What Paddy Shot At

I know I missed yesterday but I did kind of, take the day off. I had the 10:30 Mass in the church and also the 5:30pm Mass. Between that I was going to go over to the Shrine for a 2:00pm Mass that  Cardinal Wuerl was doing. He also was presenting awards (I think they were called ‘sharing the vision’), and my friend and the present principal of St. Michael’s, Lila was to receive one.

However, after Mass, I ran into Fr. Jim and he wasn’t going to the Shrine and I decided that a nice nap would be a good alternative.

I went back to bed after the Mass last night and – one thing – I can always sleep. Got up this morning very early (5:50am) because I had the 6:30am Mass. Haven’t had that Mass since last Summer. It was hard to get out of this warm bed.

I got up early because Fr. Terry Odien, who is the  director of priests personel in Camden, is coming down for a meeting. He is going to meet me at St. Camillus parking lot and we’ll ride up to Philly together. Tonight, we’ll meet Joe Stoutzenberger and Fr. John Bohrer for supper. I’ll spend the night and take the train back tomorrow. It will be good to see them.

Also, last night when I was already in bed and realized that I hadn’t written on the blog, it occured to me that I had promised to write each day during Advent and Advent was over.

When I get home tomorrow and can think more clearly, I shall set another goal for myself. I have enjoyed these daily reflections – and so have a couple of friends and my sister, Maureen and her husband down in Georgia; that I would like to continue but I am not good at long term projects. We’ll see.

I ended up staying up and watching the ball come down at Midnight.  I didn’t go to bed when I came over from the parish center; instead I called a number of people like Dan & Stephanie Poje, the Cavallaro’s, Pat Berry, Joan Beall, Sister Natalie, Fr. Dan Morales, my nephew, and my sister, Marie  to wish them Happy New Year. It was a nice way to close out the year.

I also went on Facebook and welcomed a whole bunch of people who wanted to be my friend. I hope they still feel that way when they discover I really don’t know how to use Facebook!

Today I had the 11am Mass and as today is Mary, Mother of God, I spoke about her title of Theotokas. It seemed to go over well. I also mentioned that it is the feast of St. Basil and St. Gregory Nazianz – which was the seminary that I went to in Wisconsin 47 years ago. I heard a few confessions and then went back to bed.

At 3:45, Fr. Jim and I went to Anne and Richard Sheridan’s house for a “southern New Year’s Day meal”. It seems that you must have black eyed peas on this day in order to have good luck in the new year. I will let you know how I did on my Virginia Lottery tomorrow.

My cousin, Lauren Werner was there and lots of interesting people. Anne is like “Auntie Mame” in that she loves to give parties and introduce people. I met a fascinating episcopal priest names Alistair from Frederick; a mother of nine who is now a grandmother of 23, assorted military and CIA or NSA people and other people some of whom, I had to take out a small notebook in which to write some of the words I didn’t understand.

It was delightful except that Fr. Jim had the 5:30 Mass and deserted me. I was able to bum a ride from a couple who live near Blessed Sacrament. I was disappointed because my mama aways said, “Go home with the fella, what brought ya!”

All day long I have been thinking it was Sunday and so tonight I must work on my homily for tomorrow. So I’ll close for now.