the third Tuesday of Advent, I felt very badly. I have never allowed a Dec 14th to go by without choosing the reading of St. John and preaching on him. See you all help to make us better priests.

I also prayed at Mass for Catherine Doherty, who founded Friendship House and Madonna House. It is the 26th anniversary of her death. I remembered all the members of the apostolate who are scattered all around the world. There is a house here in DC that has been a great source of support for me over the years. I haven’t seen them lately, so I will call them later today.

Today, the lady who cleans the church saw me before Mass and said how messy the church was because she couldn’t clean it yesterday because of the children’s confessions and a funeral, did I think we could move the 8:00am Mass to the chapel. I said, Oh sure. So we did! When Mass was through, Joan, who is our receptionist, said, “Who moved the Mass to the chapel?” It seems that a group of women were scheduled to meet and pray there.
And that is why I don’t want to be a pastor and make decisions. I have been very careful till now, as a “senior priest” to avoid all decision making. And I won’t make that mistake again!

I think I shall spend the rest of the day, like St. John of the Cross, locked away in meditation.

I presided at the 8:00am Mass and there was a good crowd there.  The first reading was about Balaam, who was an unwilling prophet of the old Testament. I remember – but did not share in my homily, that one of the professors in the seminary when you gave a correct answer would say, “Even Balaam’s ass could give praise to God”.  We all looked at him and finally someone had the courage to ask what that meant. He told us that God called Balaam to be his prophet and go and speak to the Israelites but Balaam didn’t want to speak to them, so he headed out of town on his donkey. At one point in the road, the donkey stopped and would not go forward. Balaam got off and tried to pull him and even beat with a stick. Finally the donkey spoke. He said, “Don’t you see that angel of the Lord standing in front of us with that sword. He doesn’t want to let us pass.” Then Balaam understood and turned around and went to preach. The professor’s point was that God can use anything – even a donkey – to teach us a truth, just as one of us had just made a statement that was profound and even God inspired and that just shows that God can us anything even us jackasses. I love that story and think of it so often when I am preparing a homily and it gives me confidence in The Spirit that it can use anything even me.

Heard confessions for the 8th, 7th, 6th, and 5th graders today. It was so much fun and a number of my students from last year came to me and it was great to see them.

This evening I went to the MacLennan family for dinner. I had Kate come to me last year for First Penance and I had gone to their back yard last May for her First Communion party.  We’d been trying to have dinner together for s few months and we finally found a night convenient for everyone. The Mom and Dad, (Jen & Darren) and the children, Lindsay, who is in 5th grade, Kate, who is in 3rd grade, and Collin, who is in Kindergarten were just so delightful. We sat and talked and I got Kate to play piano for me and the others told me about all the activities they are into. They entertained me by having Elvis, whom I had met as a puppy, danced for us. It was quite a sight. I don’t know if good families realize what a gift they are to their priest and how much seeing the faith and love that exist there brings us joy. Blessed Sacrament is filled with such loving and involved families in the school and church. May God keep them all safe.

 Had to work on my homily as tomorrow is the feast of St. John of the Cross.

I have the 8:00am Mass tomorrow and so I am off to bed.

Yes, I wore Rose today but I stressed it wasn’t pink, although I am secure enough in my masculinity to wear pink but this is Rose.

In my homily at the 10:30am Mass in church and the 5:30pm tonight, I talked about Joy. It seems to be a quality of life that a lot of people are missing. I don’t imagine that John the Baaptist was full of joy in that prison from which he sent word to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah who would overthrow the Romans and restore the Kingdom of David. Jesus gave such a clear answer, “Tell John, what you see. The blind have sight, the deaf can hear, and the poor have the Good News preached to them” He was saying I am the Messiah, but I am the “suffering servant” of Isaiah. So, John had to rethink his notion of Messiah. Sometimes we have to do that. If Jesus has inaugerated a Kingdom of peace and joy, then we must live in such a manner of joy that people will come to know that the Kingdom has come and all its members live like Jesus – out of the abundance of love.
We didn’t have anything special for Our Lady except for his picture and lots of flowers and candles. After Communion, I stood before her imagine and asked her to bless all the peoples of the Americas.

After Mass, some people asked for confession and I was able to do that, which is almost my favorite sacrament. Tomorrow, we will hear confessions for Blessed Sacrament School.

Beside the Masses, I went on Amazon and wrote two reviews of books, Swampoodle and Mightly and Sweetly, a biography of Mother Josephine, who began the Sisters of St. Joseph of Hartford.

I also stopped over and saw Jim & Sandy Vidas, Deacon John & Marge Locke, and Jane and Robert Jackson, all of whom were in a Teams of Our Lady group that I was chaplain for when I was last assigned uptown. We had a great visit and a chance to “catch up”.

Fr. Jim and I just switched Masses for tomorrow. He has a funeral at 11, so I will take the 8:00am, so I am off to bed early as I will rise early.

I just learned an important lesson, you MUST save anything you write before you go away to see if you can edit things. I had written a bit and then I wanted to see how I could put something in Italics, so I went away and when I came back, my message was gone. Best way to learn!!

So I repeat:
I was scheduled for the 11am Mass today but Fr. Jim was asked to do a memorial Mass for a lady from Bolivia and so I didn’t have Mass today.
Instead I went to the American Diner a few blocks away and met with Paul Belford, who is the author of two great novels I read recently (under the nom de plume of PD St. Claire). They are Swampoodle and St. Patrick’s Day (notice they are not in Italics!!). They are set in an area of Washington, where many of the poor Irish settled when they came to DC. The parishes are St. Dominic and St. Aloysius, where my grandparents grew up. The second is set here in Blessed Sacrament, where I am living now. It starts in Baltimore in St. Peter’s parish, Hollins Ave, where Fr. Mike Roach was pastor and where Jean Pizza, the mother in law of my nephew Rick Walburn, grew up. Small world!

I had enjoyed and cried a bit as I read the books and I was looking forward to meeting Paul. We had a great time and a fascinating conversation. He is not from DC but is from an Irish Catholic clan in the New York City area. I had found so much of my own experience of my older relatives in the books and our visit answered some of the questions I had. He did extensive interviews with Washingtonians and has a real feel for their family and community experiences. He told me about another book that will complete the trilogy and I know I shall enjoy it. I hope to meet him again and he gave me another book, that I know I shall enjoy because in the beginning he explains how his son attended a Jesuit High School and that they had a “junior retreat” program that was very similar to the one we had at Good Counsel. He wrote that he was asked to write his son a letter and say the things parents often neglect to tell their teenagers because they are busy trying to make them grow up. Because he is a good writer, Paul describes well how difficult but important it is for parents to tell their children how much they love them. It reminded me of so many times during the retreats at GC, when those letters have such a profound influence on the students. I’ve only read part of chapter one, but got teary and put it down for later.

I am reminded of one of the best courses I took at St. Vincent’s College, taught by the president. It was a Shakespeare course and Fr. Maynard introduced us to the concept of “economy of language”. That is when a real good author can say in a sentence, what most of us would take a paragraph to convey. I love that and always enjoy reading something that an author has demonstrated that quality. Never having mastered that myself; as I usually take ten minutes to tell something that should take two minutes, I do so admire that in another.

I came back to my office and “straightened up” and then I have spent the rest of today, here in my rooms at the rectory. I went through my closet and put into a suitcase a lot of clothes I will never use or fit into again and will take them out tomorrow to a box near Gate of Heaven cemetery that collects clothes and shoes for those in need. I sat on the floor and folded things as I put them in. I have two suitcases and will get some help getting them downstairs and into the car. I really am in a Christmas mood.

Then I worked on my homily for tomorrow’s Masses. I have the 10:30 in the church and the 5:30pm. I don’t remember if we have rose vestments for Joy Sunday but I will be able to encourage people to get ready for Christmas by celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation sometime soon. Also I think on Monday, we will do that for the school children, which is always a joy.
As I write this, I have just finished evening prayer, so I wish you a joyful Vigil of Gaudete Sunday.