Monday, November 17 was a “day of recovery”. I had the 11am Mass. Worked on emails about baptisms, and went home early. Had supper with the guys and went to bed early.
Tuesday, I had the funeral for Mary Grasso Kennedy at Resurrection parish in Burtonsville. It was wonderful to see all her children and grandchildren. I know that she and Ralph are happy together again. But keep their family in your prayers, they’ll be missed!
I was supposed to go to the play reading group but after supper, my cold seemed worse and so I went to bed.
There was a celebration at St. Camillus on Wednesday, the 19th to honor the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, who 60 years ago began the school there. About 25 sisters came, lots of them – old friends of mine, to the Mass, which Fr. Lockman con-celebrated with Fr. Mike, the pastor, and Fr. John Dakes, who graduated from the school and a good friend and pastor of Our Lady of Mercy. The school, now called St. Francis Academy, was there and sang and participated with gusto. There was a reception afterward that I hear went on for hours and was a lot of fun and laughter. I went home immediately, said the 11am Mass, ate soup and went to bed.
On Thursday, MY DAY OFF, I stayed in bed most of the day and called the doctor. I got some medicine but I think that the soup was more helpful.
On Friday, I had the 11am Mass and went back to bed till 3pm. I drove over to Joan Beall’s and her daughter, Sharon drove all of us to the Capitol Hilton. It was the John S. Mulholland Gala. It was excellent and about 150 came. This is the foundation that Brian runs to help the pantries of some of our poorest parishes in DC. It is a great work and as Joan said, “It was so good to see how many people are doing good for others”. Even with the cold – hanging on, I had a great time.
On Saturday, I had a wonderful funeral for a lady named Yoshika, who died after a long battle with cancer. She worked at the World Bank and many people from there came to the Mass and reception. She was also very active in our bible study group and they plans and hosted the celebration. I had seen her but the celebration made me feel very close to her. Please keep her in your prayers.
I had the 4pm Confessions and then I went back to bed.
Sunday was a full day because we had confessions for CCD at 8:40am. Then a met with a family about their child’s baptism. Then I had the 12:30pm Mass. I rambled during the homily and asked if I was preaching on the last Sunday of the Church year. Some people in the congregation assured me that I was. I had already apologized for my voice, which was very strained because of all the coughing and so I said, “See, I told you I’m on lots of medicine and I guess that’s why I’m confused!” They laughed. After Mass, I went home and back to bed.
I think I’ll close and finish the update during Thanksgiving.