What Paddy Shot At

I was scheduled to be giving a retreat for Separated and Divorced Catholics at Loyola this weekend; but I was still feeling a needing to sleep in my room with the large oxygen tank. The organizers and I worked on it by phone and they are going to lead it. There was some confusion about Masses because there are no Jesuits living at the retreat house and we had to scurry about for a priest. The new pastor of La Plata was a great help but Greg, (one of the leaders) arranged something – and there will be Mass. Please keep all those on the retreat in your prayers.

It was hot and humid all week, so I stayed in the rectory when I didn’t have to go out.

On Monday, I did go to Dr. Lucas about my leg. She arranged for an MRI for Wednesday but once I discovered I’d have to go “head first” into a tube; I told her I couldn’t do that. I can’t even hear confessions in a confessional – it is “too close” for me. So it was moved to Friday as an “open MRI”. We’ll see.
I had Mass at 5:30 and Humberto is back, so we all had supper together, which was nice.

Tuesday, the 21st, there was a big funeral and Msgr. Lockman came and concelebrated with 5 others; so I didn’t have Mass. I spent the day at home.

On Wednesday, the 22nd (Feast of St. Mary Magdalene) I had 11am Mass. I met with two young girls who live in the Middle East and are here visiting relatives. I’m trying to help them get “caught up” on Sacraments. There is only one Catholic church in the whole country in which they are living.

I stayed in my suite all of Thursday and relaxed and ate!

On Friday, the 24th, I took the 6:30am Mass and then I went for the MRI at 11am. It was BAD!! You don’t go into a tube but it is a big circle and the table takes you under it. My head was out but the circle came right to my chin. I could turn my head and I could see the window and the room but the circle was on my chest and I worried about breathing. Natalie, my tech was very nice and from the Ukraine and she tried to calm me. She said it would take 35 minutes, so I started to say the Rosary. I was so nervous that I couldn’t remember the words to the “Our Father”, so I just said the “Hail Mary” over and over. I think I said about 350 of them. I was so glad to have that over. I don’t care if they don’t find out anything!! No more of that!
At 3pm, I had a eye doctor appointment. I have a cataract in my left eye. He wanted to arrange the surgery for September 10th but as I have a burial at Arlington on the 11th, it will now be on Oct 22nd. It’s in house surgery but it sounds like about a week of inactivity and check ups. I really am grateful for the health care but I just am not a “patient” patient!!!

Today, Saturday, the 25th, I will say Mass at 11am and give the Sacraments to those young women. Please keep Hannah and Nadine and their families in your prayers.
Brian and Rowena are taking me out to the chicken dinner at St. Mary’s. I will say Mass at 5pm. Again, it is hot and humid and I’ll be glad to get to my suite.
Sunday, the 26th, I’ll just stay in my suite and watch the “Sunday talk shows”. I have the 5:30pm Mass in the church, then back to the suite.

As I was “housebound”, I used the phone a lot and caught up with friends.
Also, yesterday, it was announced that Cardinal William Baum died. I am sad because I loved him greatly but am thankful that Fr. Jim Beattie and I went down to have lunch with him, Fr. Bazan and Fr. Duffy in April. He seemed to enjoy our visit and I know I did. May he rest in peace.

I will write before next weekend.

Everything worked out for the weekend of the 4th of July. I drove down to Edgewater and had confessions and the 5:30pm Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help. I had supper with Kass at the local diner and then went to the hotel and watched the PBS TV special on the activities on the Mall in DC. It’s one of my traditions. It was great and then I watched the show on the Macy’s special in New York. Again, it was great.

I had the 8:30 am and 11am Masses and then came home. I told my sister that my “leg problem” had made me a better driver. I go slower and I am very conscientious of my ability to brake. I was glad to get home.

On Monday, the 6th, I had the funeral for Frances Higgins. There were lots of GC people there and her husband gave a wonderful eulogy.
That evening, I had the 5:30pm Mass and afterwards baptized my niece, Susan Renee (I officiated at her marriage to my nephew, Michael McLaughlin a couple of years ago). Her mom was visiting from Kansas and came with Maggie, Mary Ann, and her Godmother, Theresa. I also gave her First Communion and confirmed her. Mary Ann drove me and we all went to Magiano’s for great Italian foods and lots of laughs. While we were there, Beth (Horan) Daly and her husband, John came by. It was great to see them. Beth’s mom, Helen, a great parishioner from St. B’s died while I was away on the cruise but I am going to bury her at Arlington on September 11th.

On Tuesday, the 7th, I concelebrated Mrs. Foley’s funeral. Her son, Fr. Bill did a great job and a number of priests came. They had a reception but I went home to rest. I had the 5:30pm Mass and then Fr. Ron and I, and Fr. Martino Choi and our seminarian, Andrew, went out to Tivira restaurant to have a farewell supper with Fr. Justin, who was leaving us after two years. Great food and again, many laughs.

On Wednesday, the 8th, I relaxed and had the 5:30pm Mass. Our new priest, Fr. Alec Scott came that day. He was ordained on June 19th and will be with us for the summer. In October, he will return to Rome (where he studied for the last 4 years) and finish his degree. He is a fine young man and will be a nice addition to the rectory. Humberto, our cook is on vacation but food is prepared and so that night, Fr. Ron, Fr. Alec, and I had a very pleasant (microwave) supper and sat and talked for over an hour.

Thursday was my DAY OFF and I just stayed in the rectory all day. It was a very hot day and the humidity was bad.

On Friday, the 10th, I had the 8am Mass and then drove (slowly) out to St. Patrick’s church in Norbeck for the wake and funeral of Fr. Clarke. A lot of priests came and Fr. Larry Swink gave a great homily. I came home and stayed in the rectory.

On Saturday, the 11th, I had the 8am Mass and then drove down to Resurrection cemetery in Southern Maryland for the interment of Mrs. Cooksey, a long time parishioner from St. B’s. Her son, Tom was in my class at St. B’s and we’ve kept in touch. I was glad to see his family. His son, who was at St. B’s when I was pastor was there and I learned that he is a firefighter – family traditions are great!!
Since I was doing OK driving, I went by Maggie’s and met her and Marie for lunch. I was glad to get home.

On Sunday, the 12th, I was “around” for a baptism that Fr. Alec did during the 10:30 Mass. It was his “first” as a priest and at Mass. He was wonderful. Please keep him, Benjamin Emil and Ben’s family in your prayers. I had the 12:30 Mass and it went fine. I spent the rest of the day relaxing in the rectory.

All week, the temperature was really hot so on Monday, the 13th I had the 11am Mass and returned to the rectory.

On Tuesday, I had the 5:30pm Mass.
I also wrote to the people running the retreat on the weekend of July 24 – 26th and told them I couldn’t do it. It was a very hard decision and although I did send them copies of my talks and some questions for the discussions; I feel badly. I am arranging with a priest friend to see that Mass will be offered.

On Wednesday, I drove over to my dentist in College Park. I met Tom and Vickie Traber in the parking lot and gave them a booklet to help them prepare for the funeral of Vickie’s mom – Mrs. Dolores McHale. She lived on 59th Avenue, which was one of those “special” streets in St. B’s. I will preside and preach at her funeral on Friday at St. B’s.
I had the evening Mass.

On Thursday, the 16th, I drove Fr. Trancone to an appointment in Columbia. We had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and “toasted” Mother Rosenberger on her birthday. Afterwards I dropped him at the O’Boyle residence and relaxed at home.

On Friday, the 17th, I had the 8am Mass and then drove (slowly) to St. B’s for the 11am funeral. It was so good to see lots of the old St. B’s parishioners and Mrs. McHale’s large and beautiful family. I was so pleased to meet Fr. Jefferson, the new pastor of St. B’s. He looks like he’s 17 but he could not have been more hospitable to me. Deacon Desmond Yorke was a great help to me and as I was “out of steam” after Mass, he kindly offered to go with the family to the cemetery. I went home and went to bed.

Fr. Alec kindly agreed to take a baptism I was scheduled for on Saturday at noon. He did a great job and I got to relax. Please keep Laura Claire and her family in your prayers.
I spent most of the day working on my computer. I had the 5:30pm Mass but the deacon preached. I forgot to bring my oxygen upstairs and the temperature and humidity had increased; so I was glad to get back to the rectory.

Today, I brought the oxygen up with me to the 7:30am Mass. Again the deacon preached and I used my stool at the altar. I did go to the back after Mass and got a chance to speak with lots of people. When I finish this article, I’ll go back and relax in the rectory. I am going to see Patrick Mullin this evening and will go to supper with a family nearby, who invited me last year – I’m a little behind!

I also talked to lots of friends by phone. Talked to Dan and Stephanie, Frankie and Mary Lynn Costanza (old friends from the teen club at St. B’s) who called me to say their dad had died and to see if I would be available for an interment at Arlington in the near future. I also talked to Marilyn and Frank. I talked with Tish Rossi and learned that her cousin, Ida Santorella died very suddenly last week. Please keep her, her family, and in a special way, her son Jimmy Lee (who was one of my CCD students when I was a seminarian) in your prayers. Also Bob Norton called me to tell me that Karen Kunak and her husband Joe were driving to New Jersey to spend time with their family on a vacation. Someone crossed the highway and hit them “head-on”. Joe was killed. Karen is injured – but will survive. Karen and Joyce were two nurses at the hospital where Bob was chaplain and have been good friends and traveling companions with us from Maryland for years. Joe was a lung transplant survivor for 5 years and to die like that is so sad.
Please keep all these people in your prayers.

I think you are “up to date”. I’ll try to be a better communicator.

I am using the holiday to “catch up”.

My health is better. I think that the pain and bruising around my sciatic nerve has lessened greatly and I am able to drive. I have been accepting rides from others but this Saturday; I will drive to Annapolis to cover a parish. I will stay overnight and return to BS for the Sunday night Mass. We’ll see how that goes!

I Had Joe Hickson’s funeral on Thursday at St. Catherine Laboure. Joan Ward drove me and I road to the cemetery with the funeral director. He dropped me off at the club house at Leisure World for the luncheon. I had the chance to see lots of old friends from GC. Danny and Maureen drove me home. I’m glad I went but all I really did was to preach and consecrate. I went to bed as soon as I got home. I had the 8am Mass today and did a little work at my desk and now I’m going to spend the rest of the day here in the rectory. The office is closed today and Saturday for the 4th.

Have three funerals this week that I will participate in: Monday is Frances Higgins, who taught Latin at Good Counsel and has been a parishioner here at BS. Tuesday is the funeral of Marguerite Foley, a 90 year old parishioner, whom I loved. She is the mother of Fr. Bill Foley, whom I also love. On Thursday is the funeral of Fr. John Clark, who was a parishioner of St. Bernard’s and lived at the rectory before he was ordained in 1996. He had lots of illness throughout his priesthood and finally had to retire. He was only 54 years old. Please keep all of these dear souls and their families and friends in your prayers.

I must tell you that the cruise from Memphis to New Orleans on the Mississippi River was great. I learned a lot about the river’s important during the Civil War. I use to think all the battles and activities of the war were on the East coast but, for example the Battle of Vicksburg was a major turning point in the war. There are lots of lovely plantations and interesting cities on the river. There was a great guide on the ship that gave very interesting talks. I didn’t go outside much (we had a balcony but I only went on it once), the heat and humidity were tough. It was always in the 90’s. They brought interesting entertainment at night from the neighborhood. There were fiddle and banjo players, a gospel choir, and a singer/storyteller. The ship holds 105 passengers and the walk from your cabin to the meeting rooms and dining room was easy. Meals were “sitting where you want” and we met a lot of interesting fellow travelers from all over the states and from foreign countries. I would recommend the river trip!

Now, there were problems! I drove too long (1000miles) to get to Memphis and my right leg gave me a lot of trouble. We arrived in Memphis on Wednesday and Dan and Stephanie Poje were great hosts to us. As I wasn’t up to it, Dan took the women around and showed them Memphis. Stephanie and I went to Mass and said the rosary with some nice ladies. We had a lovely dinner at their house and met a great friend of theirs (and a classmate of Dan’s from grade school) Brother Joel. He is a Christian Brother, celebrating his 50th anniversary year. He was great company. We also went out one night to have real Memphis bar-B-Que. They left to go on a cruise to Bermuda and we went to hotel near the dock.

We left our car at the dock. We were supposed to rent a car in New Orleans and drive to Memphis and pick up my niece’s car, in which we had driven down. On the cruise, I realized I could not drive. I called one of Marie’s sons, Jimmy. He talked with his brother, Rick, who is retired Army and lives in Colombia, SC. They took over and Rick flew to NO and drove the rental (and us) to Memphis. We got our car, spent the night, and headed home. On Sunday night, we stayed near Virginia and on Monday night we were back at Maggie’s. I drove (very gingerly and slowly) back to my rectory and went to bed. It was re-assuring to have my large oxygen tank.

I slept much of Tuesday and went, on Wednesdays to see my doctor. She told me about the sciatica and gave me muscle relaxants and I went to bed again. I did say Mass on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday but when not at church, I was in bed.

On Saturday, I did drive (gingerly) to the Shrine to participate in the ordination of 11 permanent deacons. I “vested” one of them, Paul, a great friend from Sothern Maryland and TEAMS. It is a nice ceremony. His wife, Ellen brought up his stole and dalmatic and I helped him vest. A lot of people helped me get around but I was very glad that I got there. I was there for 4 hours and went to bed when I got home.

On Sunday, I had a baptism at 2pm. Please keep Kolman Max and his family in your prayers. Then I had the 5:30pm. I had a lot of trouble and sat for everything – even the Gospel and my preaching. I didn’t have a deacon but the people were so good to me. I sat on a stool at the altar. After Mass, my cousins, Rick and Peg Jensen took me and Peg’s sister, Kathy, who was visiting them, out to supper at Clyde’s. Kate, their daughter and her friend, James met us and we had a great time.

I went to bed exhausted but happy. I slept in till almost noon. Again, I spent most of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday relaxing before and after Masses.

Now you really are up to date. I’ll try not to take so long between writing.