What Paddy Shot At

I was surprised to see that I last wrote on Thursday; but as I looked over the last few days, I can see I have been very busy. I do apologize.
On Friday, I drove to West Virginia and had lunch with Marilyn and Frank Cavallaro, Mary Alice McGreevy, and Brian McGreevy. They are part of my “extended” family as they “adopted” me when I was a teenager. We had a great visit and caught up on all the family news.

Then I drove on to Priestfield, a retreat complex run by the Diocese of Wheeling. I have been there before and it is beautiful and restful. My TEAM members from Sothern Maryland were there as were parents of two boys I had taught at GC, a couple that I married 34 years ago, Theresa and Barry Hughes, and her parents, Anthony and Peg Sampogna, whom I hadn’t seen in awhile. There were about 30 couples and many I already knew. I didn’t give the retreat. A Franciscan from Minnesota did and he was very good. I helped with confessions. I had to leave around 8pm on Saturday because I had Masses on Sunday; but the trip back took about 2 hours and I got to bed before midnight.

I had the 10:30 and 12:30 Masses in the Church and I preached about Lent and doing something special for it. I used the gospel, which had the wonderful and fearsome line, “I did not know you”. I reminded people that Jesus knows us not because we follow all the rules but because we “do the will” of his Father – to love.
I met a woman upstairs this morning and she wanted to tell me that you and her children had a very good talk at dinner Sunday night about the homily. It made my morning.

In the afternoon Sunday, it was raining “cats and dogs” but I rode down with a couple from the parish to Annunciation for the meeting of the Catholic Historical Society. The speaker was a gentleman who has written a book about the many connections there were between Gonzaga High School (our Jesuit school in downtown Washington) and the Lincoln assasination. The headmaster of the school, a Jesuit named Fr. Wiegmann was the confessor to Mary Surratt, a Catholic and the first woman hung by a Federal court. It was very interesting.
Also I saw a lot of people I haven’t seen in awhile. Frs Bill Guerney and Paul Liston were there as was my cousin, Mary Shipley and a friend, Jean Bradly. It was nice to see them and again “Catch up”.
Afterwards, Erika and Greg Young (the couple from the parish) and I went to supper with Pat and Bill Finan, (also parishioners) at a great German restuarant. I went to bed as soon as I got home. So that’s why no messages the last two days.
Today, I slept in and came over to the office around 10:00am. I had the 11:00am Mass and spoke about Perpetua and Felicita. I remember when I first saw an icon of them and saw that Perpetua, who was the wealthy Christian, was a woman of color. Her slave, Felicita was a light skinned person, perhaps captured from Europe. Of course, it makes sense since much of Northern Africa was Christianized in the first few centuries. Felciity was baptized in prison and both of them were great models of faith and martyrdom.
I stayed in the office all afternoon and then had three confirmation interviews. It is so uplifting to hear these young people talk about the service that they did and what they learned about their faith from those experiences.
I also did some phone ministry today and had a nice talk with Ursula Lemanski, who use to work at GC. She is in a rehab hospital and I was going to go see her but we talked instead and decided I’m come to see her when she gets home. Please keep her and Marilyn Judge, another GC co worker who is also in rehab. Both live at Leisure World.

Well I’m off to the rectory and may go to bed early – although I am reading a fascinating book by O’Mally, S.J. on the Vatican Council. I just need to be re-assured every so often that it did happen!!!

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